Sam Webb's Interview with Darrius Clemons
Polite, respectful, humble young man.
Highlights:
- Coach Harbaugh's honesty through the recruiting process - different
- Coach Ron Bellamy and Ronnie Bell - strong mentors
- Spring practice without Blake and Donovan - airing it out, scoring drive on the #1 defense with no runs
- Competing - letting the dawg out
- JJ's improvement
- Coach Moore running the offense - cheat codes
- Other players improving, Josh Wallace, O'Leary, Dennis, Morgan, Moore
The more I learn about Team 144, the more I believe we are going to have a dominant season. We can't get caught up in the success though. We've got to keep grinding and improving into the playoffs. It's obviously going to take a great effort to win the National Championship. But we do have a legit shot.
I should have mentioned Benjamin Hall also as an ascending player.
Our roster is as deep as I've ever seen it.
What a good kid! Cool, humble, well spoken and All In. I am a big DC fan now and proud to have him in the Maize & Blue.
I had a dream this week we won the National Championship. Best dream ever.
Thank you for the highlights. Interview podcasts aren't my jam so I appreciate when people post notes so I don't have to listen.
Sam always nails his interviews like the pro he is.
I've only slowly become aware of Sam. He's impressive: knowledgeable, friendly, solidly professional.
Wondering about his background, I looked him up. He's from Flint! Went to Flint Central, then Michigan. Having played against Central, then going to UM, then living in Flint, I feel sorta kinda connected to him.
Sam’s always been like this. The people who claim he’s just a dumb program shill and nothing more have no fucking idea what they’re talking about.
He's a homer obviously and has his faults but so is every beat reporter. He's just not afraid to show it while others pretend to not be but it leaks out anyways. I don't see anything wrong with it. It's just college football it's not that serious.
And he's super connected to people inside the program (who texts coaches directly at times) and outside of it with recruiting people and scouts. Sam's damn good and very entertaining.
Really pulling for Clemons to have a break out season. I'm always very impressed by how thoughtful and well-spoken he is in interviews.
I'm hoping for this as well. He will be clutch next year! And hopefully this year.
He said Eamonn Dennis is DJ Turner fast. Maybe Eamonn is the new AJ Henning/Eddie McDoom end around and return guy
Yes, would love to see him take the top off the defense with some go routes too.
That was interesting to me. In the interview Sam just said "fastest", which it sounds like Darrius took to be 40 time, which would make sense as that's the most common metric to measure speed for football. Yet, I wonder if you extend that out to 100 instead of 40, would it be the same? I know Roman Wilson is blazing fast, and there's some other guys with great top-end who might win a longer race, e.g. Cornelius Johnson, who reached 22.4 mph on the 87 yarder vs Norther Illinois, which is faster than the top speed I could find for Corum in 2021 (22.1 mph).
Would'nt mind seeing Eamonn get a few touches in the non con to see what he's capable of. Guy who's just toiled away in obscurity going into his 4th season and could still play through the 2025 season, but we haven't heard anything about wanting to transfer or anything.
His comments on NIL are instructive to all of the 'fire the money cannon' folk. I think the UM way is much more conducive to maintaining a solid locker room and team culture than the win at all cost approach some seem to be pinning for.
I love hearing about the passing game. I trust Harbaugh/Moore not to lose their identity as dominant on the ground. Here's hoping for averaging 250 on the ground and in the air this season.