Source:
https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-a5hke-153b208
We look back at some of the best interview segments from The Clemson Dubcast in 2023.
In Part 2 we feature David Pollack, Jeff Scott and Lucas Glover.
Pollack reflects on what it was like to lose his job at ESPN, and the joys he took from suddenly having a lot of time on his hands to enjoy his family. Pollack is also close with Clemson defensive back Khalil Barnes.
Scott details why he’s still loving being out of coaching as he coaches youth soccer and makes up for family time that was lost when he was head coach at South Florida and an assistant at Clemson.
Glover shares the story of his torturous, decade-long battle with the putting yips, and how he managed to get past it by completely changing his putting stroke.
Welcome to the Clemson dubcast happy New Year everybody well as promised part two of our best of the Clemson dubcast in 2023 we got the biggest hitters today in David Pollock Jeff Scott and Lucas Glover great stuff on all counts from three voices you’re probably going to recognize my good friends Blake Smith
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Chronicle and uh great memories man um I remember when you came up to Clemson in 2003 what’ you do you stripped Charlie wherst was that what it was no he threw he threw me a nice little interception on a tunnel screen that’s right it was a
It was a it was a tunnel screen it’s funny it’s a it’s a good story for not for Clemson fans it’s not a good story but like I remember I was I was beating their their left tackle pretty good and uh I remember they put this little tiny
Guy in like and I I want to say I’m pretty positive he was like third on the dep chart and I remember lining up on third down and I was like there is no way that in this situation they’re going to ask him to block me surely a screen
Or something’s coming and they ran a little tunnel screen and I and I literally just as soon as the ball was snapped I kind of got my hands up and I picked it off and then being the idiot I am I tried to run Charlie over I would
Had no desire to score a touchdown I was running right at him to try to put them on my hood so but yeah that was uh Clemson fans that was 30 to enough in Georgia just on that day just letting you know they remember that’s some amazing sit
Situational awareness there man I know this guy is not going to be expected to block me so I’m going to go out into the flat here I mean that’s that is that not impressive uh I mean it’s just you know you get to after you play football for
All those years you start to get a a little bit of a thought process I will say this after coaching kids now from six years years old growing up um now coaching High School football I would say that’s the one thing that I probably missed uh misdiagnose the most about
Myself is you can talk about athleticism and you can talk about all the different parts of being a great athlete some people can process information really fast on the go and some people can’t and you can’t teach that element of it um but it’s a huge part of athleticism that
That I think is vastly underrated when you start thinking about it because you just it’s it’s just people that can really do that on the Fly and think and think in the game situations and all that stuff goes into man all that stuff goes into being a great athlete I mean
There’s so much that goes into what you see in these guys on you know Saturdays or Sundays or vice versa the three things I remember from that game in 2003 hot as anything oh it was hot oh yeah it was hot noon game just sweltering the second thing I remember I
Mean Clemson fans were jacked for that that game like there was it was real anticipation really early David Green goes hard play action and hits Fred Gibson Fred Gibson just toasts Justin Miller who was their stud Clemson stud quarterback uh and then I remember and I
This is what I’m getting to I want to see if you remember this because every single Clemson fan who was alive then remembers this about that game the starting center for Clemson Tommy sharp vomited on the football before yes that was disgusting that was except that was exceptionally gross that
Was the one time that I really appreciated playing defense and Mak making sure I didn’t have to touch the pig skin so were you on were you on the line at that point like did you see it oh I saw it for sure 100,000% on the
Field I don’t remember if I was on the field or not I I but I vividly remember that moment I can promise you that I I can’t remember if I was on the field or not but we were all like gagging gag reflexes so good David all right this is a
Tribute to you I think and the then the professionalism that you carried yourself with the respect that you earned uh at ESPN you know how crazy fans are um it’s just tribalism you know like they they’re con every fan base is convinced that every media every talking head is
Out to get them uh that they only bash their team and when you were let go unfortunately uh um during the off seon the the the the vastly common sentiment was what in the world and I’m talking about Clemson fans here was he was what is going on here
David was fantastic you know so I I think that’s a tribute to you that even in these times that we’re in when uh you know fan bases are are are coming up with all sorts of reasons to think that whatever talking head is against them that um you commanded respect from the
Fanatics and I think that’s probably the highest compliment that one could could have in that moment no that is that is a great compliment um you know listen it’s a it’s an interesting business and and I think if you’re not if you’re doing it right I think you probably have a lot of
People that are going to disagree with you you know because if you’re making bold statements and you’re saying that so and so can’t I mean I mean think about it like I I uh I was very clear I would say I think it was about two and a
Half years years ago now I was I was the first person to talk about dbos Sweeney in the transfer portal I mean I was very upfront I was like listen this reminds me a lot of Coach Kay coach Kay refused the oneandone era he and then all of a
Sudden coach Kay changed his mind he he got into the One anddone World and he got to win another championship and I think dabo’s going to have to do the same thing so I think listen I think there’s there’s mutual respect which is cool um but also a bunch of people in
Clemson too that are um you know that’s a different fan base I mean that’s just the way they run their organization the the fans I visited there coming out of high school I mean it’s hard not to love that place and um so definitely got a
Lot of respect for the the Clemson fans and definitely appr appreciate um the respect shown uh and and appreciated the hate too by the way like when I picked against Clemson or I said something you know negative about Clemson they were also the first ones to come yelling at
You you know which which is part of it and it’s the awesome part of it and it’s the part that literally used to say if I’m not getting that hatred I’m not doing my job that means I’m not calling a spade a spade you many times that I’ve
Been called Benedict Arnold in Athens Georgia I mean Athens Georgia like all them folks are like how can he pick against Georgia like how can he I’m like bro I don’t think you’re GNA win every game I’m sorry like at some point there’s there’s just a there’s a chance
You guys might lose you know and so I I think it’s uh it’s a part of the business and it’s the fun part for sure man how long did you spend doing it for ESPN shoot uh I think 14 15 years wow is when did you were you just always did
You always have that sort of part of you that’s like you know I’m just going to call it like I see it man I’m going to call a spade a spade or did you grow into that and learn to do that or was it just naturally in you to begin with uh
That’s I think that’s naturally born in me I I’m I’m a natural contrarian um I definitely have the if somebody’s gonna call it red I’m gonna call it you know orange you know I have I have that naturally in me I’ve always kind of been like that unfortunately so
Does my daughter by the way um which can be super Super Hyper annoying um but no that’s that’s always kind of been my personality I don’t just go with what people tell me I kind of want to know why and if I disagree I’ll kind of let
You know um but I’ll say this when I got to game day I would say when I got to game day it’s kind of the first time I’ve done television where they kind of reeled me in you know now I think you watch television and you go man these
Guys say kind of whatever they want whatever they feel I was probably one of those guys that was was over the top and said what I felt and was not nice all the time and um but they really reeled me in because that wasn’t what game day
The show was about like that show you know back in the day was about you know everybody got along everybody was kind of you know uh everybody was very respectful the same type of opinion agree but agree you know disagree there really nice F and tactfully and and so
It was a different era with television uh when I came in so I was actually kind of coached out of that sum you know when I started my uh career so I I definitely was born with that in me how I know how you took the news because I watched u a
Podcast that you did recently and I I followed sort of the aftermath of you getting late off but for those who who aren’t uh who aren’t aware of it how can you just take us back to when it happened and and and and sort of how you process processed at the
Beginning well it was this summer and we were about to go on a trip um to actually go to go to Maine and Boston with the family and my phone rings and it was one of the main guys at ESPN and I was like that’s interesting and
Something a part of me just was like uh oh that didn’t it didn’t really settle and then he told me the news man and it was just like who Okay um because you know usually ESPN makes a bunch of cuts every year but you know game day is
Typically not a show that has changed a lot and um so it was definitely a huge surprise um and then it was like oh my goodness okay you know I told my wife right away and then um I think the hard part was the hardest part by far was was
Two things was one was telling my wife and or ex one was telling my kids I did not think that would be difficult but telling them Leah my daughter all of a sudden was like well wait a minute are we going to be okay you know and like
She kind of got a little bit upset and I was like oh crap you you know like no we’re fine baby like God’s got us and um and then telling Reese cuz Reese is my dude I mean Reese is my guy on the road
That I I mean I just I did life with Rees I just love Reese so much have so a tremendous amount of respect for Rees and who he is and you know kind of look at him as a definitely a big brother figure and uh so that was really really
Hard but man it was just you know it’s just one of those things that happens in life and that’s the way it works right like I I I definitely am not one of those guys that are going to cry cuz something’s over I’m going to smile cuz it happened and immediately just thought
About man what an awesome ride you know I got to do that for for like 12 plus years on college game day and travel the world and see the country and I’m like dude how cool is that and and so I was just very appreciative for the
Opportunity and then I I sent out a message of that and um you know it was it was well received I think by a lot of people and it was super nice and a lot of good comments like you talking about with you know with Clemson fans and fans
Across the country and it was just um you know it was really cool to see that you know you kind of had an impact you that people enjoyed what you did and I was just just very thankful that that I got the opportunity to be able to do
That and now I was interested in in what’s next you know what were the first two weekends or I guess three weekends including week zero like for you as you’re on the outside looking in awesome I mean fan flipping tastic and I say that man because you know like during this during
The day during the week I’m I’m I’m kind of balls to the wall with you know coaching High School football um my daughter plays volleyball my son plays plays football and we’re going from game to game and and and match to match whatever you call volleyball things I
Don’t even know we just started that this year um and uh busy and dude the last couple Saturdays it’s been really cool because I remember I get 9:00 my workout group we we work out we play pickle ball for you know an hour an hour
Or so and like so I come in the house house at like 11 something I sit down I make some food it’s 12:00 and I’m like oh my gosh the games are starting like I have nothing to do this is amazing like I’m going to sit here on my fat rear end
And do absolutely nothing like I think it was um man it was just super awesome you know just to to feel that and and now I understand why my buddies every year during the season they like just can’t wait till football season gets here and I can’t wait till Saturday gets
Here well I was traveling you know I was always working and gone and doing this and now I get it now I see why y’all love Saturdays so much and um you know the first Saturday my son and daughter were like hey I want to go to the
Georgia game boom We scooted down the road we went to the Georgia game um you know starting to play a little bit of golf on Saturdays now with with my son like hey start some New Traditions do some new different things and uh so it’s been it’s been fan flipping tastic how
Old are your kids my son is 15 and my daughter is uh 13 gotcha it’s it’s funny uh coincidentally this morning Jeff Scott or maybe maybe last night anyway the former head coach South Florida you know former assistant coach Clemson oh yeah he’s living in Clemson now with his family and he’s not
Working and there were some pretty rampant rumors back in January when when Garrett Riley uh came aboard at Clemson that Jeff Scott was also coming aboard and so Jeff had a little tongue and cheek um tweet uh and he had a video well first of all he said the rumors are
True I think I think I’m remembering this right I am in fact I have in fact returned to Clemson to coach and it has a video of him coaching his daughter’s uh Soccer youth soccer team that’s amazing and just watching it I got a little weepy because I’m like man I
Remember my daughters on that same field doing that same thing playing that same Sport and the fact that Jeff gets to experience that and is choosing to experience that I mean you’re not choose you know you didn’t choose your path uh recently but the fact that both of you
Are getting to experience that I think is uh really uh precious precious times you know uh being around your children at this at whatever ages yours are much older than his but but still amazing oh it’s it’s unbelievable um you know I I don’t uh I I don’t take it for granted I
Mean I you know listen my job was really awesome and and I appreciated my job and I loved what I was doing and I would still be doing it if I wouldn’t have gotten you know let go but here’s the thing like there’s Beauty in everything and and in every situation like God’s
Teaching us something he’s going to show us something and reveal us something but I was gone a couple days a week for 17 weeks in a row so you can slice it however you want to I mean the bottom line is I was gone you know I wasn’t
Gone in the at of season at all but like I’m I’m at every volleyball match for my baby girl I’m at I’m coaching coaching our eighth grade basketball team you know this year I’m at all of my son’s stuff I’m going to be at all of their stuff so there’s definitely some some
Beauty in that there’s some beauty in slowing down and um you know being at home and being in a routine I I thoroughly enjoy too like not leaving every weekend you know I know I’m going to be at home and this is simple but I’m
Like a foodaholic by the way like I am a I’m a psycho on my diet like it would this would be a whole another podcast like I eat the same meal every single day like I am so very disciplined in what I do and being home every single
Day really allows me to get all of my what I want to get in my my food my workouts my walking like my my my regimen um I thoroughly enjoy and now I get to kind of get that set so more time with my bride more time with my babies I
Got four more years with both of my babies in the house and then you know then my son’s gone and then my daughter’s got one year after that so I mean just this season for to be able to push a reset and really re-evaluate like
What do you want to do when you grow up what do you want to be what’s important to you like it’s it’s been an awesome process the art I call it the art of the possible lately like what do you want to be what do you want to do what’s next
What what what is going to get you out of bed and go dude I want to do that that makes me excited that makes me happy um so those are conversations man and things that have been swirling around and conversations that I’ve had that have been awesome all right you got
To tell me about the diet well I again this is going to be boring as crap to probably most people but like I eat the same food every single day and I’m boring but I know what I I know what I want from a macro standpoint and so like every morning I
Have an egg 3/4 carton of egg whites uh and 80 grams of Oats that’s my that’s my breakfast and that’s going to be in the 10 to one o00 window um and then my second meal is going to be the same thing every day it’s going to be
Blueberries it’s going to be Greek yogurt you know plain Greek yogurt without any sugar and then I’m going to have uh skinny pop my skinny pop popcorn skinny pop is probably the most amazing popcorn in the history of the world like I need an endorsement from skinny pop
Cuz it’s that kind of good um and so and that’s my second meal and then my third meal is a big meal at night and that’s where my wife is going to cook and we’ll have you know shrimp chicken steak you know something to that capacity and then
I’ll have some rice with it or um a carb with it and some fruit and some vegetables so that’s it’s the same thing every single day it’s it’s it’s very repeatable can you take me through your process during the week back when you were when you were uh working for ESPN
And traveling for 17 weeks it’s not just leaving Thursday or whenever you’re also having to do a lot of homework during the week can you take me through that the typical routine for you yeah if if you want to be good you got to study
Right like if you want to be good you want to know you know what you’re talking about I don’t want to read I was not a big fan of reading people’s articles and taking their word for it um so I put a lot of time in into watch
Watching tape and watching games and um and that and by the way that also requires you know Saturday and that requires you know some Sunday and Monday you know usually i’ put my kids to bed and my my wife would go to sleep and I’d
Stay up till 2:00 or 3 in the morning watching all the games so I’m caught up so I’m ready to know what I want to discuss the next week so you know you’re you’re you’re chasing your kids around you’re making the most of it but a lot
Of times it ends up being where I was burning the end of the night the burning the midnight oil right like I was staying up later than needed to to make sure that I got everything in and um now I watch it and and by the way I still
Can’t turn my brain off like I don’t I don’t watch football games like a fan I just don’t I don’t have that ability in me like I’m watching Personnel groupings I’m watching defense I’m watching the chess match I just I just always have I love that part the component of the game
Um so I’m still watching but I just don’t have to get in the weeds as much you know I don’t have to know everything about every conference and everybody who what’s going on all over the place and and be ready to talk about it so I just
Get to be a fan and follow what I want to follow and um which are still the main things in college football you know I’m tuned into every every big game every weekend because it’s just it’s fun to watch all right joined by Jeff Scott
It’s 9:04 on a on a Tuesday have you gotten the the soccer install in like how how how early did you get up this morning with your game plan and the four and under and all that stuff got it’s got to be stressful it is we have our uh third and
Final practice of the Season uh tonight at 6:15 so uh what I’ve learned through my first two practices is uh really our our best drill that we’ve done and this is no joke this is 100% truth the best drill we’ve done is put them in a circle
And let them play duck duck goose and then whenever they get tagged as the goose they have to get up and go kick the ball in the goal that that is the only drill that we’ve done that’s been able to keep keep their attention for longer than three minutes so uh yeah I
Mean I I really laugh thinking about you know the two weeks leading up to our first practice you know which was last week and for two weeks uh you know I’ve never coached soccer I’ve definitely never coached three and four year olds so I mean I’m I I I watched at least 10
To 12 hours of YouTube videos on how to coach youth soccer and by the way for anybody looking out there it really starts at about 5 years old there are no videos with three and four year olds by the way so maybe that was my first
Warning but I put in over 12 hours of watching all these videos I mean I typed up a a practice script you know it’s 45 minutes so just like in football we have five minute period so I had nine periods written out and so I was going to start
With stretching and I thought long and hard about what kind of stretching we could do so I get out there I mean we’re in literally the first minute of practice I’ve got them circled up and I’m like okay here we go touch your toes and one out of the 10 kids touch their
Toes the other one sits down my son gets up runs over and grabs a soccer ball and so I realized real quickly in the first 30 seconds this practice plan I have in my back pocket is not going to work so it was the longest 45 minutes of my life
Uh trying to figure all that out and having all these parents obviously with that age the parents stay and watch and having them watch watch me and they’re thinking coming in well this guy’s coach for 20 years I can’t wait to see what he
Does with him today and I was out of my element and I think my wife was really enjoying it uh yeah that was our first practice we have our third and final practice tonight which we may play uh duck duck goose for 45 minutes and then
Uh we start our games on Thursday and I think we have eight games but no it’s a lot of fun and uh definitely a uh you know just a a new chapter that I’m really uh trying to to to take can as much as I can you have made
Cutthroat decisions In the Heat of the hottest moments National Championship Games 10 15 million people watching but I don’t think you were joking when you said the pressure of a few onlookers a few parents that’s very real right oh it was it was very real I mean obviously
When I’m when I’m coaching football I mean that’s all I’ve known my entire life right I could invite anybody to come and watch that cuz that’s what I know that’s what I’ve done my whole life but when you get put in that situation and you really have no idea uh you know
What what to do in this situation and you realize there’s no stop and like go ask somebody for help it’s like no this this clock’s uh rolling here you got 45 minutes to figure it out so uh we we uh learned on the Fly and and uh you know
They like doing the breakdown at the end you know when everybody puts their hand in and you count down you know uh one two three uh we’re Team orange so one two three orange that was probably their favorite part of the practice and it was my favorite part too because the
Practice was over and I could go catch my breath uh but yeah it’s it’s definitely a a unique challenge I and I put in in that tweet I just put hey you know hats off to all of our youth coaches out there I had no idea how
Difficult this was but I’m I’m gaining a lot of respect uh you know day by day I was speaking with Mickey plyer yesterday congratulating him on his new arrival second child and your name came up and and he mentioned that his son Drake is on the team and he’s not happy with the
Playing time his son has gotten so far is there anything you can do the truth is Drake is one of my All Stars uh yeah that that was the other part I wasn’t sure if Mickey put it out there but I guess I can now that he said
That yeah not only do I have all these parents watching I got Mickey pler watching I’m like man he’s going to be giving an update the next morning there that hey Scott has literally lost his mind he has no control of these kids what’s he doing you know so that just
Added to the pressure but uh no his son Drake is is awesome and has done a great job and and uh I think he’s going to be my my Sammy Watkins of this season for sure is this at Nettles or over at the YMCA Fields yeah Nettles yeah this is uh
CL this is Clemson nles and uh we had a draft actually uh the week before our first practice we had a draft so my wife who knows the other moms is looking down the list and kind of giving my my order of draft picks and uh so of course I
There’s a lot of Clemson coaches and you know support staff kids that are going to play so I’ve got a lot of them highlighted and uh you know and Fletcher Anderson who I played with one of my teammates Ed Clemson was a kicker for us you know he’s he’s been coaching youth
Leagues around here for a while he actually showed up late for the meeting so he gets to in the the first chair right by the door and then he gets the first pick and he picks all of my kid all the co Clemson coach’s kids which
Are all the kids I was going to pick he takes them all right there and now I’m scrambling you know just picking the plyer was the only name that I really knew on there so that’s kind of what I I got left with I guess it was so wild
Reading your Tweet and the video you posted and and I I got a little a little weepy it it’s just cool to see you know some else going through the same sport the same place you know the same age there’s just something special about uh growing up you know your kids being
Raised in the same spot and you see other parents going through the same thing that you did um years ago and we we did it at the we started at the YMCA over there um over there where the uh you know where the the beaches and all
That um I guess still are but the the Clemson students were coaches uh during that time I guess through some sort of internship and I remember one of our coaches wearing a cape you know just to try to keep the keep the kids keep the kids attention and so I I don’t know
If you’ll ultimately graduate to the YMCA thing or not but but one of the one of the indelible memories I have like sometimes sometimes you got the college student coaches who just weren’t very interested in in coaching and so they’re on their cell phones and things like
That and it’s natural I don’t think it’s the you know the worst crime in the world but uh one time our coach just didn’t show up for a game and and we’re standing there and Mike Nan’s daughter just happened to be on my daughter’s team and they were friends and and N
Just happened to be there it was a rarity because I think he’s really busy during the during the Spring i’ probably recruiting and doing all that stuff right and so Mike and I are standing there and we’re like well uh I guess we’re not going to have a coach today um and Mike
Said I guess I’ll coach him and I swear our our team had not scored a goal in three games like it was it was that bad and Mike got the group together and whatever message he imparted it was largely to do with fun um but they
Scored a goal 30 seconds into that match and it was like one of the best moments maybe the best moment of the season they go on to score like three goals in that game and um anyway my point is I almost after I saw your your video I almost
Went deep into one of my external hard drives to find some old videos of those days but I I couldn’t really take the uh it would have been too many tear probably but that’s it’s really cool to see yeah I think I probably need to call Coach Nan after hearing that story find
Out what that message was see if it will continue to work today that’s that’s a good lead for me thank you I love I love how you creatively in the Tweet you said paraphrasing you said it is accurate that I am now I’ve returned to Clemson
To coach it’s can we can we go back to the back in January I mean it was a sensation when when when davo pulled off the major coup of getting Garrett Riley somehow I guess people got some sort of mistaken notion that you were also coming back and and of course as things
Do these days on social media it ran wild and Garrett Riley and Jeff Scott are now running the offense so can we go back to that and what your uh what your reaction to that was in the moment uh sure so after uh we finished
There in Tampa you know at the end of last year and my wife and I talked about it uh you know we decided that you know we wanted to come back to Clemson and this is really home for us and you know our really our number one goal is to be
Able to to raise our kids uh right right here in Clemson I think uh many coaches that kind of work their way up like I was able to do in our our coaching profession and you know become a head coach and uh you know realize maybe towards that part of their career that
From a financial standpoint you know they can start making you know different decisions of where they want to live and where they you know um you know what they want to do and I think most coaches that do that maybe are in their 50s and their their kids are already out of the
House and it was kind of my situation was a little unique and that I kind of you know reached that uh Point um but I had a three-year-old and a a seven-year-old uh at home and so I think what Sarah and I you know talked about after uh finishing up at South Florida
Is man we we really want to go back to Clemson and really raise our our family right there in Clemson and that’s something that you know as a coach uh I didn’t really know would be a possibility whenever I started my coaching profession I mean my dad
Honestly tried to talk me out of going into college coaching he really was pushing me hard to to stay in high school because he knows how difficult it can be with the coaches moving I I’ve got some of my buddies that are my age in the college coaching profession that
Have been to eight or nine schools in the same you know 20 years that you know I’ve been fortunate to really you know be at two schools and so anyways we made that decision so we moved back in January the beginning of January and really the the plan was to to take some
Time and really maybe uh take at least one year off and spend with the family and you know you know obviously my last few years at Clemson you know I mean those were long Seasons right they’re exciting Seasons but they were long I mean we played 14 or 15 games you know
Those last uh you know three seasons or so and then you move straight into a head coaching position where you’re trying to you know really turn around a program and there’s a lot of hours and time that goes into that and uh so when uh when I kind of got off the treadmill
There at the the end of the year last year I just really said let’s go back to Clemson and um let’s spend some time there obviously coach Sweeny you know checked on me I mean he he uh you know whenever he heard the news down in in
Tampa he he gave me a call that night and we visited and we you know just touched base and really it was more of a personal uh phone call where he’s just kind of checking on me and you know and I told him that hey I’m I’m coming back
To Clemson uh that’s going to be my location I’m not sure on occupation you know exactly you know what I want to do or pursue right now and that’s really uh what happened so I think uh you know I put out a tweet maybe the beginning of
January our first week back uh we went and ate at the new wons uh there downtown and so I I took a picture of maybe my kids standing in front they have this you know beautiful picture there of you know uh Clemson backdrop and so I took a picture of Hunter and
Savannah there and just just said something like you know great to be home or something like that and so I think a lot of people maybe just assumed uh because of my 12 years that I spent on staff that I was coming since I was coming back to Clemson that I
Automatically was coming back into some sort of role as an analyst or recruiting or something like that and uh the the difficult part of it uh was whenever you would see random people you know in the grocery store or you know at a restaurant just walk by and speak which
Is all great and they just say hey coach we’re glad to have you back you know and good luck this year well it’s kind of awkward to like stop them and say like raise your hand and say well actually I’m not coaching you know and try to
Explain why and so I never I never like gave them affirmative that I am I just always said Thank you and kind of waved you know and acknowledged them and left it like that because it would take too much time to sit down and give my 10
Minutes of you know why I’m taking some time off with my family uh so yeah I I did did get that and you know for the whenever maybe that got out that night and I was getting a lot of text messages from you know different people and again
On the text message the first five ones I tried to explain to them that it’s not accurate and I’m not doing it but that was taking too long so then I just started giving everybody a thumbs up you know thank you just leaving it like that
And they’ll figure it out at some point but no we we we love uh being back in Clemson and I mean we we’ve made the decision the only decision that we really made uh about you know our family’s future is that we’re putting down Roots right here and we’re going to
Raise our kids uh right here in Clemson because I mean this is home uh for us we’ve lived here 12 the last 15 years uh I met my wife Sarah uh as freshman here at Clemson all her family lives in South Carolina they all went to Clemson my mom
And dad are back and my dad’s retired living over there in senica so you know this is home for us and you know I think over time I’ll kind of figure out you know what direction I want to do from a occupation standpoint uh but uh right
Now we’re just enjoying uh being back here in Clemson yeah I’ll never forget around that time I I was getting texts from people they were saying like I just saw Jeff Scott’s wife at Lowe’s and I just saw Jeff Scott just dropped his kids off at Clemson Elementary School
And I’m like yeah they’re here like I don’t know what else to say they’re they moved back well what what one funny story on that we hadn’t been back maybe three days we literally moved back I think January first and uh we hadn’t been back three days and uh we were out
At a restaurant and I was with my wife and my daughter Savannah who’s seven and my son Hunter and um at the restaurant we were kind of sitting out in the middle so you know there was several people probably three or four different people came by different times and just
Said hey coach Scott we’re so glad to have you you know back here in the upstate in South Carolina and I kept saying thank you and and maybe after the second one my daughter Savannah kind of looked at me and she said what’s going on like how do these people know you
Like she she had this like biggest mystery look on her face and you know and I had forgotten that when she was in Clemson you know even though she had been on the stage at two National Championship uh games you know she was so young you know she was maybe three
Three and a half whenever we left so she didn’t really have any idea and then you know at South Florida even though I was a the head coach Tampa is a a big city right and there’s a there’s a lot of other sports that kind of take priority
There with the the Bucks and the lightning and the Rays and and everything going on so maybe she didn’t experience that as much there but it it wasn’t two days we were back here and she was kind of like time out what’s going on this doesn’t make sense and uh
I just thought that was you know really funny for her coming back 3 years later has it become any less awkward now socially now that people have gotten the message that you’re not back with the staff yeah yeah and and that was part of the reason too that I put out the the
Soccer tweet is I wanted people to know you know that I’m I’m not coaching or on staff right now but yeah I think people have kind of figured that out and again it was never like this huge deal I mean I’ve again we we’ve lived in this
Community for 12 the last 15 years so we have a lot of friends and uh you know people that we’ve known for a lot long time that are here and and uh so it really wasn’t a huge deal you know at the beginning but yeah everything’s everybody’s kind of figured it out and
And most people’s reaction you know think it’s you know cool that I’m taking some time right now just to kind of spend with the family and and and and enjoy that piece as much as I can right now my stock answer that I give like on my message board when people ask um
Do you think Jeff will will you know when when do you think he’ll be back at Clemson my stock answer is basically like I don’t know but I I would assume that you know it wouldn’t surprise me if at some point in the near or well not
Near future but in the future that he maybe comes back in an administrative role with football or maybe even administrative role athletic department whatever with the university my answer is I you know it wouldn’t my guess is that you’re going to be back at Clemson in some capacity at some point but I
Have no idea when is that pretty much is is that close to I think I I think that I think that’s pretty fair I mean um I mean obviously I’ve got a great relationship there with with Coach Sweeny I’ve got a great relationship with graham nef our grade ad and um I
Mean I I could see at some point um you know I definitely would love to at some point get back in in some type of uh capacity if I’m going to be here obviously in town but I really uh when you say you don’t know I think that’s probably the most accurate answer
Because it’d be hard for you to know if I don’t know and uh so and and I and I really don’t but I’m not it’s not something that uh I’m even thinking honestly I’m not even thinking about it I think you know a lot of times maybe
When a coach uh gets let go from one job they have a sense of urgency to to kind of go get on somewhere else because there’s a fear that if you get out of coaching for too long then you know that you know ship has kind of sailed and you
Know my situation is a little different in the fact that I’ve got you know heavy Roots here uh with coach Sweeney with graham nef and I got a a great relationship with our our president Jim Clement as well and so I think that does afford me a little bit of time to to
Kind of uh you know take this break and I’ve used that analogy before whether it’s halftime of a a game or half timee of my career or or even a timeout you know you’re on a long drive and sometimes you need to call that timeout and get everybody on the sideline kind
Of catch your breath and you know refocus recalibrate a little bit and then go back out there and so that’s probably uh you know that’s probably what this is for me uh but honestly I I don’t I don’t have a plan and I don’t really think that I need one right now
Uh to truly be able just to to um you know take that off my shoulders right now I’ve spent enough time in my career right just worried about what the next step is going to look like and uh now to have this point where I can really just
Kind of um you know leave all that stuff to the side right now and enjoy my family and then also uh you know being able to uh spend some time with my dad you know now that he’s retired uh you know we try to play golf once every two
Weeks or so and and um so that’s a really important thing to me as well uh being able to have time to to do some of those those things when you are accustomed to going 150 M an hour for a decade plus just about every day I mean that’s just
That’s life as a as a highlevel college football coach and I would think that’s how most of y’all are wired um how I I mean obviously when it’s in the immediate aftermath of suddenly having all this free time it’s refreshing and all that but I would assume and maybe I’m assuming wrong that
It also takes an adjustment to just uh much more of a sedentary life that doesn’t have that adrenaline and that sort of just the rushes and the heart just the like I said the way most coaches are wired uh has it has it been an adjustment in any way so far just
Trying to um you know fill the hours yeah it it definitely uh is an adjustment like you said I mean you know you use the analogy of being on a treadmill and you know sprinting as fast as you can for as long as you can remember and then you step off you know
It’s kind of like that you know soon as you step off a treadmill it’s kind of like your body feels like it’s still running but you’re standing still right and uh so there is a little bit of that I think uh and I’m figuring that out I
Mean really for me and I’ve always taken pride and trying to be an organized person and uh I’m I’m never going to be a person that’s going to you know sleep in until 9:00 or something so I mean I’m up by 6:00 every morning I I like to to
Get in some uh exercise and work out in the morning uh I enjoy taking uh my my daughter to school in the morning we’re just right around the corner from where she attends school and uh I think one thing that helps with that and I kind of
Mentioned it earlier is the fact that I have you know young kids still at home and uh you know uh everybody thinks about you know the coach and the long hours and sometimes uh and it’s way OB obviously in business too with with people that are working a lot and
Sometimes they don’t think about the wives that are home right and those coaches wives uh that that’s a tough job at the house because your husband’s gone you know 80 hours out of the week and even in the off season they’re gone recruiting and and um and you know this
This age of uh maybe child rearing with a savannah actually is getting ready to turn eight later on this coming weekend on Sunday and U and then Hunter who just turned three last month you know there’s a lot of activity that goes with an 8-year-old and a three-year-old and and
And everything so I think that’s helped me kind of feel some of those hours where I’m not just sitting idly but you know one thing that I’ve enjoyed also is being able to to watch games uh on a Saturday I mean I sit in front of my TV
Pretty much from you know 12:00 noon until you know 1 or 2 a.m. watching college games and that’s something as a college coach that you don’t get to do do you know you may able to catch a few minutes here or there if you play a noon
Kickoff at home something like that but but being able to do that and then the other thing that I’ve really enjoyed is you know watching NFL games on Sunday after we after we go to church and and and have lunch to be able to sit there I
Mean I I guess I have a YouTube TV as my provider and they have this new deal where they have like the four boxes right you can watch different games well I think it was this past Sunday I was watching that and I I was watching some
Of our former Clemson players was in one of each of those games right and so I’m like sitting here watching four games at once and I’ve got receivers or quarterbacks or whatever defensive players from Clemson that are playing in these games and that’s something too that you know whenever you’re coaching
On Sunday I mean you’re you’re putting the last game to bed you’re starting on the next upcoming opponent and so I’ve enjoyed you know that on on the weekends being able to do that and then you know just uh you know trying to keep up with the kids Monday through Friday but yeah
There’s no doubt it’s it’s an adjustment and it feels a little different when you’re at home watching games on TV then you know you kind of maybe have especially for that first game you kind of have a little bit of that Panic attacked kind of like that nightmare
That maybe you have where you’re supposed to be somewhere and you’re not there and you’re late and like oh my gosh what am I going to do and uh I actually have a funny story about that so you know I was the holder at Clemson my last three years uh for field goals
Whenever I was playing at Clemson and um I had a year left like my red shirt senior year but I was ready to go I was going to get married and I was ready to get a job and start coaching and get my coaching career going and uh so even
Though I had an extra year I graduated and uh went down to Columbia and was coaching at Ridgeview High School so I come back for the very first game right so it’s the first game since I played it be the first game that I’m not the holder and if I remember the story
Correctly I believe it was Jean pate was going to be the new holder and running down the hill in the first game he breaks his leg literally coming down the hill and I remember for about two minutes on the side because I’m staying on the sidelines and uh you know just in
Street Clos and because again I’m a teacher at ridg viw and coaching High School football there and for about two minutes going through my mind is like oh my gosh should I go in the locker room do I need to get dressed like I have a year of Eligibility can and then after
About 2 minutes I realized I’m not in school here I’m not even eligible that literally that conversation was going through my head in that moment like should I go get dressed am I going to be the holder for today you know and so a little bit of that you know
Watching uh you know some games uh you know the first week of the season is kind of like man your body kind of feels like you’re supposed to be there um but also it’s it’s good to be able to to to watch you know different people play and
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Highway in Clemson for more information go to foundersfcu.com I’m not sure there’s a better description of the just vicious nature of playing golf then your description of what turned for you and it was basically an entirely you know not not an adjustment to your putting stroke it was basically you had to trash
Everything you had learned before and learn a new motor skill because as you said so your brain had no Scar Tissue you had to rewire your brain and and as I’m listening to that I’m like I’m really glad I stopped playing golf uh several several years ago because that
Is it man like can we can we dig into that and um and but it but is digging into it and talking about it are you kind of reluctant to do that because of what we’re talking about you don’t want to jinx it or whatever is that is it a
Tricky thing that way no I I think uh and you know that’s it’s a it’s kind of like you know the weekend warrior golfers they don’t like to they don’t like to say the s word in golf which is shank well um a lot of people don’t like
That short why word either which is Yips but um it’s real I mean i’ I have it I had it I have it I know guys that have chippen Yips that play the tour I know guys that um have have had the driver Yips and fought that and beat it and
Came back to the tour and um I know guys that didn’t beat it and it took it knocked them off the tour and everybody’s fighting something but for me um working with Jason who I’ve referenced a lot the last few months Navy SEAL and and he was like Hey
Man who cares if you talk about it it’s it’s it’s a thing it’s not something you can run from and um but yeah it was it was literally over a over a short putt I would at times um have zero feeling in my hands and Jason the way he described
It instead of it being a mental issue it’s actually a central nervous system issue your body is trying to protect you from something and you have involuntary um muscle spasms and i’ never had it explained to me that way and he was a baseball player and you
Know you can do some internet sleuthing but he still has the record for most wild pitches in a game when he was when when he was pitching in the late ’90s early 2000s and he was a stud closer um and was prepared to get drafted and that
Knocked him out of baseball uh the pitching Yips and he kind of made his name working with some pitchers and uh my manager got got to know him and said I think this guy can help you with what you’re fighting and he dabbled with some other golfers before but nothing nothing
As drastic as I had and and he just took me through his experiences and how he eventually developed a way to attack it instead of running from it and um and his background with baseball and then going into the seals was very uh refreshing and eye openening to me
Because he basically told me and proved to me that I was not mentally weak that I was actually the complete opposite to be doing what I was doing for 9 or 10 years at a still a pretty high level fighting what I was fighting that I was
Probably as mentally tough as anybody to to to go in there and do it day in and day out and and try to deal with it what I didn’t realize until working with him was that I was not going to Beat It by practicing in fact it was probably
Hurting me to practice more but I was you know I’m an athlete I’m stubborn and I think I can out practice anything and uh if there’s anybody that’s made more three-footer on the putting green than me in the last 10 years I need to meet them because I can assure you nobody has
But it didn’t matter um once I got in the arena uh I just I couldn’t I couldn’t beat it with what I was doing so I was still using the short putter when Jason and I started and I was starting to see some progress and then I’d have a relapse and
Then I’d start to see some progress and then um Brad Faxon who’s um uh a great friend and and I’d been working with him on my putting and he basically urged me to try the long putter U just to see what would happen and um talking to
Jason about it talking to Brad about it talking to some other people about it and it was more of what what I said and what you alluded to is that I needed just basically a complete new motor skill that had nothing to do with how I’d ever done it in the past
And um a lot of people have asked would would Jason’s methods have worked if I hadn’t to changed Putters and my answer to that is yes but it would have taken longer um but when I got the long putter on top of what Jason and I had
Already laid as a foundation and then built on that um you know I even had some yippy stuff go on with the long putter the first few weeks and then U with my work with Jason and then learning my Tendencies with the long putter I was able to overcome it and
That’s right right at the time I went on that run starting at Rocket Mortgage in Detroit and um you know I’m still going to miss some putts there nobody’s perfect and uh but realizing that I’m that I’m just human versus um fighting an injury such as you know The Yips and
Um very eye openening and also why I’ve been more open to to just talk about it because if you don’t talk about it and if you don’t put it out there how are you going to fight it how are you going to attack it and it’s been so cool
Hearing people not just golfers but just people that fight stuff and and that are now more open to talk about it and you know if I help one person down the road that can see what I went through and then overcame it if I can help that one
Person then I’m I’m helping I’m helping people too and that’s been very cool to hear and cool to listen to some people that um whether it be a basketball player with free throws or um you know soccer players go through it with penalty kicks I mean it’s in sport it’s
So prevalent to have these mental blocks or physical blocks and um to have somebody guide me down the path to to overcome it and realizing that it’s actually not mental uh and that to to go from where I was to where I am just proves that that that that I’m mentally
Strong and if that message can get out to other people um it’s okay to talk about it you got to attack it you can’t run from it um and again it’s not just The Yips it’s anything with uh with brain or mental or um even just physical
Blocks of of things you can and can’t do so previous to this new way of addressing it and acknowledging it did you like when you were asked about it by say a media member or somebody else would you say I I don’t I don’t want to
Talk about it or how would you how different was your sort of response to it then at in that mode of thinking well honestly it was so bad at times that and I played so poorly for for long stretches that I didn’t have to answer any questions about it cuz I wasn’t
Playing well right and that’s not that’s me not trying to avoid your question but um you know if you’re not if you’re not on the leader board nobody’s going to talk to you and so I didn’t have to talk about it that much but you know four years ago
2019 I made I made the Tour Championship um fighting this because I hit the ball that year probably as well as I’d ever hit it so I could almost I couldn’t screw it up because I was so close to the hole a bunch but um but last hole of the 2019 TOUR
Championship playing with Dustin Johnson where it did not matter one bit what I made on the last hole at East Lake I forp putted and for no reason other than I just I couldn’t get in a hole and um so I think I think that’s when people
Started realizing how bad it was and um and after Greensboro and after Memphis I I told a couple stories about um the 18t Pebble Beach one year and and and at Bay Hill one year legitimate uh panic attacks like um heart racing short of breath couldn’t feel my hands and I’m
Trying to trying to hit a hit a round object with a flat face of a putter from a foot and a half and and honestly did not know how I was going to do it and um so and I don’t think people realized
How bad it was or how bad it can be for for people that are going through that um but back to your question I didn’t have to talk about it much because I wasn’t I wasn’t on the leaderboard very much um then all of a sudden you know
Play good for that stretch and start making putts and now the the elephant in the room is is now uh available to talk about and that’s probably why it came out um as much as it did is just from from that stretch of golf we’ve been
Talking about and and being being on the leaderboard a bunch and being asked a bunch of questions and then all of a sudden hey why you playing so good oh I’m making making putts and I’m not afraid to tap the ball in anymore and it was all three short putts
Three feet and in 3 to 5 feet and in yeah yeah so in in 2019 uh I putted everything from inside 6 feet with my eyes closed um which is a Band-Aid for people with the IPS uh um if you if you’re not looking at the ball your body and your
Hands and your brain doesn’t know where impact is so you don’t Flinch at it well eventually that eventually I out I kind of outran that too and it didn’t work anymore and then so I went to a type of putter called the arm Lock And if you if you watch uh like
What Matt cuchar did for years where the the putter is a little bit longer and it rests on your left arm uh um uh he does it on his right arm now believe it or not which is um which is amazing that he putts the way he does having gone
From uh one arm to the other but um so I did that for a while and had a pretty good run with that I won the John Deere in 21 doing that um but again it was mainly because of my ball striking I hit it so close I didn’t have a choice but
To make some um but yeah it was uh it was mostly short putts and or only short putts um but the the toll it took on my entire game you know if I had a 20f footer I wouldn’t be as aggressive as as as say a player not fighting The Yips
Because I was scared to roll it a foot by or two feet by and and miss the next one so all of a sudden I’m I’m not aggressive and I’m I’m I’m I’m just kind of easing it up to the hole and not not even trying to make them really I’m just
Trying not to three putt from from 20 ft and and that’s no way to be as a as a as a tour player um and as as we’ve seen over the last few few months you know my my putting stats have increased because now I’m not as freaked out about rolling
It by two or three feet and and missing it coming back and that’s when all of a sudden the rest of your game uh gets easier now you’re not worried about hitting it perfect every time or worried about you know trying to chip in instead of chipping it to two feet and worried
About missing them so just the the the mental ease that that it gave me and has given me um has just has eased things and eased things up for my for my whole game you know all the way back to the T boox this lasted nine or 10 years you
Said yeah yeah I uh uh it was 2012 at uh at Colonial in Fort Worth I for puted the fifth green um and and and had never had these issues like this before had I missed short putts sure who hadn’t but uh four puted the fifth green there at Colonial
And at that point I started thinking I said that I’ve never had that feeling before and uh yeah I’ve been yeah fought it fought it ever since and like I said it would go and at the beginning it would go in spurts when it like when it mattered I
Would I would really kind of freak out or my body would freak out and then um as time went on and as it as as that got worse and worse it it it became a daily thing like where walking up on a green I would walking up on a green I would I
Would be I would be terrified of is it going to happen or am I going to have one of those episodes or um so yeah I fought it 9 10 years and um you know like I said it’s it’s still there I just have I just have ways and and and and
Tools as as Jason would say I got tools in my toolbox to to to attack it and and not let it affect me so the colonial the for putt of the colonial that was the first time you actually felt the the lack of feeling in your
Hands that time yeah yeah it was like I remember walking off that green going that it was almost like it wasn’t me you know I was like that that did not feel like the same person that that put it on the fourth green 25 minutes ago um and
Then it was gone but you know that night in the hotel room and the next day I’m thinking why why did that happen and then of course you’re you’re you start you know freaking out going all right how do I make sure that doesn’t happen
Again and do I need to change this do I need a new putter do I need to change my grip do I need to and all of those things now looking back on it was the absolute worst thing you can do because then you’re trying to teach yourself
Something new that probably doesn’t need to be fixed it’s just it’s more of uh and again I didn’t know this then um it didn’t matter what putter it didn’t matter what grip it didn’t matter any of that all that mattered was that uh that I was uh I was scared for whatever
Reason and then uh but try to try to change try to practice and all of those things made it worse because then you’re introducing new stuff that that you’ve never done done or never tried or never put in competition and and that that just that just multiplies multiplies
Multiplies and and makes it worse and worse and worse this has to be so much more prevalent and widespread than that than people maybe think and I think that’s what you were getting at earlier and it’s not necessarily just in golf but whether somebody’s going to stand up
And speak to a big group or like a musician who’s playing in front of a larger crowd than he or she is used to or whatever the physiological effects of of that sort of panic um has to be experienced by a ton of people out there 100% 100% there’s no question and you
Know I’m um huge sports fan obviously and and you can I can see it now with with certain people whether it be golfers or a guy shooting a free throw or a field goal kicker or and um yeah same thing in in in business you know public speaking or addressing uh your
Team in in a in a boardroom or any of those things um yeah it’s it it is very prevalent and that’s I don’t think I I don’t think I verbalized it very well earlier but if if people in any Walk of Life can see that it is beatable can see
That there is a way to attack it and to to get over it um that you don’t have to go through life like that then um you know if there’s one Junior golfer that that my story helps then I you know I’m I’m happy and because it is beatable it
Is uh able to be um pushed down and and and beaten um but yeah it I I’ve had like I can’t tell you how many people have called asking for uh Jason’s phone number and asking um asking these questions I mean my peers and some top 100 players in the world rankings of
Golf just fighting something similar or a certain part of their game and um yeah I know Jason he’s he’s drinking from a fire hose right now because his story is out there now and um how he how he went about it and how he’s helped people and
Uh I think he’s probably as busy as anybody on the planet at the moment in a good way okay awesome awesome stuff there from Lucas from Jeff Scott and David poock very lucky to have those three guys on the podcast this year appreciate the support of our sponsors
For helping make this happen and also thanks most of all by far to every one of you for hitting that play button happy New Year everybody Cheers A
