Time to Spill the beans on Clemson's Heisman hopeful
Dabo Swinney doesn't want you to take his word for it. Just come to his office at the Clemson football complex, turn on the video machine and see for yourself.
"If people want to have an intelligent conversation about the best player in college football, this is all I ask. Put up the highlights of anybody you like. Then look at our guy," Swinney said. "There is nobody who would walk out of that room without their jaw dropping. I'm telling you, there is nobody else out there like our guy. He's incredible."
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| Clemson's Spiller: 'I like it when your teammates look to you to make a play in a big game.' (US Presswire) |
With Sam Bradford's injury, Tim Tebow's concussion, and Colt McCoy's early struggles, the door to the Heisman Trophy has been left wide open. Against Miami on October 24, Spiller exploded right through it. In that game, Spiller returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown and caught a 56-yard touchdown pass. When it was all over, Spiller had 310 all-purpose yards, a Clemson record, and the Tigers had upset the No. 8 Hurricanes 40-37 in overtime.
Spiller has returned 17 kicks this season and has taken four of them (three kickoffs, one punt) to the house.
"Not that I want them to stop," Swinney said, "but I can't believe that people are still kicking it to him."
And now, thanks to Spiller's heroics, Clemson (5-3, 3-2) is back in the ACC Atlantic race as the Tigers prepare to host Florida State on Saturday at Death Valley.
A lot of people gave up on Clemson when the Tigers lost at Maryland (24-21) on October 3. But after impressive wins over Wake Forest (38-3) and Miami, Clemson controls its own destiny. Beat Florida State, N.C. State and Virginia and the Tigers will go to the ACC Championship Game in Tampa.
"We fought back and put ourselves in this position because we have good players with a lot of pride," Swinney said. "And it really helps that we have No. 28 [Spiller]."
Clemson has ramped up its efforts to catch the attention of Heisman Trophy voters by launching a website for Spiller:
Here are just a few of the staggering numbers that make the case:
• He saw virtually no action last Saturday against Coastal Carolina. That was by design because he needed to give his turf toe a rest. Before that, he led the nation in all-purpose yards at 208 per game. That was against a schedule that included three top 15 teams.
• This season, he has eight plays of over 60 yards, seven of which have gone for touchdowns. Until last week's rest, Spiller had posted a 60-yard plus play in every game.
• Those 60-yard plus scoring plays have come in four different ways: Kickoff return, punt return, pass reception, and run from the line of scrimmage.
• And here's the big one: Over the course of his four-year career at Clemson, Spiller has 19 -- that's right, 19 -- touchdown plays of 50 yards or more. Nobody else has ever done that. Not Tim Brown. Not Reggie Bush. Not Rocket Ismail. Nobody.
"It's been fun," Spiller said. "I like it when your teammates look to you to make a play in a big game. I have so many good players around me now. It makes my job a lot easier."
Understand that Spiller has put up these incredible numbers after spending his first three years at Clemson basically as a part-time player. James Davis, a perennial 1,000-yard rusher, was the featured running back for four years at Clemson. Together, they were known as the "Thunder and Lightning" backfield. Davis, a powerful back, provided the thunder and Spiller, the speedster, was the lightning.
Davis used up his eligibility after the 2008 season and Spiller had a decision to make. With all of the issues at Clemson (Swinney took over at midseason in 2008 when Tommy Bowden stepped down under pressure), did he want to turn pro? Or did he want to come back and prove that he could be the focal point of the Clemson offense? He was very productive as a change-of-pace player. But could he be The Man?
Spiller said it wasn't that tough of a decision.
"First of all, I wanted to get my degree. I wanted to graduate from college because that was very important to me," said Spiller, a dean's list student. "When I came here, it was never my intention to leave for the NFL early. But the bottom line is I wanted to have one more season with the group of guys I came here with. We all thought we had a chance to go out on a higher note. And now we have that opportunity. It's up to us to take advantage of it."
This will surprise you but Clemson has not won an ACC championship since 1991. For all of its resources and tradition, Clemson has not been able to get back to the national-power status it enjoyed in the Danny Ford years (1979-89) when the Tigers won 96 games and five ACC championships. Ken Hatfield, who replaced Ford, won an ACC championship his second season at Clemson in 1991. Since then, Clemson has had five second place finishes but no conference championships. It remains a source of much irritation to the Clemson faithful.
"We talk about that a lot," Spiller said. "We want to be the guys who bring the ACC championship back to Clemson. Right now it is all in front of us but we have to take care of business. It's up to us. Nobody is going to give it to us. We have to go out and take it."
Spiller, from Lake Butler, Fla., had serious thoughts about leaving Clemson after this freshman season in 2006. Florida had just won a national championship and there were family issues pulling him back home. Bowden and offensive coordinator Rob Spence convinced Spiller that he could realize all of his dreams by remaining at Clemson.
When Bowden left last October and was replaced by Swinney, some looked back to 2006 and said that Spiller should have gone home to Florida when he had the chance. He's hoping to see some of those same people on Dec. 5 in Tampa.
"It would be sweet to go back home to Florida and play for the ACC championship," Spiller said. "Clemson is the place that I was always supposed to be at. There have been no regrets. No regrets at all."
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