Clemson football could save big by winning big

Jimbo Fisher lashes out at officials following loss to Clemson

USA TODAY Sports looks at the 10 highest-paid coaches in college football. USA TODAY Sports

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney and his staff are on pace for another windfall, and the school"s athletic administration has planned ahead.(Photo: Stew Milne, USA TODAY Sports)

As problems in college athletics go, the one that Clemsons athletic department faced after appearing in January"s College Football Playoff final wasnt a bad one.

It had to pay about $2.3 million in bonuses to its coaches and staff, including $1.1 million to head coach Dabo Swinney. And that was on top of travel, game tickets and other costs involved with playing a CFP semifinal in Miami and the championship game near Phoenix.

Clemson has ended up enjoying increases in revenue from donations, season-ticket sales and merchandise, but that money wasnt available last winter when all those bills came due. The cash flow issue was real, said athletics department spokesman Joe Galbraith.

When things settled down, Clemson officials recognized that the football team led by returning Heisman Trophy finalist quarterback Deshaun Watson had the potential to create the same kinds of issues during the 2016-17 season. So, they decided to try a solution that is common in golf and tennis and gaining increased consideration in college sports.

USA TODAY Sports college football coaches salary database

They decided to buy bonus insurance.

Working with Marietta, Ga.-based Risk Point Consulting, Clemson has spent $272,000 to obtain coverage that assistant athletics director Eric George said will cap the school"s exposure on football bonuses for this season at $2 million. George said the arrangement would save the school more than $500,000 if the Tigers again lose in the CFP title game and more than $1.2 million if they win the national championship.

According to Risk Point president Michael Wright, Clemson is among five schools that chose to purchase coverage through his firm after about 15 had what he termed serious conversations about it.

Colleges are the same as any company looking to address this financial uncertainty, added Wright, who said his firm works more frequently with golf and tennis equipment and apparel companies whose endorsement contractswith athletes often involve one-time bonuses or automatic pay increases for victories in certain events or season-long achievements.

Swinneys contract used to include both one-time bonuses and guaranteed pay increases if the Tigers met certain competitive benchmarks, and a handful of coaches, including Kansas David Beaty, currently have agreements with both kinds of incentives.

As salaries have increased, bonuses have increased as well, Wright said. It seems like a lot of schools do not budget for bonuses they just address them as they can, whether its out of an equipment contract or the expectation of increased money off their success.

Swinney was able to gain a maximum of $775,000 in bonuses in 2013. Since then, in conjunction with two major base compensation increases, that figure has risen to $1.2 million and now stands at $1.725 million an amount that remains attainable this season.

The Tigers began the season ranked No. 2 in the Amway Coaches Poll. They are currently No. 3 with a 7-0 record that includes a win against now-No. 5 Louisville, one of their rivals in the Atlantic Coast Conferences Atlantic Division. Clemsonfaces No. 14 Florida State on Saturday in Tallahassee.

And the down side for Clemson in the particular insurance setup it purchased, George said,is that if the team doesnt win the ACC Championship game, doesnt make a CFP non-semifinal but does play in a bowl game which it already has qualified to do the coverage wont take effect. In that case, Clemson will have paid the premium and it will have to pay the bonuses that its coaches and staff will be owed.

There are manypermutations somewhere in between. For example, if the Tigers win the ACC title, go to a CFP semifinal and lose that game, George said the insurance will cover a large enough portion of the bonuses that Clemson will end up losing a minimal amount of money compared to where it would have stood without buying the insurance.

This is something you probably would not do every year, George said, but given our situation this year, it was beneficial to look at. It takes the ambiguity out of the budget process.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2016/10/26/college-football-coaches-salary-database-bonus-insurance-clemson-tigers-dabo-swinney/92760684/

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Here is all we know about the Clemson Football Suspension Rumor

Clemson Football || The Ladder

There is a rumor going around that three Clemson football players have been suspended from the team due to drug violations and/or academics. The rumor broke around 9 p.m. Tuesday night and has set Clemson football nation ablaze. It was first mentioned by David Hood, Senior Writer of Tigernet on the message boards there:

Ill be honest in saying that when David Hood posts something, its normally right. He decided not to name names, but speculations have come out since then and it looks as if the three players are wide receiver Deon Cain, kicker Ammon Lakip, and tight end Jay Jay McCullough. This is not the type of news you want to hear as a Clemson football fan less than 48 hours from kickoff, but we dont know if it is true or not at this point.

According to Aaron Brenner, another beat writer for Clemson football, the Tigers are declining comment tonight. We will know tomorrow morning at Dabo Swinneys press conference what the true story is and make sure you stay tuned here on Rubbing the Rock for updates on this situation.

As I said before this has not been confirmed, but with so many media outlets reporting it, something is about to happen. Should the Tigers lose Deon Cain, it would be a huge loss for the offense, but the bright side is there is plenty of depth at wide receiver and, without Ammon Lakip, Greg Huegel would take over kick off duties as he did at the beginning of the season.

**EDIT: This has now been confirmed by Aaron Brenner that Deon Cain, Jay Jay McCullough, and Ammon Lakip have been sent home after failing their drug tests.***

Hopefully this does not distract the team from its final day of preparation as they get ready to face the Oklahoma Sooners Thursday in the Orange. Check back here for more updates. We will give them to you as they come available to us.

Source: http://rubbingtherock.com/2015/12/29/here-is-all-we-know-about-the-clemson-football-suspension-rumor/

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Future Burns Bright For Clemson Football and Deshaun Watson

Future Burns Bright For Clemson Football and Deshaun Watson | RantSports

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By Jerry Landry @jerry2landry on December 30, 2014

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David Manning-USA TODAY Sports

In a truncated season, Deshaun Watson put up noticeable numbers. The Clemson Tigers freshman quarterback completed 68 percent of his passes, tossed 14 touchdowns against two interceptions and maintained an interstellar quarterback rating of 188.6. Thats a spectacular start for the once highly-touted recruit.

Watson wears the retired number of former Tigers great Steve Fuller, but upon Watsons arrival to Clemson, Fuller permitted the quarterback to use his archival No. 4. Its apparent that Steve Fuller understands talent thats as rare now as his was then.

A Watson-less 40-6 stomping of the Oklahoma Sooners in the Russell Athletic Bowl isnt the only indicator that points to promise for the Tigers. Just as Dabo Sweeney landed the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in 2013 (Watson, according to ESPN.com), hes continued to road-warrior his way into building this years No. 4 recruiting class, having already secured the No. 2 ranked offensive tackle in the country, Mitch Hyatt.

Not only is Clemson playing it tough on the recruiting trail, the Tigers are also scrapping together a perennially competitive schedule, a slate that featured the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens and the South Carolina Gamecocks as non-conference matchups in 2014. The Tigers conference draw also included the Louisville Cardinals, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Florida State Seminoles, all experiences Watson and company will draw from when they play guaranteed competitors South Carolina and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in 2015.

Now just before we look ahead to 2015 for good, lets glance at 2014 one more time. Clemsons leading rusher, Wayne Gallman, is also a freshman. Clemsons leading receiver by yards, Mike Williams, is just a sophomore, and the Tigers leading pass-catcher, Artavis Scott, is a freshman as well. The idea of those three continuing to improve and perform in 2015 is as scary as it is exciting.

Clemsons future is as bright as their hue of orange, and this is good not only for the Tigers, but also for the ACC. With the Big Ten adding Jim Harbaugh into the college football bloodstream, the ACC needs to maintain their edge and continue to build their reputation within the Power 5. Gaining rapport begins with the heavyweights performing well. Clemson impressed against Oklahoma, but now the Tigers leap truly begins starting with Watsons rehab, and hopefully ending in next years College Football Playoff.

Jerry Landryis a writerfor RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter@Jerry2Landry,Likehim on Facebookor add him to your network onGoogle.

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Source: http://www.rantsports.com/ncaa-football/2014/12/30/future-burns-bright-for-clemson-football-and-deshaun-watson/

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Shutdown corner: Alexander backs up his pregame talk and dominates

ORLANDO, FL Clemsons football players took in the full Orlando experience this week, making trips to Disney World and Sea World and taking advantage of the rewards of a bowl trip.

Dont look for MacKensie AlexanderMacKensie AlexanderRS Fr. Cornerback#2 5-11, 190Immokalee, FLView Full Profile in any pictures of their trips, however. Alexander stayed in his hotel room and watched film of Oklahoma, Clemsons opponent in the Russell Athletic Bowl.

Alexander put that film work to good use, shutting down speedy Sooner receiver Sterling Shepard, who caught just one pass for a paltry 13 yards. Shepards bad night started in pre-game warmups when he got in Alexanders face to let the talented freshman corner know that he could expect a long night.

Alexander was having none of it and got the last laugh.

My thing is that their receiver number three - I'm not going to pronounce his name, but he came in talking trash before warmups, Alexander told TigerNet after the game. I don't care what ESPN says about you or what the draft people say about you. When you step on the field against me, it's a one on one matchup and I'm going to always win my matchup. I love competition. I enjoy being one on one. If you can beat me one on one, beat me consistently. Show me. Don't be in or be out. As you can see number three did nothing tonight. I don't know what ESPN says or if you're the best, that doesn't matter. He has to show up on game day.

Alexander said that staying late and working overtime are things he learned from his parents. He also said he is going to keep working.

My parents, it's a trait they passed on to me and I'm just doing the same thing they always did which is prepare myself to the best of my ability, he said. I want everybody to know that I'm a hard worker. It's not just talent that's the reason I got here. I've got to work on all aspects of my game. I had a pretty good year this year but I've just got to keep working on everything. You can always get better. I'm never satisfied.

So how does he spend his free time?

I'm watching film. Most people think that's crazy but I look at it like a guy like Peyton Manning, Alexander said. When you see him he's always watching film and he's always into football. It's almost like a life. I have a life outside of football but I put a lot of time into football. It's important to me. I really enjoy the sport and I love what I do. Being a corner, I love my job.

Alexander and the Clemson defense turned the passion into a dominating win over the Sooners, and he said he enjoyed every second he was on the field.

It was good. We were fired up, Alexander said. I looked up and we were up 30 something points and he [Brent Venables] is still pressing on us to keep it going because Oklahoma is traditionally a great team. We knew they could come back and win and we just kept choking them out.

Alexander arrived at Clemson with high expectations but sat out last season after injuries derailed his season in August. However, he said he learned from the experience.

To be honest, it wasn't as big for me. I felt like I was the best corner in the country when I got to Clemson and I still feel the same way now, he said. I know I'm the best corner in the country and there's no doubt. For me, it was ok. I just had to sit and wait. It was a process that I had manage myself. I couldn't walk and I couldn't run and play. I had to be patient. For the coaches you hate that because they knew they had a guy that could help them immediately and I couldn't do that. It was a frustrating situation at the time.

Alexander says he still has plenty to accomplish as a Tiger, but one thing he wants to see happen is for Clemson to be known as DB U.

DB U. You hear a lot of kids talk about DB's and all of that kind of stuff but for me it's about the action and showing it what you can do in the secondary week by week - putting the numbers up, shutting guys down and doing things the right way, he said. I think we do a great job of doing those things. As long as I'm here I'm going to continue to keep that process going and helping the guys understand what the secondary means. I take a lot of pride in that. If a guy catches a ball, I'm mad but I'm still in the game and I'm still playing. I move on really quick. I don't let anything bother me at all.

Source: http://www.tigernet.com/story/football/Shutdown-corner-Alexander-backs-pregame-talk-dominates-13403

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