Colorful and successful, former Clemson coach Danny Ford was in Atlanta Monday, speaking at a Touchdown Club of Atlanta luncheon. The coach of the Tigers’ 1981 national championship team, also a former player and assistant for Alabama legend Bear Bryant, spoke with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the game’s present.
Q: What were your thoughts about the Clemson-Georgia game?
A: I thought Clemson and Georgia was the same ole rugged football game for a half, really for three quarters. I told somebody before the game – I had several quarterback (club) talks – I said one thing about the Georgia and Clemson series, somebody is going to be a hero that you’ve never heard of. Somebody always comes out of that game a hero that makes a name for himself.
Well, I think Georgia’s backs – everybody knew about (Todd) Gurley – but the other two they hadn’t seen so much yet, so I think the two freshman backs at Georgia (Nick Chubb and Sony Michel) made a good name for themselves. I thought the quarterback at Georgia (Hutson Mason) played a nice game. Clemson played ’em good for three quarters and then they took over in the fourth quarter. But it was just an old-fashioned Clemson-Georgia game for three quarters.
Q: I don’t know how much you’ve seen of him, but what do you think about Gurley?
A: He’s pretty doggone good. I had the opportunity to play against (former Georgia quarterback) Buck (Belue, who was seated nearby for his radio show) and Herschel Walker and that crowd. Herschel was awful good. I don’t know how they compare, because I’ve never played against Gurley, but he looks like him. He looks like him.
And that Chubb doesn’t look too far behind. They’ve got here or four good backs there at Georgia. I’m kind of interested this week (for the Georgia game) against South Carolina because the point spread is real small right now, like three (in Georgia’s favor), and I can’t believe that. Because the history of that game, South Carolina will win at Georgia and Georgia will win at Columbia. But I’m anxious to watch it with Clemson being off and Florida State being off before they play each other (Sept. 20). It may be a good game to watch. I may even go down there and watch it in person.
Q: What do you think about the College Football Playoff?
A: Probably better than it was because there’s four teams. Is it perfect? No, No. 5’s always going to be disappointed. If you had eight, No. 9 would be disappointed. But it’s probably better than it’s been because you’ve got two more teams participating. Now, will the best team win the national championship from that? I don’t know. One team may get hot at the end of the year. They may not be the best team for 12 weeks or 13 weeks, but it doesn’t matter. If they’re hot at the right time, they’re hot at the right time.
Q: Do you think Coach Bryant have been in support of a playoff?
A: Coach Bryant would have been for it as long as he was in it. If he wasn’t in it, there’d be something wrong with it. (laughs) No, I would say from what I had the experience (of being) with Coach Bryant, if it was good for college football, he’d be for it. I believe he would never go against anything that was good for college football or the young people that played it.
Q: The South Carolina-Clemson rivalry is perhaps as heated as it has ever been with Steve Spurrier and Dabo Swinney going after each other in the media.
A: They jab each other a little bit. In the old days, (Clemson) Coach (Frank) Howard used to do that. And he’d call the South Carolina coach and say, “I’m going to talk about you, but it’s all in good fun because we’re going to try to sell tickets.” They don’t need to sell tickets now. They’ve got plenty of people buying tickets. But they have fun against each other. I really believe, from what I understand, they’re decent friends.
It’s just a change of when you represent half the state and the other coach represent the other half, there’s always something good to say about each other.
For box:
The club hosts luncheons with speakers every Monday, including Cowboys great Walt Garrison (Sept. 15), Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson (Sept. 22) and Super Bowl-winning coach Dick Vermeil (Sept. 29). For more information, visit touchdownclubofatlanta.com.
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