It's been a surreal week for The Post and Courier's Jon Blau, who reacquainted himself with Tom Allen after covering Allen when he was Indiana's head coach.

Before Blau left Bloomington for Upstate South Carolina in 2021, he was presented with an Indiana football helmet signed by Allen.

Now Blau considers possession of the helmet a conflict of interest and is considering auctioning it off.

Blau has plenty of stories and insight into Allen for fans curious about the coach's backstory and what makes him tick.

Eric Mac Lain rejoins the podcast to give his take on Dabo Swinney's recent big move and what it means for the overall state of the program.

Also, what does Mac Lain think about the state of college football as it moves quickly toward the revenue-share model?

Once upon a time, Mac Lain was stoked to get free swag from the Orange Bowl after repeat appearances there.

Now, Clemson's highest-paid assistant coach (Allen at $1.9 million) isn't making as much as the quarterback.

"I'm just mad I came along too early to get some of that money," Mac Lain said.

Beth Hoole was a total stranger to the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry when she moved from Fargo to Greenville in 2022 to be the sports director at FOX Carolina News.

"I've never experienced anything like this rivalry, and it's so much fun. When people say sports are so much different in the South, it's so true. It's wild how passionate and upset people can get about the other side."

Hoole has fully immersed herself in all aspects of the job, and now she's specializing in helping tell the stories behind Clemson athletics as part of her station's formal relationship with the school.

Once upon a time, Hoole was the first female sports director in the history of North Dakota. It was not well received, as she got nasty emails telling her she should be working in the kitchen and had no business covering sports.

A Nebraska grad, Hoole has learned to be comfortable in her own skin as she explores the deeper layers of the backgrounds of players and coaches.

And her regular access to Dabo Swinney and Brad Brownell has given her a fascinating window into how the two coaches operate behind the scenes.

Hoole also recounts getting roasted (in a playful way) by Mike Krzyzewski when he learned she is from the Chicago suburbs.

In Part 2 of our Best of 2024 podcast, we revisit some of the more memorable excerpts from our interviews over the past year:

-- Thomas Austin, on what it's like to deal with being fired by Dabo Swinney. In 2008, Austin was an offensive lineman on the team that helped Swinney secure the head-coaching job with a victory over South Carolina. Swinney even rode on Austin's shoulders to midfield that day to shake the hand of Steve Spurrier.

-- Otis Pickett, on returning to his alma mater from Mississippi to be the historian of Clemson University. A significant part of Pickett's mission is introducing and framing the public conversation on Clemson's past, which includes difficult and complicated topics on race.

-- Cliff Ellis, former Clemson basketball coach, shares numerous stories about his musical career. Had he not chosen coaching, Ellis could've easily spent his life as a professional musician. In the mid-1960s, his group The Villagers was a sensation and even recorded at the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala. Ellis remembers joining Roy Orbison on stage at a sold-out concert in Dothan, Ala.

"If you can perform in front of people with Roy Orbison behind you, you're going to be OK going up against Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski," he said.

-- Tommy West looks back to a totally different time for Clemson football in the 1990s when the Tigers didn't have any facilities to speak of and were so behind on that front that he once tried to stage an August practice at a local livestock arena.

We go back through the interview files to excerpt the most memorable sequences from our 2024 podcast interviews.

Today in Part 1:

-- Brad Scott and son Jeff Scott, on being out of the football business. Also, their insider recollections of various high-stakes recruitments including Sammy Watkins, Mike Bellamy and others;

-- Mike Noonan, who brought Clemson two national soccer titles in three years. Noonan shares his family's fascinating backstory, and the unlikely path he and his wife took to Clemson;

-- Billy Donlon, an assistant under Brad Brownell, on his life in basketball that includes formative years in the shadow of the Chicago Bulls dynasty.

-- Thad Turnipseed, looking back on all the things that came together for Dabo Swinney's program to ascend to almost unimaginable heights.

Part 2 comes Dec. 31st.

Cade Klubnik's return to Austin to face former high school rival Quinn Ewers is one of the more compelling stories of the inaugural 12-team playoff.

The story has fascinating roots, and with that in mind we revisit two interviews we conducted years ago to learn more about Klubnik's background:

-- With Klubnik in December of 2021, days before he was to fly to Clemson to begin life as a Tiger;

-- With Klubnik's high school coach, Todd Dodge, in December of 2022 as Klubnik was set to take over as Clemson's starting quarterback.

The most remarkable part of Klubnik's journey to Clemson is that he stuck with the Tigers even when they didn't offer him. He had to wait until Ty Simpson decided between Clemson and Alabama before that offer came. And meanwhile, Steve Sarkisian at Texas and Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M had already offered him.

Dodge decided to retire after Klubnik led Westlake High School to a third consecutive state title as a senior. After two years out of the game, Dodge returned to the football field last offseason when he took over at Lovejoy High in Lucas, Texas.

B.T. Potter has known current Clemson kicker Nolan Hauser since Hauser was in middle school.

Potter, who kicked for the Tigers from 2018 to 2022, was in Bank of America Stadium when Hauser drilled the 56-yard field goal that put Clemson in Austin for Saturday's first-round playoff game against Texas.

Potter says Hauser has a confidence that he lacked as a freshman and had to learn over time.

What's it like to be on special teams when the rest of the team is grinding away through physically demanding practices?

What's it like to get reamed by Dabo Swinney on national television, as Potter did in 2021 after missing two short field goals he should've made in a close game against Florida State?

What's it like to get cut from an NFL team and wonder if your football career is done?

Potter, who recently signed with the Michigan Panthers of the United Football League, has a lot going on right now including preparing for a wedding.

He shares his story here.

Thirteen days ago, Roy Philpott got the assignment of his dreams from ESPN:

South Carolina at Clemson, Nov. 30.

Philpott, a Clemson graduate who spent many years in the area working in various media capacities covering the Tigers, joins The Dubcast to reflect on a wild afternoon at Death Valley and what it meant for both teams.

There were so many twists and turns late in the game that Philpott walked away from the stadium asking himself if he did justice to the game, its stakes, and the extraordinary show put on by Gamecock freshman LaNorris Sellers.

Philpott spent quite a lot of time with Dabo Swinney and a few other staff members the day before the game.

What were his takeaways? What does he think about Swinney's ability to adapt to a rapidly changing collegiate model enough to get Clemson back to the top of the mountain?

Philpott's normally busy schedule is about to get even crazier with the overlap of college football and college basketball. He still lives in the Upstate and has no desire to leave.

A year ago on this podcast, Ellis Johnson correctly foreshadowed a Clemson victory in Columbia because in his mind the Tigers were just better.

Now he has no idea how to predict Saturday's Top 15 showdown in Death Valley.

"I think it's a dead-even game," he said.

Johnson has been on both sides of this rivalry, in the mid-1990s at Clemson under Tommy West and as Steve Spurrier's defensive coordinator in Columbia from 2008 to 2011 (and as an analyst under Will Muschamp from 2016-18).

Johnson is a closer observer of Clemson now because is son Charlie is a walk-on for the Tigers. Ellis' routine during the season is traveling to Clemson and watching every Tuesday practice.

In addition to sizing up this rivalry matchup, Johnson gives his thought on the tumultuous state of college athletics as the model transitions from amateurism to NIL to the full-on revenue sharing to come starting in the summer of 2025.

"The NCAA has created a mess," he said. "Letting the top level of college football get too far out of hand is going to seriously damage the overall college football scene. And when that damage happens, it's always the kids that get affected by it."

Scott Hamilton is a media survivor.

He prefers to call himself a cockroach.

Whatever the name, his current title is sports columnist for The Post and Courier newspaper and he's utterly thrilled to hold this position as the only newspaper sports columnist left in the Palmetto State.

"I feel like I'm 28 years old again," he said. "It's so exciting."

Hamilton joins the podcast to reflect on a career that has included newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and sales for a minor-league baseball team. 

And to think: He went to college to become a history teacher.

Hamilton shares insight into his daily routine, the state of newspapers, and the current state of college football.

And yes, he's totally geeked about this week's South Carolina-Clemson showdown in Death Valley.

In a mere three years, Terrence Oglesby has established himself as a successful college basketball broadcaster and analyst.

It's taken lots of hustle and networking, but most of all Oglesby's continued upward trajectory is a tribute to his smooth style and his strong command of the game.

Oglesby's duties consist of: Analyst for Charlotte Hornets home games; ESPN; FOX; NBA TV; The Field of 68; and CBS Sports Network.

Just this past week he was in Milwaukee broadcasting a game Monday night, and by the next afternoon he was driving from Atlanta to Clemson to work his alma mater's game against Eastern Kentucky.

The former sharpshooter for Oliver Purnell spent several years living in Clemson, but last fall he moved his family to Greenville so he could be closer to the airport.

Oglesby gives his thoughts on the current state of Clemson basketball under Brad Brownell.

He's convinced that Brownell is going to lead the Tigers to sustained prominence as Brownell continues to take advantage of the transfer portal and maintaining the relationships with major donors that are necessary to pay for high-end talent in the NIL era.