Monday, November 28, 2011

Embarrassing and humiliating

So I was at the NC St. game. That was embarrassing. The only thing that kept you from going into a maniacal rage was the rationalization that the Tigers were looking forward to the next two huge games versus SC and Va Tech. I hate rationalizing and should quit doing it. There is never an excuse to play that bad against a very average to below average opponent. Dabo says you only play 12 Saturdays a year and to not be ready for one is unacceptable. Well he is right and that is why it was an embarrassment in Raleigh.

The South Carolina game was humiliating. It was humiliating because one team played absolutely gutless. Outside of Jaron Brown's block I didn't see one physical play from Clemson all night. After starting the year with very few penalties and very few dropped passes, all the Tigers can do is hold, line up wrong and catch a ball like it is made of some icey butter mixture. Anyone who watches us play knows this so I am not breaking any ground here.

Here is my question?
What is worse: playing that bad against your rival or knowing even if you played better they are just better than you are? SCar has outrecruited, outdeveloped and outweightroomed the Tigers and the gap is widening, not closing. I hate to break it to all the Tiger fans, but all this crap about Clemson being young is bunch of flaming propaganda. They have a ton of freshmen coming up the ranks, but the starting 11 on offense are 4 seniors, 3 juniors, 2 sophs and Sammy. Not to mention those four seniors are on that O-line that got pushed around the last four weeks. Why the hell hasn't Clemson recruited good O-lineman since the Reagan administration?

The eleven defensive starters are 5 seniors, 4 juniors, 1 soph and Breeland (the lone young bright spot on the ENTIRE DEFENSE). Again, 3 seniors and a junior up front. The defense only has three true freshmen in their whole two-deep and the offense only has them at the skill positions. It is an excuse and a crock of crap that this team is inexperienced. The program is young, but the guys that are expected to line up and play have been at Clemson a long time, especially the ones you are expecting to get it done in the trenches. Every year there is an excuse. Yes, I thought we were a few years away, but they proved through the first eight weeks there is plenty of talent in Clemson if they would show up and hit people in the mouth.

Friday, November 18, 2011

All over the map

Brilliant fed. govt. story of the week. The commission in charge of finding fraud and waste in Medicare and Medicaid has been found to have enormous amounts of fraud and waste. They have been falsly reporting stuff to cover hospitals they like and other devious stuff. So, now there will be a commission to check the commission. I kid about the last part, but it is pretty bad at the federal level.

Tangent 2 (Piggy backing off tangent 1)
I would like all the Democrats and/or independents reading this to think about this possibility. I probably won’t change your idea that you think the government should provide services that I think are better provided by a free and independent people. And I sure won’t tell you the Republicans are any better, because they are both awful options. But, regardless of your ideology, can we all at least agree the federal government is inept and borderline criminal in its usage of our tax dollars? Yes, the federal government is the only one who can fund a standing army and regulate trade and some other things. But, do they really need to be running billion dollar health care programs or No Child Left Behind in every school or funding mortgages for people who have no business trying to finance a house. Do they need to give aid to every country under the sun, which usually just props up corrupt governments instead of the money actually getting to the people who need it?

I guess what I am saying is, if you want to be a democrat, be one at the state level. Be one where at least the government program isn’t so enormous it has no chance of oversight. Be one where at least big business would have to lobby 50 different legislatures instead of one to get policies which further rip off the middle class. All this scandal about lobbying and buying votes is sad, but the real problem is that one house of legislature has the power to control so much of our lives. Almost every founding father feared this tyranny. They feared trading 1 tyrant a thousand miles away for many tyrants a few miles away (Yes I stole that line from Mel Gibson in The Patriot). The more you can spread out the power, the better for everyone. I think it is arrogance and pride that always comes before the fall (in this case the fall of the great idea that is America). I think the people in Washington don’t think people at the state level are smart enough to run their states. That, and they are just power hungry, and as long as their power goes unchecked they will continue to grab for more.

Tangent 3
Oh yeah, and Clemson has a big game this weekend:
Clemson 27 NC ST 24 Cold weather, injuries to Sammy and left tackle and a complete looking ahead to next week will keep this game close. But what do I know? I’ve only been right half the time.

Tangent 4
Did any of you see the end of the Boise State game? I used to think Bob Knight was a little off when he said you shouldn’t worry so much about what it takes to win, but more about avoiding the things that get you beat. I didn’t think you should focus on playing not to lose. But that isn’t what he is saying. You still play aggressive; you just focus on fixing the little things that will get you beat: turnovers, not rebounding and lack of focus. Same goes for football. Each team did so many things to get themselves beat down the stretch. Boise is up seven with two and a half minutes to play.

Boise huge mistake 1: Boise’s tailback fumbles. Inexcusable.

Boise huge mistake 2: Boise corner gets beat for a long touchdown on a double move.

Boise huge mistake 3: After TCU decides to go for two and the win (love the decision), the corner has every opportunity to easily knock the ball down. Instead he goes to cradle an interception and it goes right through his hands. He either wasn’t smart enough to understand time and score OR too selfish to care. Either way…HUGE MISTAKE.

TCU huge mistake 1: TCU kicker kicks the kickoff out of bounds. TCU QB with Mohawk and logo branded into his scalp is shown on the sideline mouthing the words, “You f&*%ing idiot!” I can’t make this stuff up.

TCU huge mistake 2: Corner gets beat deep and has to grab player for penalty. Penalty was better than getting beat, but still a free 15 yards with the clock stopped when all you have to do is keep people in front of you and in bounds.

Referee huge mistake 1: on 4th down, the TCU corner has his hands on the back of a receiver but is neither pushing nor holding AND the ball is ten yards over receiver’s head so…… obviously a pass interference. An awful call or as I like to call it, a Ron Cherry. So Boise is still alive.

Boise huge mistake 4: Playing for field goal with 30 seconds left on the 20 and one timeout and a Heisman candidate quarterback. I am not saying this in retrospect. At the time I thought it was stupid to leave it up to the kicker, because like my buddy so eloquently says, “COLLEGE KICKERS SUCK!”

Boise huge mistake 5: Not having a better kicker on the roster. Plus, only having three attempts all year. How does that happen? You would almost want to intentionally stall drives as a coach to get him more reps.
And the kicker pushes it right and Boise’s title hopes go up in flames because of a kicker in back to back years. They deserved to lose though since that penalty was such a Ron Cherry.

Just a wild finish. So exciting. Clemson just needs six or seven more crazy games like that and to win out and they could be playing LSU for the national title. It is like a one in a thousand shot including the ridiculous idea of Iowa St. beating Oklahoma State, but we will know a lot.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The game Clemson always finds a way to lose....no longer?

That is a game Clemson always loses. They lose it because they:
A. Always lose a game they need to win the ACC (the atlantic dvision was already clinched before the ’09 win over Virginia)
B. Always lose a game when “things” start happening. Punt return…turnovers….bad defense
C. Always play tighter and tighter as things flow downhill
D. Always plays down to their opponent when heavily favored in a game they need

Clemson won this game because the biggest change in the Dabo era is a team that
doesn’t always find a way to lose. In fact they often find a way to win. Entering this season, Clemson only had nine comebacks from being down 14 or more. This year they have three. This is partly due to Dabo’s team not panicking, and partly due to Clemson having a bad defense and the best offense in the history of their program. In the Bowden era, it seemed like any game that got to 14 points ended as a huge blowout. The only exception I can think of is the ’99 Ga. Tech game when Joe Hamilton led the Jackets to 14-0 and 21-7 before Clemson came roaring back. Now, I have no illusions that Dabo is the new Saban or Les Miles, but it appears the program is much more resilient.

Clemson had so much more talent than Wake that they were able to overcome a game in which the Tigers gave up a punt return, three turnovers, and a quarterback who threw six passes directly into the hands of a Wake Forest defender. They also overcame injuries to their starting left tackle and the near immortal Sammy Watkins. They caught some breaks. Wake missed a field goal right after Clemson missed on 4th and inches. (I think that was the right call by Dabo. You expect to get a 4th and inches with a big QB and veteran O line. Even if it is on your own 30. Plus a quick score by Wake after that wouldn't be as devastating as a long drive would have been.) That field goal always goes in. But it didn’t. Then the Cat Man misses a chipey. We all knew that wasn’t going in. Somehow he gets a chance to redeem himself. And does. I’ve watched Clemson too long now. Over a decade. Did not expect that one to go in. Maybe in a few years we will start to expect things like this, but right now it is still a fun new experience.

Again, not sure how I feel about Steele. Love that he went to press coverage and more people in the box in the 2nd half, but still plenty of issues. On Wakes long TD run, the defense had only 2 defensive linemen and nobody else on the weak side of the formation. I like the aggression, but I don’t get why five of your front seven need to be on one side of the formation. Anyway, hard to blame the defense too much when Wake had a short field the whole day and one TD was special teams. This defense gives up a lot of long drives and you think, okay…be a bend, no break defense. But then they rarely hold the other team to a field goal. So they are a bend and break defense.

Anyway, hard to complain about 9-1. Getting a win in Raleigh means the best season in 20 years. Getting three more wins down the stretch means the best season since ’81.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

College coaching debut

Due to our head coach having family things to attend to, I was given the task of coaching our team. It was a great opportunity. I had some head coaching experience, but that was at the JV high school level. At that level, all I did was have two set plays and make sure the guys played hard and gave great effort on defense. That was good enough to go 30-1 over two years. I bring up that record just to bring attention to a very funny story. In my first year I was 14 or 15 and 0 and with only 19 games in the season and no post season. Of course, the goal was to finish undefeated. Every game I had worn my Clemson ring and every game had ended with a victory. The morning of this 15th or 16th game I could not find my ring. It had disappeared. I had to give up the search so I wasn’t late for school. I called my sister to continue the search and she could not find it.

We wound up losing our first game of the year. In an unrelated topic it was the only game I have ever coached with a female ref. Anyway, the ring was found the next day in my underwear drawer. Wore it for our last five or six wins and all the way through the next undefeated season. To review, coaching with the ring 30-0, without 0-1.

I, of course, wore the ring this weekend and sadly to say the ring is no longer undefeated. The ring actually took one on the chin the first night. Happily, this year’s team has taken my personality, due of course to recruiting and our focus in practice. Meaning we play very hard, we are fairly tough, and we get after people on defense. So we held a college basketball team to 63 points in a 40 minute game. Pathetically we still lost by 17. That is right. 46 points in a college basketball game. 17% from 3 and 55% from the FT line will usually mean defeat. At one point they went on an 8 to 0 run and since I hate using timeouts and want my team to play through tough times, especially early in the year, I had not called a timeout. Then another turnover happened and I was contemplating a timeout when I see a ref staring at me braced to call one. I’ve never seen a ref more sure a coach was about to call timeout. It was funny and sad at the same time. With that kind of peer pressure, I had to call one.

Maybe we played poorly because I had our team dressed in black since we were the first team listed on the schedule. The host coach says, “You are on the home bench.” I say, Huh?” Apparently on the sheet it said the home team was listed first. I say, “Who puts the home team first?” I’ve never heard of the home team first. Thankfully we didn’t leave the whites at the hotel room and changed real quick. I doubt this change in plans affected the team, but you always think about these things as a coach. If it did affect our team, they are way too mentally weak.
So we move on to the 2nd night. Walk into the gym and the team that beat us by 17 is now losing by 15. And the team beating them by 15 got beat by the team we are about to play by 40. If you do all that transitive math, we look like 72 point underdogs. Thankfully, our opponent does that same math in their heads and is completely not ready to play, because if they were, they are one of the best junior college teams in the southeast. In a game never separated by more than six points ends with a 65 to 63 loss. At one point I was warned by the refs and we then got three straight calls.

It was fun, but winning games at the college level is a good bit tougher than JV. Duh!! In JV, we just wore the other team down with our press and eventually shot layups off of turnovers. In college you have to make some jump shots. Which we did not do the first night and did do the second night. As usual most games come down to who hits shots.

Tangent 1
Oh yeah, there is a Clemson game this weekend. No need for a whole lot of analysis. Clemson has more speed and talent. They are at home and 16 point favorites. None of this matters if they turn the ball over or their defense continues to play undisciplined. That said, I think the Tigers spent the last two weeks pissed off and focused on improving and getting healthy. A healthy Andre Ellington means a better rusher, a hopefully non-fumbler, and much better blitz pick up. Not that I am ever close to right but here goes.
Clemson 41 Wake 23

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Big game?? Hope not

So Mickey Plyler had a blog about how this doesn’t feel like a big game. I couldn’t agree more. It doesn’t have that feel at all. There are many reasons. The disappointment of not being a national title contender anymore, as much of a pipe dream as that was. The opponent is not at all sexy. The opponent is average to good. The point spread is 16.

Here is why I can’t get fired up for this game any more than your average ACC game. Keep in mind I still get pretty fired up when we play Duke. Because if Clemson is to the point where we all hope it is and expect it to be, then you should destroy Wake on your home field. You shouldn’t let a lesser opponent hang around because your defense is undisciplined or your offense turns it over at will. Those things can happen, but they shouldn’t. Forgive me for not getting excited about a game Clemson should win by two or three touchdowns.

Of course a loss is still devastating and I will be watching every second, but that does not make this a “big game.” The things it can bring are big, but that doesn’t make this a big game. It doesn’t mean Clemson has to let a lesser opponent hang around just because Wake has a lot to play for. Screw Wake and what they have to play for. The better team should dominate. That said, it will be a painful game. If Clemson wins big you expected it, but if Wake hangs around every fan and sadly every player will get tighter and tighter. This team has been a second half team, but the first half of this game is huge.

Tangent 1
So now that the debate has been moved from anything that matters (such as a $15 trillion and growing debt) to a Clinton and Clarence Thomasesque charade. I don’t even really care much what happened, mainly because the truth will never be clear.

Here is the problem I have and no one seems to talk about it instead of the mindless he said, she said crap. The first day Cain claims to know nothing about this woman. Then the next day he remembers there was a “settlement/severance” and he can’t talk about it. Now, he is in full denial mode. So on the first day he was either lying or isn’t smart enough to remember being accused 15 years ago. So he is not smart or a liar or probably both.

More importantly this is the typical trick of Washington and the national media. Anything to not talk about the real changes that need to be made. Too many people remain rich in our crazy screwed up system, so anytime the story can be about something other than government waste and ineptitude they jump on it.

Tangent 2
What is up with pedophiles? How does a grown man have a sickness that involves him wanting to get with little boys? If genetic research does anything, I hope the pedophile gene is the first gene they can find and eliminate it or is it due to abuse and cyclical? Either way, it is gross.

Finally a high profile pedophile case not involving a catholic priest. Jerry Sandusky is almost as revered at State College as Joe Pa. He is the reason they dominated for much of Joe Pa’s reign. He is the reason Penn St. became Linebacker U. Joe Pa was probably stuck in a situation where he knew something was up, but also wanted to help a friend. So, he probably didn’t do as much as he should have and that is tragic for all those young boys. Should he be fired? Probably. He has done the right thing for like 60 years. Is one mistake over that long a career enough to be unceremoniously canned? I would have to say yes. Something this repulsive cannot be ignored. Joe Pa was in a position to put a stop to it. Maybe he was not aware to what degree things were happening, but I doubt it. We may never know. So sad to see a legend go out like this. Even sadder that innocent young boys are molested.

Another argument for legalizing drugs. Let’s clear out our prisons of all non-violent drug users and put pedophiles away forever. They have like a 3% rehabilitation rate, so I say lock them all up for life. Instead of now where a pot smoker can get a longer sentence than Sandusky will get. I'm not saying I am for drugs I just think the War on Drugs isn't doing anything to stop their use and is creating the dangerous and lucrative underground drug world. As Ron Paul put it and I am paraphrasing here: The federal government is obviously losing the war on drugs when they can't keep drugs out of federal prisons where there are armed guards everywhere.
That is pretty funny.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Finish strong

To me the beauty of college football is in the regular season. When your team is undefeated you still have that small glimmer of hope. Many teams have started the year unranked and won the national title including the 1981 Clemson Tigers. College basketball, NBA and baseball don’t play games that matter all that much until the playoffs. Even in the NFL where games are crucial for seeding and home field are not do or die. Only one team has had an undefeated regular season since the 76 dolphins. Plus, going 14-2 usually will win you the conference and 12-4 will almost always win your division and put you in good shape for the playoffs. Or you could even go 9-7 like last year’s Packers and still win the Super Bowl.
Not in college football. You have to win every game to win it all (except the rare year a one loss team gets a shot). Every regular season game for an unbeaten team is a play-off game. So that makes the GA Tech game hurt even more. Twice now in 11 years the hated Jackets have put the kibash on an 8-0 year.
Eleven years ago it started a 1-4 finish. Hopefully the Tigers can right the ship and beat Wake. Then win in Charlotte to give the Tigers 10 wins for the first time in a long time. Here is hoping.

Tangent 1
I was just doing some internet surfing and stumbled on a story about the wonderful Iraq embassy. For a country we plan on not remaining in as an occupation force this is quite an embassy/fortress. 104 acres and its own water supply and electrical grid. Not to mention it is smack dab in the middle of Baghdad’s downtown. An eyesore and a point of contention for the Iraquis who actually want to rule themselves. It only coast 600 million dollars we can’t afford. Anyway, very interesting.

Tangent 2
Love that Kardishian couldn’t even make it three months in her marriage. I’m starting month seven and the real nightmare of marriage doesn’t start till month four. Just kidding.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

ATLANTA!! WORST!!

Not in mourning due to Clemson defeat, but just got busy due to basketball. First game is tonight. I am on the bus traveling through rural GA. Just passed Ogeechee Tech. Never heard of it. Thought I had heard of every college in GA. Anyway, the game Saturday was awful. I said before I love our offense being great, but it is frustrating having a below average defense. I don’t think Clemson has had a defense this average for the last five years. I don’t feel like looking it up, but it has been a little while since the defense was this mediocre. I wouldn’t fire Steele, but I would hire an “advisor” for the week of the Ga. Tech game and tell him to get some much needed rest that week. Last year they did a pretty good job of stopping the option, but the other three times he has faced it, Steele has led a defense that looked lost for most of the game. I am not a football coach, but it is rare you see 4 dbs in the game against an option attack. After the game, Steele spoke most about the big plays they gave up. I think that is the wrong approach against the option. You have to put 9 in the box and every now and then they will break through for a 30 or 40 yard gain. What kills you is giving up 4, 5, 3, 6, 5, 4. You can’t just sit back and play bend, no break. Because unlike a passing attack that can get a little stalled in the red zone or is due to turn it over if you make them throw the ball enough because of the lack of room to operate, an option attack doesn’t need space. It is just as effective on the 5 as it is at midfield. Anyway, Steele is partly to blame, but no scheme works when seven of your 11 defenders are laying on the turf after every play. Holy cut blocks! Every time they ran toss I could have been at tail back and gained at least five yards.

Not to make excuses, but I think that might have been an old fashioned shootout if Ellington plays. Probably would have had two less fumbles and his picking up of the blitz is much better than the freshies. As talented as this freshman class is it is always hard to play freshman. They always struggle with fumbles and make so many mistakes only coaches notice. Even the immaculate Sammy Watkins ran the wrong route that cost us a late TD. As a coach I will tell you sometimes the only good thing about Freshman is that they are Sophomores the next year. But, to win a lot of games in football you need to be deep.

As bad as the Tigers looked, they never did quit. The offense got it rolling, but was just derailed by a few drops and turnovers. The defense gave Clemson a chance with that interception, but did not give much resistance on the last drive.
And now onto the punt decision. Let me preface this with it would not have meant we won. In retrospect it actually worked out because the Jackets were dumb enough to put the ball in the air. All that said, it was a terrible decision. Yes 4th and 10 is a long way, but this is a vertical passing attack. I would put our chances of converting a 4th and 10 at 25 to 30%. That is a high enough percent to go for it at midfield with less than ten minutes to go in a game where you have NOT stopped the other team.

On a lighter note… Atlanta sucks for college football. No tailgating and fearing for your life most of the time. One young man ran by us and screamed, “OH YEAH!! I GOT A MOTHERF#$ING PLATE!!” We don’t know what that means but pretty bizarre. Later when negotiating with scalpers who wanted 100, I said how about 70. He turned with a lit cigarette in his gold filled mouth and said, “70 what…Dollars??” And then we walked away and stumbled later into 20 dollar tix. Had I known it was going to be that bad of game I wouldn’t have paid a dime. I like that the stadium is so old and historic, but it is a nightmare to get into from most gates and the worst part is there was no RELISH OR ONIONS for my hot dog. You pay 4 dollars for a hot dog, you expect to be graced with all the condiments a hot dog deserves. But the main reason I hate Atlanta is because Clemson has a 6 game losing streak there.
4 Tech games, Bama opener blow out and the Peach Bowl loss to Auburn.

Maybe next year the Tigers can end that streak by beating Auburn next year in the opener. More importantly the Tigers need to rest up and beat the crap out of Wake.