Daniel on 
Sambo on 
Chili on 
Willy Mac on 
Beau on Willy Mac:
I’d like to preface this article by saying that I only go after people who really deserve it. Most notably, people that make assumptions and go on hunches and relay it as reliable, trustworthy information. The last time I went off and just bulldogged someone was this guy.
I sat down today and was checking my email and Tomahawk Nation (Florida State blog in the sidebar) sent us a link to an article they wrote entitled “Attention Potential Recruits: The Florida State Seminoles can play in bowl games and on television.” I read it and mushed it around in my head over breakfast.
What I came back with is the following: There appears to be something dumber than the Tigernet on this wonderful place we call the internet. I was astonished at how uninformed and how serious this guy took himself in his article, especially considering his “source.” Let’s break this thing down, shall we?
“I wrote this because a source of ours told us that persons affiliated with Clemson told some prominent recruits that FSU is no longer eligible to play on television or in bowl games. This source has been correct on multiple Clemson issues in the past, including tipping us to the probable hire of defensive coordinator Kevin Steele nearly a month before Clemson made the move.”
I hate to burst your bubble pal, but the Clemson internet cesspool known as Tigernet where every Clemson hayseed and their brother comes to take a dump on anything resembling intelligence in the Clemson community broke this story a month or two beforehand as well. You mean to tell me that you wrote this seething pile of biased shit because someone who knows someone who might know something told you a rumor? Really?
“I will call Jimbo Fisher tomorrow and pass him the news. This conduct does not reflect well on new Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who has never beaten Florida State as a head coach.”
I’m sure the last person that Jimbo Fisher wants to hear from is a blogger who spends their free time fanning the flames that set the rumor mill ablaze. Also, now we’ve gone from “persons affiliated with Clemson University” to our coaches in the same breath. Are you on of those people that writes angry letters in response to insignificant things that offend just you to large corporations that are indifferent and could care less about what you think? Having trouble feeding your family of five?
He then goes on to link an article from ESPN that indeed confirms that a recruit named Brandon Willis made multiple unofficial visits recently, most notably to Clemson and UNC. They claimed the article “confirmed their findings.” Look man, the article doesn’t even hint that our coaches told this kid anything about your program. Nevermind the fact that news of your school’s bed shitting is on every five seconds on all the ESPN channels, can be readily found via most sports media outlets on the internet and in print, and is being talked about by every joe blow on a radio show or around a water cooler. And you want me to believe that our coaches are responsible?
I hate to say it, but you guys probably do deserve some television restrictions and a bowl ban. Cheating is cheating, and you guys got caught not just redhanded, but balls deep in your evidence. The facts are as plain as day so don’t try to avert attention or make someone else your scape goat. Even our good buddy Bill from ScalpEm gets a little hot under the collar on the subject, which is fine and is expected. We commend him on having at least a level head on the subject. Hell, we’d be pissed if it happened at Clemson, but we wouldn’t try and make excuses about the thing and find something else to talk about. We don’t make excuses about our shady past under Pell and Ford. We fully admit that we were cheaters and that we were good at it.
“Let’s hope all of our coaches are hitting the recruiting trail and speaking honestly with these potential recruits in order to correct the lies told by coaches from other schools… Clemson University should issue an apology to Florida State.”
Really? You think so? Well, we’re still waiting on ours from when we got hammered back in the 80′s and your very own Bobby Bowden did the same thing to us. What comes around goes around and even if it is true that Clemson coaches are the main and sole reason that some eighteen year old kid who thinks with two heads and acts on instinct and in the moment doesn’t choose Florida State and goes with one of the sixty other top flight programs that are literally beating his door down and stuffing his mailbox with scholarships… then good. I’m glad. Same thing happened to us. Deal with it.
Chili:
I think this whole thing is sort of childish. I like Tomahawk Nation most of the time, but the same blog who declared themselves “legit media” last week, (before quickly scrambling to edit that claim out once they were called on it in the comments section) is now citing “inside sources” for information like there’s some kind of jort wearing Deep Throat out there in a musty trench coat dishing the dirt on Clemson to some self promoting FSU blog. The thing that is most amusing to me is the faux naivete present in the post, pretending to be shocked that schools would spread rumors about other programs when recruiting gullable, dumb athletes, and then demanding an apology like an outraged soccer mom who found foreskin in her jar of Jif. Really? You want an apology? Don’t be a fucking baby.
Another part of this post that really gives me a good belly laugh is the part where they play the “valiant defenders of FSU” and get all super serious:
I will call Jimbo Fisher tomorrow and pass him the news… …There should be no doubt, however, that this is going on in multiple locations. Luckily, FSU has 11 months to get the word out. They subjected themselves to this negative misinformation campaign and now must do their job to set the record straight.
This isn’t a fucking political scheme, it’s a recruit not grasping the ramifications of FSU’s probation through either his own misunderstanding or, perish the thought, through a “negative misinformation campaign,” you know, unlike all those positive misinformation campaigns. So go ahead, call Jimbo and let him know this valuable nugget, and then inform him that you put on those new break pads and he should pick up his car between 8 and 6, Monday through Saturday.
The article they cite provides such scant information, that to imagine that it provides any foundation for accusations against Clemson is silly. Hell, I hope they are spreading shit about FSU. We watched other teams pluck our recruits from under us during the coaching change over the past year, so fuck em. Recruiting is a dirty game, we all know this, let’s not get all self righteous and pretend to be shocked about the whole thing.
1NoleCC
on Mar 10, 2009 at 7:20 am:
As you can see by the ridiculously long trackback… I’ve responded. :)
2CUvinny
on Mar 10, 2009 at 9:07 am:
So the sites evidence that Clemson is feeding FSU recruits lies is that a guy from Duncan SC (which is what, 40 miles from Clemson?) drives down the road and makes an unofficial visit?
This guy sounds like a coot and those ‘packets’ they were convinced Clemson coaches and websites were sending recruits.
3CUvinny
on Mar 10, 2009 at 9:19 am:
Out of curiosity, what ever happened to the athletes (and non athletes) caught cheating? I remember signing a couple of academic integrity sheets in college that basically said if caught cheating you will fail the class instantly and could be expelled.
4TN
on Mar 10, 2009 at 9:58 am:
Not bad for a lazy Tuesday. After the re-read, it is a bit high and mighty.
Recruiting is a dirty game and every school does in fact play. Is it smart to tell a kid something that will be repeatedly disproved over 11 months? I guess that’s for Clemson to decide.
In any case, not a great effort by us today. I’ll admit that. Nice use of Jimmy Dean. Now I’m hungry in class and unable to concentrate.
5Chili
on Mar 10, 2009 at 9:59 am:
That guy on the Jimmy Dean call was wrong, by the way, they still do make the big packages. So, yeah, sausage.
6NoleCC
on Mar 10, 2009 at 10:12 am:
The athletes were punished CU, from what I understand they did fail the class, I don’t know how exactly the policy reads at FSU now. The “official” word will never come out, because of “privacy” issues regarding the students.
7Charlie
on Mar 10, 2009 at 10:33 am:
Steaming pile I got in my inbox as well this morning, completely agree with you guys.
8JasonL
on Mar 10, 2009 at 11:04 am:
I like this:
“This conduct does not reflect well on new Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who has never beaten Florida State as a head coach.”
Someone is good at math. They know that zero is less than one. Excellent job.
9Daniel
on Mar 10, 2009 at 11:27 am:
Sounds like there are some good ol’ rumors floating around but honestly – so what if we did? We are far from the first and certainly won’t be the last school to fabricate some things to recruits, assuming we are guilty of these accusations. Recruiting is a seedy, filthy game and some naive fans think that dirty practices aren’t standard. I doubt if we said this it cost them any recruits.
10Bird
on Mar 10, 2009 at 11:53 am:
I think Clemson should be worried about losing St. Richt’s son to transfer. Now, you’ll never reach the Promised Land.
11Tom M
on Mar 10, 2009 at 12:07 pm:
Yea I love the comment that “Dabo Swinney has never beaten Florida St as a head coach”. I forget, what is his head coaching record vs. Florida St? 0-8? 0-9? Oh wait, it’s 0-1 in his third game ever after being named the interim head coach. Good call buddy.
12Winfield Featherston
on Mar 10, 2009 at 12:09 pm:
@ Tom M: Statistics are the most manipulative piece of an argument you can ever use. Also 62.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
13AParker
on Mar 10, 2009 at 12:09 pm:
It stinks that FSU is getting hit by these things, just means the media will continue to call the ACC a “lower tier” conference. But cheating is cheating. And since they were caught it serves them right. Oh and best line out of that article was about Dabo vs. FSU. Dude can’t be serious…what a dumbass
14TigerSACK
on Mar 10, 2009 at 12:26 pm:
I have come to expect this when something bad happens to anyone Clemson is remotely close to in any way. This really gives me the red ass. I can’t even sit at work because I am afraid I might just fire someone.
15Tom M
on Mar 10, 2009 at 12:26 pm:
@ Winfield
I suppose you’re right. Statistics can be used to prove anything…44% of people know that.
16Kyle
on Mar 10, 2009 at 1:51 pm:
Fact: Bobby Bowden has only beaten Dabo Swinney once in his entire career and never on the road.
17Joe
on Mar 10, 2009 at 1:54 pm:
Just read the article at the injins fan site. I have never really thought you guys were amazing writers, however you tend to follow the basic rules of journalism, and have your funny moments. One of the most important rules you follow is research.
Reason for stating that crap above, what the hell are those idiots thinking in the comments section. The writer over there uses the fact “the recruit visited Clemson” as proof that Clemson lied about FSU in any way. Yet the commenters say Willy Mac and Chilli are HORRIBLE writers? In the top of the article on this BLOG you guys stated that you were just going to go off on someone, never stated anything about an attempt at an informational article.
Also those idiots read one rumor from a student with a blog and all of the sudden, lying to recruits is just typical Clemson behavior, because we are all cheating lying redneck dumbasses, right? Right FSU? What is your academic rank again?
Then they talk shit about the fans thinking Cemson is a bigger football school than we really are, then they talk shit about Urban Myer (SP??)
Anyway, yes you are correct, you found a group of gamecock fans, I mean morons that are worse than the run of the mill t-netter.
(I almost forgot mentioning the guy who says he is in Columbia, and has started watching the Gamecocks because of the irrational Clemson fans….?
18Willy Mac
on Mar 10, 2009 at 1:59 pm:
Thanks Joe.
19TigerSACK
on Mar 10, 2009 at 2:40 pm:
Statistics are right 60% of the time. Everytime!
20NoleCC
on Mar 10, 2009 at 2:59 pm:
Meh, everyone gives FSU such a bad rap academically. T.K. certainly hasn’t helped, and neither does the State of Florida right now either, but it’s not as bad as people make it out to be. Undergrad is what you make of it anyway. Besides I thought this was about football?
21Chili
on Mar 10, 2009 at 3:10 pm:
@20 I think the subject was only discussed because someone at TN brought it up first.
22Tom M
on Mar 10, 2009 at 4:28 pm:
It was…a member said they were “impressed a Clemson fan could read”.
23CUin1993
on Mar 10, 2009 at 8:49 pm:
To paraphrase the guy on the Jimmy Dean call “Fuck, I’m gonna cheat godammit”.
24chris simp
on Mar 10, 2009 at 8:58 pm:
On a lighter note, the baseball team put a beating on Michigan State today!!! We finally took the bat of our shoulders and hit the damn ball!
25William Davis
on Mar 10, 2009 at 11:07 pm:
The video you posted also has a link to another video where the same guy is gloating about how Jimmy Dean resumed selling the 16 oz. sausage roll. Apparently the Jimmy Dean company execs are easily persuaded.