Daniel on 
Sambo on 
Chili on 
Willy Mac on 
Beau on I’m going to catch a lot of flak for this but honestly, you should be as proud of your Clemson football team as you were twenty years ago (if you were cognizant of Clemson football in the late 80′s/early 90′s.)
Of course I say this while biting my cheek, but Georgia Tech put the game entirely on the shoulders of our defense and it worked out for them perfectly. Our defense couldn’t protect a herpes cheesecake at a frat party. The defense played like refried dogshit throughout out the game. Credit should be given where it is due, however, as the defesense did make a few crucial stops towards the end of the game and they put us in a great position to win it in the final minutes.
Last week’s results should serve as a season litmus: Tech deserved to carry the trophy home at the end of the day in the ACC and we deserved to stand toe-to-toe with them as the clock wound down to the final ticks.
Yes we came close, but at least there are some striking positive reflections that can be taken from this whole ordeal: The most important pro that sticks out in my mind is the fact that Dabo took a team full of his very own recruits to the ACC championship game and gave himself a winning shot at the very end. That’s something that Tommy Bowden wouldn’t have ever realized no matter how long the time table stretched itself.
For you naysayers that thought we should play the Tech field goal odds: You’re satisfying yourself back into a corner. Tech had an excellent kicker that would have sealed the deal after the Yellow Jackets dwindled the clock down to a few seconds. The Tigers were thankfully smart enough to let the nerds score a touch down with a minute-twenty left on the clock and at least give our offense a fighting chance at winning the game.
Again, our defense did play terribly and so did our freshman quarterback. If Georgia is still trying to court Kevin Steele, they’re going to look harder at him now more than ever. If Kyle Parker does go pro in baseball next summer, I can live through another year of freshman first’s with Tahj Boyd if it gets us back in the hunt for another ACCCG (which it more than likely won’t.)
Many of you will be upset, but enjoy the moment. Spiller should have left two or three years ago. He should be wearing a diamond ring with a big jewel encrusted “F” on it right now. We should have lost to most in-conferences foes, except for Maryland. We should have done a lot of things that would have turned out worse than the situation that landed squarely in our laps. It’s an exciting time to be a Tiger fan. Dabo has done in his first year what we could have never gotten in the previous regime. We’re sniffing championships right now.
Next year is going to be rough as we are losing as a lot of talent, but the return of DeAndre McDaniel coupled with a (hopefully) show out season by Andre Ellington will likely steer us close to nearly as much success as this year did.
All in all, yes we lost to Sakerlina. It happens. They were playing for a state championship though. We were playing for a very real championship and went down swinging. That’s more than they can ever say (call back to 1969).
Let’s hope for the Chik-Fil-A against Georgia, but more than likely we’re looking at the Champs Sports against some one like Tennessee.
1The Human Cow
on Dec 6, 2009 at 12:27 am:
I agree. I’m normally pretty upset after a Clemson loss, but I really feel like we gave it a good shot out there tonight. I’m very proud of the Tigers.
2Danny's spit cup
on Dec 6, 2009 at 12:36 am:
Willy—no SEC tie-in to Champs. Looks like Wisconsin in Champs or Kentucky in the Music City.
3thedabokoolaid
on Dec 6, 2009 at 12:36 am:
willy mac, dude, i normally spot on agree with you, but this is absolutely the worst post block-c has ever produced. who cares about the bowl? really? we screwed CJ Spiller. we never deserved to have him come here in the first place. won’t be watchin this bowl game
4A770Tiger
on Dec 6, 2009 at 12:39 am:
I’m gonna disagree and say, for likely the first time, that I think you’re way off Willy Mac. You’re the man, but I’m just not feeling it this time. CJ is/was our team. Ford, Palmer, McDaniel, and a couple of others played great, but the majority, to include our coaches suck–especially fucking Parker. We’re in for a couple more years of shit–hope I’m wrong, but that’s the way I see it after this season. What a sad, shameful fucking mess we’ve got to deal with.
5A770Tiger
on Dec 6, 2009 at 12:40 am:
Ya’ll sleep hard and pray for no nightmares about this team.
6CUVince
on Dec 6, 2009 at 12:49 am:
No ACC title, no state title…no Bowl title?
7BlackMagicCock
on Dec 6, 2009 at 12:49 am:
Went down swinging huh? Thought Carolina fans only had moral victorys…hypocritical
8Willy Mac
on Dec 6, 2009 at 12:59 am:
Do me a favor and sleep on it. Long term, it’s a huge win. We’ve been through a lot and this is big win wfor a program,
9The Travelling Rob Spence Bubble Screen Experience
on Dec 6, 2009 at 1:19 am:
You know, oddly enough, I’m not really upset about this loss. Yeah, we nearly had it and it slipped away again. Yeah, that sucks. Yeah, if we had an offense that could grind down the field and eat clock like mad, instead of relying on huge breakaway plays, we could’ve really had Tech on the ropes. Yeah, if we’d made that one 4-and-1 stop late in the 4th, we’d be putting Dabo halfway up to St. Danny on the Dabometer. But we didn’t. Damn. Oh well.
But we’re still 8-and-4 for the regular season (i.e., not counting the ACCCG) and we still made it to the ACCCG in a rebuilding year, and in spite of my initial reluctance, I’m willing to give Dabo a chance for a bit. If things go downhill, fire him and begin again and all that–I’m not Steve Spurrier; I don’t believe in sticking with a bad idea again and again to see if it works the second time.
But damn, people: as much as the Bitch Mentality is wrong, so is this notion that we have to fire our coach after every loss until we get Danny Ford reincarnate.
10Brad
on Dec 6, 2009 at 1:24 am:
Frustrating to watch our defense’s inability to get a stop, but it was a hell of a game overall.
We were more than capable of winning the ACC this year, but I can’t complain too much about how this season has played out with a first year coach and freshman quarterback. There are plenty of things to be looking forward to as a Clemson fan. It’d be nice to break our bowl losing streak though, and finish on a positive note.
11Jasonl
on Dec 6, 2009 at 1:31 am:
Losing blows. Steele defense went berserker mode against BC and was good against TCU, but fuck was awful today. Christ it was horrible. Almost like they never even tried studying film.
With a better d, the tigers would be heading the the orange. Instead they’ll be phoning it in at the music shitty bowl.
Horrible.
12thedabokoolaid
on Dec 6, 2009 at 1:31 am:
ah, nice to see everyone chuggin rainbow kool aid. this thread is why we will never be good. we always have excuses or reasons why we didn’t win or why everything will be ok. this is our brain on “Bowden”. too bad Dabo was unable to break the addiction
13Brad
on Dec 6, 2009 at 1:36 am:
@thedabokoolaid what the fuck does this thread have to do with our program? Don’t give yourself that much credit, and will people like you who say they “won’t be watchin this bowl game” make it better?
14thedabokoolaid
on Dec 6, 2009 at 1:45 am:
this thread demonstrates that fan mentality is to settle. clemson will never be more than it’s fans care to force it to be. boycotting the bowl will make an impact because it will show that fans aren’t happy with Dabo or his staff. We should take a page from Notre Dame and skip the bowl this year. we did not earn one, we do not deserve it, and honestly i feel we will lose if we go to one. not trying to start a fight with you brad, just stating the truth. we are clemson, not duke. we need to act like we are a powerhouse program and less like we are just happy to be invited to a party with the powerhouse programs. do you think danny ford shares your sentiment?
15Willy Mac
on Dec 6, 2009 at 1:59 am:
@14 – Fore go a pretty good bowl bid as a decent and deserving team because it’s the sexy thing to do after an irrelevant catholic college did the same thing? I think you’re a little over served and not thinking clearly. In the grand view of things, yes it sucks that we lost tonight by a few points and I can see how the fallout is so great after losing to an appropriately-loathed rival, but we’ve made a major coaching transition and come out of the deal with clean sheets. We’ve never even been to the ACCCG before and Dabo’s gotten us there his first year with his own recruits. To say the man doesn’t deserve a fair shot is undeserving and curt. We haven’t been a powerhouse program for 18-20 years. EIGHTEEN TO TWENTY YEARS. GOOD DAY.
16thedabokoolaid
on Dec 6, 2009 at 2:05 am:
And at this rate, we never will be again. Danny Ford did not build a power house program on thoughts of feel good positivity and crap excuses. He said tonight that the measure of a man can only be seen when he is backed into a corner. What has Dabo done when backed into a corner? Lost. We do not deserve a bowl, we really don’t. Willy Mac, we need to save whats left of the programs image, and decline a crap bowl bid. That would send a clear message that we are not settling, we are not just in it to end up in a dead end bowl. I am not convinced Dabo did a whole lot. I thought he had, but judging by last week and this week, I think he floated into this championship game on the wings of a ravaged Atlantic Division. Our whole team is pretty much based on one player and we have done him so wrong. We could have brought in a highly experienced coach to really build the program up, instead we took the cheap route and it cost us.
17Willy Mac
on Dec 6, 2009 at 2:15 am:
@ 16 – I mean this as strict, constructive criticism as a caring and realistic (yet passionate) Clemson fan: DANNY FORD WAS LAST RELEVANT IN 1990. THAT WAS 19 YEARS AGO. I RESPECTFULLY DECLINE TO SEE EYE TO EYE WITH YOU. I REALIZE WE LOST TO CAROLINA AND THAT’S UNACCEPTABLE AS I’M JUST AS MAD ABOUT THAT, BUT WE’VE ACCOMPLISHED A GREAT DEAL. PLEASE, TAKE NOTES FROM MY BLOGGING PROWESS. A STURDY PARAGRAPH WITH CAPS LOCK ON CAN SET THOUSANDS OF SHIPS TO SAIL OVER OCEANS, FRIEND. HARDEE’S BISCUITS ARE MAGICAL NUGGETS OF EXPLOSION IN YOUR MOUTH. NOTHING RUNS LIKE A TRANE.
18thedabokoolaid
on Dec 6, 2009 at 2:22 am:
We have accomplished nothing. Nothing. Taken 3 steps foreward and about 12 back. We thrust ourselves into the public eye to show how inept we are to the world. What upsets me most is that fans want so much to have some semblance of success, that they have convinced themselves that Clemson has accomplished a lot this year. We lost our rivalry game, we lost our conference championship, we will likely lose our bowl, we lost to the worst team in the ACC, we showed that we cannot even be champions with a Heisman candidate. I’m sorry willy, we haven’t accomplished anything and that’s the sad and cold truth.
19Willy Mac
on Dec 6, 2009 at 2:28 am:
The sad cold truth is that you expect us to accomplish something more than what we did tonight like we fell from grace a mere five years ago. We haven’t been a relevant topic in the CFB world for at least 20 years. Don’t feel bad because your Gamecock neighbor picks on you… they’ve never been relevant. EVER. Stop posting for now. Lurk moar and give this post an honest reread in the morning.
20The Travelling Rob Spence Bubble Screen Experience
on Dec 6, 2009 at 2:55 am:
Okay, we fire Dabo. Now where are we? We can’t hope to bring in a legendary coach based on tradition alone, a la ND or Alabama or Southern Cal. We probably scare off a good number of coaches because they want a steady job where they could actually stick around for more than three years.We lose recruits who committed to Dabo and interrupt coaching continuity with our returning players again. We go on a coaching search with very little time and a small pool of qualified coaches again. We go through first-year adjustments and growing pains again. And even then, getting a big name is no guarantee of victory; just ask Michigan, Tennessee, or your nearest Coot.
We can either take what we have and do the best we can, or we can curl up into the fetal position and start sobbing. We can either look to the future, or just let ourselves get mired in the past. We can accept that yes, we lost to Maryland, and then we went and solidly beat every other team in our division, or we can dwell on that one game and cry about how we’re losers doomed forever. We can give Dabo some time to either succeed or provide some quantifiable failure, or we can demand to run every single coach out of town after every single game.
I’m surprised that after every loss, Terry Don Phillips doesn’t get a deluge of letters telling him to close down Death Valley because we don’t deserve to have a D1A football team anymore.
21madmaccorleone
on Dec 6, 2009 at 8:55 am:
That’s about the worse performance from a Clemson ‘D’ that comes to mind. If he hasn’t already, Steele needs to apologize to Clemson Nation. Having said that, I’m inclined to agree with willymac. Despite it all, we still had a chance to win at the end. We got beat by a better team, it’s simple as that. Dabo’s did some positive things and hopefully has learned what MORE he needs to do to get Clemson back into cf’s elite. IMO, he needs to tweak his staff a bit. Get rid of the Scotts. Though the OL played good last nite against a suspect GT ‘d’, it’s been our achilles heel for too damn long. I know some say “but Brad Scott’s a good football coach’….I don’t know, all I know is our OL has sucked overall for quite awhile. I wanna see what life without fat Brad is like. I’m still up in the air about Napier, but I think he got way better as the season progressed. I’m pissed we lost, but I never saw us in this position in the first place. I’m willing to give Dabo the benefit of the doubt that, even without CJ, we’ll be a better team next year. I mean c’mon folks, what we have is what we have…and it’s a lot better than what it has been in recent years. I think my previous posts will prove I’m no sunshine pumper, but we’re either Clemson fans or we’re not. Danny had lots of doubters in ’79 and ’80…even GOD had to learn a lot…but look where we ended up! Alright, I’m rambling aimlessly here….Still hung over…
22Lloyd Christmas
on Dec 6, 2009 at 10:54 am:
So let me get this straight….the season is a complete failure because we did not win the conference? Think back to the beginning of the season. I think most Clemson fans picked us 7-5…8-4 if you were hoping and dreaming. That’s what you got. 8-4. We had a FRESHMAN QB, freshman head coach, awful WR’s, an OL that just didn’t get it done. We didn’t have the players on the field to win the championship. No coach could have gotten us more prepare for this game. Our offense played nearly perfect. Our defense honestly didn’t play THAT bad. Nesbit just played THAT good. He did not make ONE bad read, which is unbelievable in that offense.
I’m not upset at this loss, because of how hard the team played…I couldn’t have asked for much more from the players this year, especially last night. You can expect 10 wins and championships all you want, but until all of the pieces are in place…you are going to be crying and upset way too often.
23gamecock man
on Dec 6, 2009 at 11:49 am:
I know you guys are disappointed at the way your defense played last night, but you don’t have anything to be ashamed of after this year. I don’t think any reasonable non-Clemson fan expected Dabo to take you to the ACCCG in his first year. He did, though, and now you’ve got a chance at a nine-win season. It could be worse. Although tanning your asses was fun, we yet again failed to get that elusive eight-win regular season. We’ve never been to our championship game. Take it and run with it and we’ll see you next year in Death Valley.
And to the guy that said you should skip the bowl game, no amount of mimicking ND is going to make you something you’re not. You’re not a national power anymore. To get there, you’re going to have to build your program just like everyone else not named Alabama, Florida, Texas, or Southern Cal, not resort to gimmicky bullshit like turning down a good bowl bid.
24Tully
on Dec 6, 2009 at 12:25 pm:
Before reading any of these comments: I agree with Willy Mac on this. I don’t believe in moral victories, but the fact that we were even in the game to begin with is something that I am proud of/happy about/etc. If you had told me in August that we would win the Atlantic Division by beating FSU, Miami, and every ACC game from October onwards, I wouldn’t have believed it. Yes our defense took the pipe there at the end (and all game for that matter), and yes CJ graduating and going to the NFL is going to kill us. We simply aren’t in that game at all without CJ last night. I think the Ring of Honor and number retirement are a bit premature but he definitely does deserve it. Nothing against James Davis, but I wish we had four years of just CJ (and also four years of just James.)
25A770Tiger
on Dec 6, 2009 at 12:28 pm:
Koolaid is very passionate, very young, very disappointed, very pissed, and is venting. Don’t take what he says as a personal attack. He’s got some valid points and others that he’s blowing way out of proportion. I’m just as pissed and disappointed. I’m not boycotting our bowl as that insinuates I’m trying to make a point to get something done and that’s not what I’m doing. I’m NOT watching the game because I feel overall our team sucks–incredible ability, but suck on game-day. We do have exceptions on the team with, of course, CJ being the prime example. CJ is incredible and is the true Heisman this year–PERIOD!!! Ya like the use of caps there WIlly MAC? :) And Ford, Palmer, Jenkins, and a handful of others are great. As for Dabo, I like his passion and like him overall, but I do think he got lucky this year. His inexperience is painfully obvious as is Napier’s and I believe we’re going to suffer with this for several years until it’s so unbearable that we have to pull the plug just as we suffered through Tommy’s inept game-day coaching for way too long. I agree this season was more than we thought it would be, but when you look at the team’s ability you can see that we were just hedging our bets to begin with and really had something special. So, just because we had low expectations that were moderately exceeded doesn’t mean we should be happy with a mediocre season. We beat some of the better teams and lost to two of the worst teams on our schedule–Maryland and Carolina. We lost to a GT team twice when we had all the pieces in place to have beaten them both games–consider how inept we played so much of both games and still only lost by less than a touchdown. So, I don’t think it’s okay for any of us to pat Dabo and crew on the back and say good job, hope you get better next year. And G-Cock-Man, I don’t think anyone said to turn down a bowl game. I think they just said they weren’t going to watch it, or as Koolaid said “Boycott” watching it. The bowl will bring some money and exposure, so definitely take it and go. I, for one, just won’t watch and I’m doing so for my own reasons and not asking anyone else to follow my example. As for anyone who questions my loyalty as a fan FUCK’EM!!! I grew up a Tiger, graduated from Clemson, taught at Clemson, and live in Clemson so I’m not a t-shirt fan and I’m not disloyal, I’m just very fucking disappointed.
26A770Tiger
on Dec 6, 2009 at 12:40 pm:
BTW, Willy Mac, did you ever find a bowl of pudding? If so, I hope you didn’t feed it to anyone. :)
27Love Truncheon
on Dec 6, 2009 at 12:58 pm:
Skipping a bowl game is ridiculous…why turn down a reward for your team, money and the month of extra practice.
On the whole, yeah, the season was a game or so better than I was expecting. However, when you end it getting lit the fuck up by a mediocre Sakerlina team and have your defense embarrassed by GT, you aren’t left with a very satisfying feeling. A bowl win would help that.
28Willy Mac
on Dec 6, 2009 at 12:58 pm:
Lol, I’m not mad at anyone. I was kind of buzzed and was going to town.
29A770Tiger
on Dec 6, 2009 at 1:14 pm:
Good deal. He’s just passionate and I’m proud to say I’ve created such a fan to carry the torch. He’s like Dabo and just needs to mature and grow. Now, did ya find the puddin’? :)
30Chili
on Dec 6, 2009 at 1:28 pm:
@23. Extremely solid and well reasoned post. Agree with everything you said.
31Daniel
on Dec 6, 2009 at 1:50 pm:
I think us playing in the ACCCG is an accomplishment because it raises the bar for our returning players. Now they have played for a championship, not only heard about getting there, or failed in their attempt to get there. I think that raises your end-of-the-year expectations. However, it’s difficult to be congratulatory beyond that because, just as in every recent year, we’re an 8-win team. We have been mired in that for over a decade now. We lost to a horrific Maryland team and lost to our in-state rival. I agree with Lloyd in that we did do alot this year that was not expected with a new head coach and a new quarterback. Going forward it is important that Dabo improves on his shortcomings this season, and hopefully that will come with added experience. Our quarterback situation will be interesting to monitor as well because if Parker goes pro in baseball then we’ll get another year with a freshman under center unless Korn somehow miraculously gets it together. If Parker comes back then we’ll have experience under center unless Boyd beats him head-to-head. Now that we have reached the ACCCG the next step is to win it (obviously, i know). We will never be a nationally prominent program until we can become the premier team in our conference and we’re going to have to quit losing to the Marylands of the world in order to do that.
32thedabokoolaid
on Dec 6, 2009 at 2:16 pm:
@28, i wasn’t mad at you last night, i was simply stating my opinions. @31, i’m pullin for boyd, please god let him be a leader and better than parker.