mogrits on 
AParker on 
Willy Mac on Kevin Steele broke his hand before the game and Georgia Tech’s option broke his defense during it.
“Our offense did a great job. We just didn’t hold up our end of the bargain. They executed and we didn’t.” – Kevin Steele
Seeing the GT offense for the second time this season proved absolutely no benefit to the Tigers. Paul Johnson didn’t, as feared, add any new facets to his offense in order to “throw off” the Tigers; he simply ran his tried and true offense and rammed it down the Tigers’ throats. No coaching genius necessary, just an option offense that Clemson has been unable to adjust to all season. GT scored on eight of nine possessions, turning the ball over on downs one time. The Clemson defense allowed two 100+ yard runners in Yellowjacket RB Jonathan Dwyer with 110 yds and QB Josh Nesbitt with 103. The jackets rattled off 333 rushing yards against Clemson, a week after the Tigers surrendered 223 yards to the maligned Sakerlina rushing attack.
Steele was a pretty heralded hire in the offseason, especially to fans who were sick of the “bend but don’t win” defense of the admittedly pretty competent Vic Koening. The luster seems to be fading a bit on Steele. I’ve heard arguments on boards that he’s still dealing with VK’s players, but damned if Vic didn’t have some hellacious players in his system. Where does the defense go from here?
This isn’t so much as a formal wrap-up as much as it is a springboard for you guys to argue amongst yourselves in the comments section.
1thedabokoolaid
on Dec 6, 2009 at 2:01 pm:
excuses excuses excuses. kevin needs to learn that the last coaching staff that functioned on excuses is no longer here.
2CUVince
on Dec 6, 2009 at 2:04 pm:
Should have never fired Koening. Should fire Steele but probably won’t. Remember this is the guy who let a bunch of Mormons destroy Alabama. Vic’s defense was much better, it actually won us games despite our shitty offense. Now our offense is keeping us in games. At the beginning of the year I though the Steele hire was much smarter than the Napier hire but boy was I wrong. I’d take Lovett or Herring over this guy…our defense is awful.
3JasonL
on Dec 6, 2009 at 2:19 pm:
It’s like a rehash of Herring. This can be called Herring v2. The Steele Curtain is more of a window blind. Or maybe a roman shade. Something that will allow that pesky sunshine to come in and score about 39 points.
4La'Huntavious
on Dec 6, 2009 at 2:35 pm:
After watching the performace last night I am sure of a few things. First Georgia Tech is slowly turning into Nebraska of the 1980s and 90s. People who say that the option will never be a threat in major college football are idiots. The only true enemies against a well run option attack are defensive line penetration and a bye week to prepare for it, neither of which the Clemson team had. GT and Navy are the only time you will see it all year and therefore most will not prepare enough for it. I think our defense will be alright next year. It is hard to ask any of our talented but short DBs to cover that pass dropping manchild of a WR.
I think the offense will be plauged by the same problem that has been facing it since Danny left. That is the lack of a mean offensive line. Our line likes to catch people, not attack them and drive them into the dirt. Until Dabo recruits some guys that are not afraid to get an unsportsmanlike penalty, people like Ellington, who hits the hole better than Spiller just lacks the next gear, cannot have the monster years they are capable of. Hopefully some WRs will step up and we can find a TE that can catch since we finally are using them.
I got a taste of something I have not felt in a long time. Not only a championship but a general belief that with 1:20 left we could do something with the ball and score. Haven’t had that in a long time.
5Navy Chief
on Dec 6, 2009 at 3:13 pm:
Koening got 66 points hung on him this year by Texas Tech. Herring is one of the top candidates for the UGA job. I keep hearing Parker is so bad also, He won more games than any other Freshman QB in college football this year. Pray that he does not decide to play baseball. Fire fire fire I want someone fired. Well their not getting fired. You are pissed, I understand. But they got us to the big game this year and it is the only significant thing we have done in 18 years. This was done in their first year and that guy named Parker had a little to do with that also and so did Steele. Go curl up in the corner and cry if it helps you. But stop lashing out at coaches and players every time we lose.
6Navy Chief
on Dec 6, 2009 at 3:34 pm:
Dabo is going to be a great coach. But he has to get away from catchy fucking words. I understand him being partial after the “All in” thing. Time to move on because a catchy little word cost us last night, that word was “EYES”. The defense did exactly as instructed following the ball with their “EYES” and chasing it all night. That is a Paul Johnson Wet Dream. When you chase the fucking ball in the option it gets Pitched, Passed or Handed Off! They should have been yelling “REMEMBER, YOUR ASSIGNMENT ONLY”. Not so fucking catchy, but I can guarantee we would have stopped them one more fucking time which is all we needed people.
Steele made a mistake last night, don’t condemn him, just hope he learned from his mistake. He should have simply followed what worked the second half of the season, get better at what you did last game. He stopped them handily with assignment football in the first game. Better than any other team in fact this year in that game. Don’t try to re-invent the wheel.
7thedabokoolaid
on Dec 6, 2009 at 4:27 pm:
please god let parker decide to play baseball. PLEASE! give us tigers a good break for once.
8Mogrits
on Dec 6, 2009 at 7:05 pm:
@anyone reading: Koening had to go. He would have never been satisfied behind Dabo. He thought he deserved the job based on his experience and his decent but not extraordinary defenses. He was/is a maverick in a way- refusing to run the hill until he felt “he’d earned it” and what-not.
VK would have been poison on this staff and his philosophy sucked to boot. Godspeed VK, and I’m glad the door didn’t hit you in the ass.
9flaact
on Dec 6, 2009 at 9:02 pm:
Willy Mac, don’t TL; DNR me, nothing was longer than the 8.5 hour car ride back from Tampa this morning
So yeah, kust got back from Tampa. To all the people bitching about how awful our defense was, they didn’t play that badly. They forced forth downs, only allowed a couple big plays, and kept us in the game until the end, even after Parker had two turnovers. It sucks that we couldn’t stop them from scoring, but jesus christ Nesbitt played out of his fucking mind against us. Nesbitt and the GT offense played 4 down territory the whole game and took advantage of a near impossible to stop offense in short yardage spots on several 4th and shorts forced by the defense. Give some credit to the GT offense before throwing all of our defensive players and coaches under the bus. GT held the ball for a huge percentage of the game, grinding out out long drives and playing a very physical offensive game, and it was obvious on GT’s final drive that the defense was out of gas.
I think Kevin Steele has done a pretty good job his first year at Clemson. He has completely overhauled our defense into something that has been effective at pressuring opposing QB’s into turnovers and mistakes. We forced the most three and outs of any team in the country last I saw, thought this may have changed after ACC game. Sometimes we get burned deep or bite too early on a play fake, but it’s a lot easier on the eyes than watching opposing teams against Koenning eat the clock and march all the way down the field before scoring 3 or 7 while Harper, Bowden, and Spence watched while jerking each other off and pondering which receiver should risk his life on an obvious bubble screen before going 3 and out.
I was a freshman at Clemson in 2003 and was finished with undergrad and grad degrees in 2008. Now in 2009, we win our division and play nail biter game against a very good opponent for the conference championship, and all you guys can do is bitch? I am very upset about the loss, and I am upset at a few defensive play calls where we all out blitzed on third and long and got raped, and most of all I am upset that the best fucking player in college football played the best game of his life and was not able come away with a W in his last meaningful game at Clemson. But this year we accomplished something that we never had in any of the years I was at Clemson. And that makes me happy and proud to be a Tiger.
I don’t think this loss should start a witch-hunt. The people some of you guys are blaming are a redshirt freshman QB, a first year coach, a first year OC, and a first year DC. Next year I think will be important in evaluating the success/ failure of our new coaching staff. We will be losing our most talented and experienced lineman, both our main receiver threats in Ford and Palmer, several playmakers off a thankfully deep defense, and our best player in CJ Spiller. Next year will be very telling if this new staff can develop the talent we always have into something more than our previous staff was able to do.
@7 Parker has the best numbers of any freshman quarterback that has ever played at Clemson. And he can throw pretty good too, and he had a couple clutch scrambles / 4th down conversions in the game as well. He was picked when a receiver bobbled the ball into the air and was caught by a GT defender, and when he threw off his back foot trying to force a pass to Spiller on the wheel route. After all the fan criticism after the South Carolina game because “ZOMG DABO DIDN’T TELL PARKER TO THROW DA FOOBAL TO SPILER ON THE WEELROUTE!!111″, maybe some of you guys should stfu. Again we failed to run an effective two minute drill at the end of the game, and Parker fucked up bad on fourth down when he tried to scoot pass D Morgan for a first down.
But if Parker is so shitty, what redshirt freshman quarterback would you rather have to replace him? I can’t really think of any, but maybe you can? Since it’s looking like Korn will not be in a Clemson uniform next season, maybe the block-c guys can start an EXTREME BOYD REPORT!!11 to satisfy all these fucking idiots who think that a freshman can come in at QB with a new OC and head coach, and go undefeated. Hell you guys already have an article for the EXTREME BOYD REPORT!!11 since Deandre McDaniel has already declared Boyd the best QB in the ACC, and DMAC is so awesome his opinion is worth its weight in gold and even thinking maybe Boyd might not be EXREME!!11 would result in a knock on your door, followed by being wrapped in a blanket and beat up, thrown down a flight of stairs then finally being pointed at and called out by a grinning manchild right before he lowers his shoulder into your quivering, shitstained body cause a MASSIVE HEAD EXPLOSIONS!!!111
Also I haven’t slept in 72 hours so all of this may just be text vomit. later guys!
10Willy Mac
on Dec 6, 2009 at 9:07 pm:
@9 – TL; DNR
11Mogrits
on Dec 6, 2009 at 10:48 pm:
@9 is aight.
12flaact
on Dec 6, 2009 at 11:34 pm:
@10 you asshole,
Cliffs:
- GT is good, we don’t suck but aren’t as good as GT.
- Steele > Koenning , despite zone read fails and getting burned deep sometimes.
- Season = success , but could’ve been better
- Don’t fire the staff
- Parker is good, for a frosh
- EXTREME BOYD REPORT!!11
13dwight_clark87
on Dec 7, 2009 at 12:52 am:
Willy Mac, I agree with you (you cranked out a great post, BTW). It is a long way back to respectability. Saturday’s game was a heartbreaker, but this is the Swinney Regime’s first season. I have to think that great things are on the horizon for Clemson football. Regarding Steele, at this point, I really don’t know what to think about the guy, but I seriously doubt Dabo will pull the trigger on him. I’m still kind of bummed out about the loss and the shitty bowl game, so I’ll just end on that.