Posted by Chili

THREE DEEEEEEEEEE

ESPN announced the first three college football games that it will televise in three whole dimensions for their ESPN3D network this fall. The September 18th matchup between Clemson and Auburn will be the third game, after VT-Boise and Miami@Ohio State. Interesting that all three games feature ACC teams, perhaps because with academic magnets like Wake Forest and Duke most of the league’s fans are already wearing glasses. Oof. That was a bad one. Me, I don’t know anyone with a 3D television, but perhaps someone I know with the right combination of gullibility and affluence will procure one of those things in time for me to peep it in one more d. (I’m not saying 3D TVs won’t catch on, but hell they’re coming out with new models not requiring 3D glasses next year, assholes)

DABO MAKIN BANK

Dabo Swinney’s incentive laced contract is paying dividends since he guided the Tigers to the ACC Championship game last year. His contract is ballooning up to a guaranteed $1.75 million a year through 2014. That’s a mil and a half more than he made as receivers coach and $900,000 more than he was being paid last year. In a similar fashion to last year, bonuses are included for things like academic success, win totals, and bowls.

PRESEASON ALL-ACC

Three Tigers made the preseason All-ACC team, announced by media on Wednesday during the ACC Football Kickoff in Greensboro, NC. DeAndre McDaniel was the leading votegetter on the list (though not preseason POTY, credit FSU hype for giving QB Christian Ponder the nod there). He garnered first team votes on 48 of 52 ballots, meaning 4 dumb motherfuckers didn’t think a guy who had 8 interceptions and 102 tackles last year deserved to be on the first team. OT Chris Hairston and DL Jarvis Jenkins join him on the first team ballot. Check out Heather Dinich interviewing D-Mac right here.

EATING VIOLATIONS

Clemson reported some secondary violations involving athletes being given discounted breakfasts (egad!) and some scratch from an assistant coach for food. C’mon guys, the epicurean fare at Schilletter isn’t enough for you? If you want to read about it, click here.

MEDIA GUIDE

The 2010 football media guide is out now, more info from the CUAD site.

***RECRUITING UPDATE***
5-star linebacker Tony Steward out of Florida, ranked as the top LB and #2 prospect in the nation regardless of position, has stated Clemson was in the lead for his services for a while now, with FSU as the #2 team. After spending several days in Tallahassee this week drinking the Jimbo koolaid, he now claims the two teams are tied at the top spot. I think Clemson is still in great position if spending time in Tally didn’t all out flip him to the Noles.

Posted by Sam

For those of you who don’t follow college football year-round, then don’t worry, because you probably are not reading this right now and it doesn’t matter anyways.  For you non-dorks, then you probably have been hearing all about “Agent-gate”, or as I call it, “Come up with a less generic name for this story-gate”.  Anyways, the reason I bring this up is because I’m pretty sure I know why all of this has become such a problem, and to whom exactly we can point our Fingers O’ Blame at for this mess: The NFL, the NFL Player’s Union, and most importantly, the NFL Draft.

“But Block C, we love the NFL and the NFL Draft, and don’t really know what the hell a Player’s Union is, so why are you blaming them for college kids talking to and/or taking money from agents?”  Good question, trusty reader and the answer is simple, for which I will try and explain shortly.

Sports Illustrated recently came out with their 2010 Fortunate 50, which is a list of the fifty highest paid athletes based on the athletes’ salary plus endorsements.  In the Top 15, there were only three NFL players and coming in at number nine was the most obvious, Peyton Manning.  He’s a really great player and he will sponsor anything, so Peyton being the highest paid football player is understandable.  But do you know who the second highest paid football player was last year?  The number one overall pick in 2009’s NFL Draft, Matthew Stafford.  That’s right, a guy who never had taken a snap in the NFL, a guy, who had at the time of the signing of his contract, had never proven to even have the ability to play in the league, yet he is the second highest paid athlete in football.  In fact, Matthew Stafford’s base salary was higher than any other player in the NFL.  Higher than three-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady.  Higher than four-time MVP winner Peyton Manning.  On top of that, there are three other players from last year’s draft on this list.  At number 28 was Oakland’s seventh overall pick, Darrius Heyward-Bey ($21.5 million), number 33 was St. Louis’s second overall pick, Jason Smith ($20.5 million), and number 48 was the Jets’ fifth overall pick, Mark Sanchez ($17 million).  That baffles the mind beyond insanity.

And there in lies the root of our agent problem.  These agents come to college athletes and can promise these kids that they can be the highest paid player in the pros without even having to play a down.  And as of right now, these agents are 100% percent correct when they make these promises.  So, this is where the NFL, the NFL Player’s Union, and the owners have to strike a new clause in their upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement that puts a cap on rookie salaries based on draft position.  The NBA has this rule in place and how often do you hear about college basketball player’s getting in trouble talking to agents?  Never (however illegal recruiting is an entirely different beast).  MLB has a rule similar to this and you never hear about problems with agents in their sport, and baseball players make more money than players from any of the other sports.

So, if the NFL were to implement this rookie cap, then agents can no longer promise unheard of amounts of money to these college players, which in turn makes their sales pitch hollow.  It would not get rid of the problem, but it would help keep the vultures at bay.  On the other hand, it might backfire and cause agents to resort to even dirtier tactics to sign the soon-to-be pros.  But you do have to look at the NBA and MLB and take note that they don’t have any agent problems like college football and they have rookie caps that seem to work fine.  If they don’t do this (which I’m fairly sure they will), not only will this problem continue, but it will benefit the NFL.  It would help teams who end up crippling themselves by paying tons of money to high draft picks who turn out to be busts (cough ….. Jamarcus Russell ….cough) and especially to help crappy small market teams free up cap space for free agents, since they have troubles signing free agents anyways (cough …… Buffalo …….cough …….. Cleveland ……cough ……LeBron James …….cough ……..just wanted to find a way to mention his backstabbing ……cough).  In other words, it’s a win-win for everybody, so why wouldn’t they do it?

On a side note, I wanted to congratulate Sakerlina on their recent Baseball National Championship.  It only took your school 120 years to win the school’s First ever men’s national championship, which puts the Gamecocks on a pace to win the first school football championship around the year 3348.  It’s too bad that by then, the earth will probably be overrun by zombies or robots, or worse, zombie robots.

"I found it funny that when I googled 'zombie robot', that a picture of Celine Dion came up in the results.

Posted by Chili

PARKER’S RETURN

A lot of the talk the past several days has centered around the sudden return on Kyle Parker to the Tigers and how players and coaches took the good news. KP claimed that he was excited to return. “The biggest thing I want to say is that I love Clemson University. I’m ready to get back out on the field, support my returning teammates, and turn the page and just gear up for football.” TE Dwayne Allen apparently got all misty eyed when he head the news.

“I didn’t mean to make him cry,” Parker joked. “I guess I could throw him a couple of balls.”

Parker’s return did have a downside for someone other than Tajh Boyd, and that person was me. I bet a friend that Parker would leave, and if he did that person would have to drink the nastiest booze I could find come the North Texas tailgate. Parker returns, which means Gene won’t be drinking Chinese snake wine (not a euphemism) and I’ll probably be drinking Mad Dog or Thunderbird or some such hobo serum.

TAJH

While the team was clearly relieved that Parker was returning, Tajh Boyd had to have been a bit miffed. You’ve gotta think he was excited about being the starter, as he was said to have had the edge over Michael Wade. While I think Tajh will be a dynamic, good quarterback in time, I have no doubt he needs more time. A baptism by fire with the schedule we have coming up would be a bad, bad thing for the Tigers. Dabo has claimed that Tajh will be prepared for each game like he’s going to start.

D-MAC

All the talk about Parker has shifted attention away from Clemson’s best returning player, DeAndre McDaniel. Heather Dinich of ESPN interviews him here. WSPA also has an interview with him here.

Posted by Chili

Jack “The Assassin” Tatum passed away today at the age of 61. The former Raiders and Ohio State defensive back was known for his punishing open field hits on wide receivers. He crushed Sammy White of the Vikings in Super Bowl XI, knocking his helmet off in one of the best NFL Films clips I can remember. Most infamously he delivered the hit that paralyzed Darryl Stingley in a preseason game.

While nobody doubts the toughness of modern NFL defensive backs, Tatum represented on of the last of the menacing old guard that patrolled the defensive backfield. ESPN has an informative obit here.

Posted by Chili

More later on the ACCFK in G’boro, where Chris Hairston and DeAndre McDaniel are representing the Tigers.

Right now, hot off the ticker tape that is coming from the glass dome covered machine running in the corner of my oak paneled study, are the predictions from the media in Greensboro for how the league will stack up this year:

ACC Championship votes:

1. Virginia Tech (50)
2. Florida State (26)
3. Miami (10)
4. Georgia Tech (8)
5. (tie) Boston College and UNC (2)

Atlantic Division

1. Florida State (78)
2. Clemson (16)
3. Boston College (4)
4. NC State
5. Wake Forest
6. Maryland

Coastal Division

1. Virginia Tech (62)
2. Miami (20)
3. Georgia Tech (11)
4. North Carolina (5)
5. Duke
6. Virginia

Sounds about right to me. I honestly wouldn’t pick it any different, with the possible exception being the Coastal. I can see any of the three teams atop that division winning it.

I am a bit more interested in the POTY predictions, which are as follows:

1. Christian Ponder (45)
2. Ryan Williams (16)
3. Tyrod Taylor (11)
4. Russell Wilson (6)
Robert Quinn (6)
6. Joshua Nesbitt (4)
7. Kyle Parker (3)
8. Mark Herzlich, Jacory Harris (2)
10. Montel Harris, Darren Evans, Bruce Carter (1)

I don’t have a problem with Ponder being atop the list, but I think Ryan Williams should be way closer than he is. Williams will be a beast again this year and has as good of a shot at the Heisman as Ponder. VT should be a lot of fun to watch this year.

Do you think when Christian Ponder throws a touchdown pass, he looks in the face of a defender and says something like, “Ponder that, motherfucker!”

Get it, because his name is Ponder, too?

*cough*