Posted by Block-C Staff

Here is the next in a Round-table series of questions about Clemson football’s previous season (if you missed the previous posts, here is Part I, Part II, and Part III).  We hope you enjoy:

What are you looking forward to the most for next season?

Sambo:  The most?  Well, I’m looking forward to seeing if Tajh Boyd can live up to his recruiting hype (5-star rating from Scout.com and 4-star rating from Rivals.com) and to see if he can lead Clemson’s offense well enough that it translates into more wins (and free tacos).  I’m looking forward to seeing DeAndre Hopkins play again and to see if he transforms into an All-Conference receiver in his sophomore season.  I’m looking forward to no longer seeing Jamie “Fumbles McGee” Harper carry (and by carry, I mean that he would see a hole, than dance around before being tackled for a two-yard loss) the ball, and instead seeing Andre Ellington’s healthy toe get the majority of the load like he should have last season.  I’m looking forward to seeing Dabo’s enthusiastic cheerleading antics on the sideline (which you have to admit is a huge upgrade from Tommy Bowden’s expressionless or lost-looking behavior when he was on the field).  I’m looking forward to seeing an ACC that loses every single one of their upperclassmen quarterbacks (seriously, all of them unless Russell Wilson comes back, but that is 50/50 right now) and leaving the conference fairly wide open.  And I’m looking most forward to seeing Sakerlina receiving a Top 15 pre-season ranking, only to have Spurrier jerk Stephen Garcia around all season, put in the overrated Conner Shaw (his 2nd biggest offer was from Georgia Tech and that was only b/c his brother played there) and then ultimately fail to live up to their pre-season hype.  Also, I’m looking forward to showing you this fan-favorite picture of Rendrick Taylor depicted as The Hulk:

“That dude had muscles that I didn’t even know existed.”

Chili: Any notion of what I’m looking forward to next year must be tempered by the fact that I am not especially looking forward to next year at all really. We’re looking at a slight improvement that will end up being another 8-5, 7-6 season. But I’m sure as the days turn into weeks and there’s no football in sight, I’ll start anticipating Clemson football season like a dog craving Beggin’ Strips and just not knowing that no; it’ll never be bacon. And there are things I am looking forward to.  Anyway, I am most looking forward to seeing what appears to be a pretty outstanding set of offensive weapons get integrated into a new system under Chad Morris. The offensive line, which was a strength much of this year, looks to be fairly good again next year, although perhaps lacking at depth.  Charone Peak, Martavis Bryant, Sammy Watkins are all going to have shots at early playing time at receiver (if Peak & Watkins sign, that is) alongside Nuke Hopkins, while Tajh Boyd gets into a system that fits his strengths a little better than the last. Andre Ellington should be great again next year if he, as expected, has fully recovered from last year’s injury. How’s it all going to fit together? As a Clemson fan I’ve previously fallen into the pitfall of looking at our great stable of talent and thinking that it should produce results just as great, only to have the team subsequently dash my hopes.

Willy Mac: Willy Mac is too busy for this article. He assures us that he is not, we repeat IS NOT busy jacking off homeless dudes down by the Reedy River. Seriously, he’s not.

EDIT: I love it when you’re out of town and catch shit for it. Great things here. Will get to this later tonight when I get back in town. until then, keep hitting refresh because I know all of you are just wet with anticipation to hear the last of three professional opinions. SRS BSNS. – WM

EDIT 2: Much like last year, I’m looking forward to some extreme tailgaiting. I’m going all out this year because odds are I’m not going to be spending much time in the games for the first part of the season. It’s still going to be a rough go of things because I’m certain that even given the time our receivers will still have trouble holding blocks, catching footballs, etc. I do expect our running game to definitely prosper now that Ellington will be healthy and get more carries now that Harper is gone. Hopefully some of those big kids we recruited for the back field will step up, too. Like Chili, I’m looking to see only minor improvement, but… still improvement at the end of the day. Still serious business though.

Posted by Block-C Staff

Here is the next in a Round-table series of questions about Clemson football’s previous season (if you missed the previous posts, here is Part I and Part II).  We hope you enjoy:

In your opinion, what were this seasons team’s Strengths?  Weaknesses?

Willy Mac:

• Strengths – For the obvious answer, I’ll go with the defense. For the no-so-obvious, I’ll go with the offensive line. I mean they weren’t by any means world beaters, but they did a damn good job against a defensive line that won the national championship. They also finally came together as a unit for the most part. Like a good official, the best are usually never noticed. That’s when you know they’re doing a good job. Again, Our best statistical category remains kickoff returns. Kudos to what ever coach is in charge of that.
• Weaknesses – We all know the easily targeted weaknesses on the team as did the rest of the conference/nation/world/etc. What I’d like to point out are three key positions that absolutely killed us. First and foremost, kicking. I won’t go into beating this dead horse. Dabo (and Tommy) always talked about how we were just as few points away. Well, converting points on fields goals MIGHT HAVE MADE A FUCKING DIFFERENCE. This is what happens when you try to recruit Christ Church kids. Secondly, the overall play of the wide receivers. Nuke Hopkins is somewhat not a fault here, but he still didn’t do a lot either. He made some great catches but he was pretty clueless when it came to blocking. Hell, the same can be said for the entire WR unit. Blocking outside the tackles is just as important as the blocking that goes on inside the tackles. Oh yeah, and the tackles blocking too… that’s important… as, well… Anyways, lastly is PUNTING. W-T-FUCK, MATE. We were next to last in the ACC. It’s bad enough that our offense couldn’t keep our defense off of the field but then you add in the fact that our punter couldn’t get us decent field position. I know you can point to the coverage and what not but ultimately the punter is responsible for his on-field team. He’s the play maker in that situation.

Sambo:

• Strengths – Considering this team went 6-7, I want to say that they didn’t have any strengths, but since you asked, I will say defense and cheerleading.  The defense is an obvious choice.  They finished the season as a Top 20 unit (hehe) in Total Defense and Top 15 in Scoring Defense.  And I say Cheerleading, because that seems to be Dabo’s only strength, his insane sideline enthusiasm aka cheerleading.  If clapping and butt-slapping were reflected in the score, Clemson might have gone undefeated.
• Weaknesses – You could point to the wide receivers, or the linebackers, or the offense as a whole, or even the punting(?), but my answer is individual team leadership.  As soon as Kyle Parker was speared in the back during the Auburn game, he seemed to give up on the season, and therefore gave up any leadership role he may have played on this team.  And without him leading the offense, it seemed as if no one else stepped up to fill that void.  It probably didn’t help that all of the offensive play-makers were extremely young and inexperienced, and the previous season’s team leader is playing in the pros (CJ), so as soon as KP checked out, the offense was doomed without a leader and therefore, Clemson finished 6-7.

Chili:

• Strengths – Surprise! I’m going with defense. This year’s defensive squad was outstanding, and if the offense had been even remotely competent, the defense would probably have had the support it needed to be considered among Clemson’s best ever. I will also submit that the offensive line played better than it has in recent years, though that’s a bar not set too high.
• Weaknesses – Coaching and, as Sambo said, leadership in general. We will probably never know for sure whether or not Dabo was screwing around with Napier’s playcalling, but it seemed pretty likely and would’ve made sense given some of the bonehead decisions on offense. Kyle Parker was a huge liability where we thought he would be one of our greatest assets. Was it the spearing at Auburn? Did he have rib fractures during the season? Again, only speculation and rumor mongering. Either way, Tajh Boyd should have been given much more time with the team. As we saw with Tommy Bowden, unfettered loyalty to your starting quarterback will, as we say, “fuck your shit up.” The leadership vacuum had a lot, I think, to do with the coaching issues. Also, for the 20th or so year in a row, the Woo-Hoo was a massive weakness of our fanbase. Stop sounding like sassy hillbilly trannies, assholes.

Posted by Chili

SOP IT UP

Former Vanderbilt head coach and longtime OL guru Robbie Caldwell will join Clemson’s staff as the new offensive line coach, while Brad Scott will stick around in an administrative capacity. This will do wonders to quell the grumbling in the fanbase over the many offensive line woes. Brad Scott has always been a target of fan ire, but his skill as a recruiter has been excellent. Having him around to retain his network of high school connections is a good move. Caldwell is widely respected as an offensive line coach. Caldwell was NC State’s OL coach from 1986-1999, spent two years at UNC, and has since beet at Vanderbilt. Caldwell is a graduate of Furman University, where he played center and later coached the Paladin OL.

I WILL END YOU

In other news, WR Martavis Bryant, the top prep school recruit in the nation, has gotten the necessary grades and test scores to finally enroll in Clemson, albeit not in time for the Spring deadline. He will enroll and join the team in May.

Posted by Block-C Staff

Last week, Block-C began a Round-table series of questions about Clemson football’s previous season, here is the next of a series of posts  (if you missed Part I, click here).  We hope you enjoy:

Where did it all go so horribly horribly wrong?

Chili: I think there are two main points in the season where things started to fall apart. First there was the three game losing streak the team suffered through, with losses to Auburn, Miami, and North Carolina. The offense scored 24, 21, and 15 points respectively. Our team seemed lost offensively and we then learned that nothing Dabo or Napier would do to try and fix the offense would end up working. The second big blow to the team’s psyche was during a 16-10 loss at Boston College when tailback Andre Ellington suffered an injury that would essentially end his season. With this key piece of the offense out, our team seemed resigned to their fate.

Willy Mac: I’d like to point specifically to the few hours immediately following the Auburn game. Kyle Parker did some thinking either in his hotel room or on the plane ride home to Greenville. He came to the a conclusion (that would make itself blatantly apparent in the weeks to follow) that he didn’t really have an interest in playing quarterback on a collegiate level anymore. He figured that he had made a mistake in coming back and probably would be spending his time in a more productive fashion if he were finding a house out in Colorado instead of sitting in a locker room with 85 nasty smelling dudes. If he didn’t start looking out for his best interests, then he was going to wind up getting really hurt and it would definitely jeopardize his future in the MLB. I don’t blame Kyle Parker for giving up after taking that big hit. I blame Kyle Parker for coming back “just because” and making a halfway effort. Shit, we could have made 6-7 with Tajh and we would have been happy to stamp the “rebuilding year” moniker on it. More than likely there wouldn’t be anyone losing their job and everyone could feel satisfied with the fact that we would be better next year because our team had a year to get accustomed to one another with Boyd under center.

Sambo:  January 18th, 1990, also known as the day that Danny Ford “resigned” (he resigned?  Shenanigans, the administration wanted him out b/c of NCAA investigations or some bullshit excuse, and I wouldn’t be the one bit surprised if James Barker was behind it all, which was Step One in his evil plan to no longer make Clemson football relevant).  Yeah, so what if Danny was mostly in a drunken stupor during that part of his coaching career and might have already passed his prime, but he was winning and that is something that has been missing from the past 20 seasons of Clemson football (minus the ’91 ACC Championship which was won using with Danny’s players, so it doesn’t count).  It has been all downhill since then and if you ask me, coaching is the only thing holding Clemson back.  Danny Ford was 96-29-4 (56-16-1 ACC record, 6-2 in bowl games) when he coached at Clemson and since he left, just look at the string of incompetent coaches:

• Ken Hatfield – 32-12-1 (19-10-1), 1-1 in bowls
• Tommy West – 31-28 (21-19) including a 3-8 season in 1998, 1-3 in bowls
• Tommy Bowden – 72-45 (43-32), 3-5 in bowls
• Dabo Swinney – 19-15 (13-8), 1-2 in bowls

That’s a whole lot of mediocre (on top of a terrible 6-11 bowl record) and supports my answer – everything went horribly horribly wrong on January 18th, 1990.  But if we are talking about this season, then it was definitely the play where Kyle Parker got speared in the back during the Auburn game and quit playing to try and win games and seemed to care more about his baseball career.  Also, here is a music video from Ireland that has nothing to do with football, but I thought it was hilarious and worth sharing, plus the chick in this video is super hot (NSFW unless you don’t mind a little cursing):

Posted by Sam

Clemson’s streak of consecutive losses while playing against UNC in Chapel Hill is now at 55 games after tonight’s 65-75 loss.  Instead of rehashing on the game itself, I decided to take this in another direction.  The streak started during the 1925-26 season and since then, a lot of things have changed.  Here are some things that happened during that season and some things that have happened since:

Calvin Coolidge was President and there have been 15 Presidents since.

The United States only had 48 states and were still 34 years away from having 50 states.

There have been 7 Popes to serve in Vatican City.

Average Prices of:

• Gas – 20 cents
• Milk – 56 cents
• Loaf of Bread – 9 cents
• Car (average) – $265
• House (average) – $7,809

Charles Lindbergh was still a year away from making his famous solo flight across the Atlantic.

The first successful use of Insulin was administered.

Chrysler Corporation and Disney Studios were both formed.

Henry Ford first proposed the idea of establishing an 8-hour, 5-day workweek.

The Great Gatsby was first published.

First Lip-Reading Tournament was held in the US (needless to say, it was the only one held).

The Theory of Evolution was banned from being taught in the city of Atlanta, GA and the state of Tennessee.

The National Football League proposed the first-time rule that would not allow college students from playing in the league until after they had graduated.

Celebrities born during the 1925-26 season:

• Paul Newman
• Jack Lemmon
• Dick Van Dyke
• Cloris Leachman
• Johnny Carson
• Leslie Nelson
• Andy Griffith
• Jerry Lewis
• Marilyn Monroe
• Robert Kennedy
• Malcolm X
• Fidel Castro
• Queen Elizabeth II
• Sammy Davis Jr.
• BB King
• Tony Bennett
• Chuck Berry
• Miles Davis (I only included him b/c of Billy Madison)

Surprisingly, Larry King was still not alive by 1926.  Also, I found it absolutely amazing that the Theory of Evolution was still so controversial in the 1920’s, then again, it happened in the South, a place not known for being tolerant outside of their religion.  So there you have, a depressing reminder of how terrible Clemson’s basketball history truly is (and probably always will be).  On a side note, does it depress anyone else as much as me that kids born in 1990 can now buy beer?

“I’m still not so sure why people say she is the hottest chick of all-time, I just don’t see it.”