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Posted by Block-C Staff
The ACC Blog Roundtable discussions are back this year. For the preseason, the guys over at Tomahawk Nation will be hosting.
1. Will your team be better than last year, why or why not? Will it show in the record, why or why not?
Chili: Some things will be better about the Tigers in 2009, but unfortunately some areas will look eerily similar to last year. I think the offensive line, while promisingly switching to a three-point stance this year, has great potential to be just as mediocre as they were much of the time last year. The defense should continue to be a strong point and will likely be Clemson’s greatest equalizer in games this year. Overall I think we’re looking at a 7-5 or 8-4 season.
Willy Mac: I think it’d be a successful year if we had the win/loss total that we did last year given the players we have lost and the coaching change situation. It definitely will show in the record we post and post season success definitely plays a huge role as well. Overall, I don’t think we’re going to be as good as we were last year. Realistically, we’re a 6-7 win team this year given all the question marks we have to answer. I still think we make a great bowl game due to our defensive output.
2. The ACC has been racked hard by injuries in the off-season, which guys did your team lose and how will you replace them if you can? On the flip side, who are the newcomers expected to step up, if any? Also include academic casualties.
We lost JK Jay due to an injury he sustained in the weight room. We’ve also parted ways with Barry Humphries due to a dramatic series of off-the-field incidents. Where this hurts us big time is the fact that both of these guys were supposed to challenge for playing time on the offensive line. Jay, an incoming freshman, was supposed to be worked into things as a second stringer. Humphries was poised to make a come back and redeem himself in the eyes of Clemson fans.
Willy Mac: At the rate that Clemson is losing what little offensive linemen we have, we’re going to have to start pulling folks out of the stands to play. Kenneth Page and some other young guys are going to have to grow up quick. Folks like Greenville-grown Corey Lambert are going to have to find a mean streak. I’d say that’s the one thing that we don’t have that used to separate us from the rest.
Chili: The o-line really didn’t need any hits to their depth, but unfortunately that’s exactly what has happened. Jamie Harper – while not a newcomer – will get his first significant time this year. If preseason performance is any indicator, Harper should impress.
3. Which existing player (or group of players) must step their game up in order for your team to over-achieve?
Chili: The offensive line is absolutely going to have to step up and answer the questions that have been dogging them since last season. There is immense pressure on them to bust open holes for CJ Spiller and Jamie Harper. Second to the o-line would be our receiving corps. Nobody has really distanced themselves from the pack; there is no Aaron Kelly. Bottom line being that the defense is fairly proven and the offense has gotta get their shit together.
Willy Mac: The seniors and juniors are really going to have to start being vocal and nasty. What it comes down to for me is swagger and a mean streak. Every great team has both. We’ve been coming up with all these cutesy phrases and things to talk about, but it’s time for our players to get it into their head that those phrases don’t mean jack shit when you start hitting people. I think Dabo and his staff are just the right group of guys to drive this home.
Posted by Willy Mac
- Playing off of Gamecock fans feeling good about going over .500 in their three major sports (basketball, baseball, and football), Clemson fans should be proud of their three big going to the post season this past academic year.
- T Kyle King over at Dawg Sports can’t wait to get crunk with the Block-C crew when UGA and Clemson renew their rivalry in the near future. His kid will be there though, so I can only promise I won’t get “pants optional” drunk, but 2013 is a long ways away so I really can’t promise much.
- Kyle Parker gets a big pop from ESPN and Mark Schlabach. Seems like everyone has just forgotten about Willy Korn.
- Political affiliations aside, aren’t you glad that Obama is a sports guy? Things could be a lot worse. We could have a total nerd as president. You’re doin’ it wrong, JOHN! Make a diamond with your thumbs and index fingers! OPEN YOUR EYES AND FOLLOW THE BALL!
- Dinich only put one ACC guy (Dwyer from Georgia Tech) on her Heisman list and left off CJ Spiller.
“If Dabo Swinney and Billy Napier live up to their promise of getting the ball to their playmakers, Spiller could easily work his way onto this list. He’s a dangerous return threat, and might be the top receiving running back in the ACC. He holds 12 school records. But consider this: Spiller’s carries and the number of snaps he was in on decreased last year, and he finished with 629 rushing yards — the fewest of his career, and not exactly Heisman numbers. Dwyer, on the other hand, had 200 carries for 1,395 yards and 12 touchdowns.”
Heather, I like a lot of the things you write, but seriously? I’m not trying to be a homer here but CJ was splitting significant time with a running back that will probably make an NFL roster this year. Granted we’ve got some great young running backs coming in to fill the shoes of James Davis but for all intents and purposes, Spiller will be our big offensive player this year.
- The guys over at The Legacyx4 found a pretty interesting article written by an Indianapolis Colts blogger who was recently attacked by a hack writer for the major Indy newspaper. Essentially, the writer attacked the blogger to try and substantiate his paycheck. I gotta agree with the Indy blogger not because I myself am a blogger, but in reality any idiot that’s just in the area and is lucky enough to get a job with a newspaper is automatically labeled a local authority on whatever beat they write about. Also, we’re not hindered at what we can and can’t say because we don’t have paying customers. I don’t know, you decide…
Do you think sports blogs should carry any weight at all??
- No (55%, 36 Votes)
- Yes (45%, 30 Votes)
Total Voters: 66
Loading ...Posted by Chili
That man is old enough to remember when Florida State was all-girls, and apparently some Nole fans carry on that proud tradition by continuing to be whiny bitches.
The other day, Deadspin picked up on this hilarious photo from Rivals of the Dabo Swinney Fantasy Camp or whatever it’s officially called, we mentioned it on our Twitter feed (I WILL NOT SAY THAT I “TWEETED” IT), it was seen in the forums and around the web. This morning, Tomahawk Nation took their turn with it, and couldn’t help but continue their completely unsubstantiated claim that Clemson coaches lied to FSU recruits with this caption:
About the 12 player thing, never mind that scholarship numbers wouldn’t have prevented more signees without a loss of scholarships for existing players (a not uncommon practice at some *cough SEC cough* schools), Clemson only signed 12 and that doesn’t seem like many so let’s not look into it any further but to mock them for their small class. Ha, see, we mocked you for your small class. Also never mind a mid-season coaching change or the inevitable recruiting shakeup that is bound to occur because of that, they only signed TWELVE it’s hilarious, they couldn’t even cop a baker’s dozen.
Anyway, back to that whole claim about lying to recruits, if you recall from the earlier situation detailed in this missive from Willy Mac and myself, TN used a bullshit anonymous source to claim Clemson coaches were waging a systematic misinformation campaign against Florida State by lying to recruits about the possible ramifications of FSU’s NCAA sanctions. Then, desperately grasping at straws in an attempt to legitimize their claim, they tried to use a single nebulous line from an ESPN interview with a recruit to prove their claim. Then they whined like fucking babies that Clemson should issue a formal apology to Florida State.
What is hilarious to me is that, not only did they essentially fabricate a situation, then use a quote from a recruit off an ESPN article with absolutely no inference of where he got the idea in his head that FSU’s sanctions might be big ones and attempted to use that quote to tie it back to their original messageboard gossip-level claim, they now look back on that situation and somehow in their Garnet colored glasses Dabo was “caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar.” Seriously? They’re reflecting on the supposed situation of several months ago as if it were an actual event. Really? If by “caught” you mean “not seen anywhere near or documented by any reliable source,” and by “cookie jar” you mean “complete fabrication of your imagination” then sure, I guess you’re right!
The commenters on that site are really something special, too. Usually that kind of gathering of backslapping, guffawing bufoons ends with a cookie covered with cum, here it just ends in comments that remind me why I’m glad we don’t write for SB Nation and why I wish crib death was far more common in the Florida panhandle.
Posted by Chili
EDSBS takes a crack at it and manages to make it compelling without resorting to another variation on the “ACC sucks” shtick we’ve put up with around the internets all season. Also, kudos on the Rusmore reference.
Posted by Chili
This is a story about a guy named Hank. Hank is a UNC fan. Hank is feeling on top of the world right about now. Hank also is delighting in the fact that Will Muschamp likely wouldn’t be coming to Clemson any time soon. Hank got a free eMachine with the purchase of his double (that’s what the trailer cognoscenti call a doublewide these days) and felt like he would lay into that site he heard about that was built around the premise of Muschamp to Clemson. Hank posts. Hank waits. Hank gets verbally dismissed brilliantly.
SolidBOOM!ed, motherfucker.
Posted by Block-C Staff
These answers are admittedly half-assed, but Chili has been sick and/or busy lately and Willy Mac has been AWOL, so we’re doing this just to get our contribution in to the Roundtable and hopefully do a bit better for the next one. Here’s a link to Tar Heel Mania’s responses. VT blog CollgeGameBalls’ responses. Legacy x4, From Old Virginia, BC Interruption, Gobbler Country.
1. Okay, first things first: could someone please explain what the hell just happened this past Saturday?
Well…. didn’t catch too many other games in the league. Clemson had a hell of a TUMULTUOUS week in which preparation for Saturday’s game took a backseat to a coaching change for a while. The team played better in some areas, but the offensive line still is pretty bad and that was reflected in the lack of running game (plus, Spiller was out) and the beating our QBs took, which led to some INTs. Penalties also screwed us, and the chorus of boos in the stadium evidenced the fact that the average Clemson fan still does not grasp the fact that you can be blocked into the kicker and flagged for it, as long as you weren’t illegally blocked into the kicker, and that a ref is going to flag it no matter how bad the kicker was acting. Coach Swinney and Billy Napier called plays a bit better than did Rob Spence, but you aren’t going to change up the entire offensive system in 96 hours. We now can be pretty sure the Tigers aren’t going to make a bowl this year, which is just fucking pathetic, regardless of how poor our line play is.
2. Good Maryland, Bad Maryland, we.ve seen a fair share of both in 2008. Good Maryland may be the best team in the ACC, while Bad Maryland could probably lose by 20 to anyone left on their schedule. Which Maryland do we see for the rest of the season and where do you expect the Terps to finish?
Well, personally, I won’t see any Maryland for the rest of the season. I guess they’ll continue to vacillate between dangerous and a danger to themselves, but overall have a respectable season and go to a decent bowl game.
3. Injuries are a part of college football, but they seem to have ravaged ACC offenses this year. Wake Forest has been without Sam Swank, Clemson is without C.J. Spiller, UNC is without T.J. Yates and Brandon Tate, Virginia Tech is without Kenny Lewis Jr., and NC State is without?just about everybody. Which team misses their fallen star(s) most and why?
I think that UNC will suffer the most. The loss of two key components of their offense in Yates and Tate will be a blow to a very special season that was in the makings for the Tarheels. However there is still some good talent in Chapel Hill and they could make it into the Championship Game.
Clemson, without a doubt, misses their linemen. The line was not terribly strong coming into this season, but nobody could’ve predicted that we’d see five different lineups in seven games and four different linemen missing playing time with injuries. Without a line making holes, Davis and Spiller have had reduced production. Without good blocking up front, our QBs have gotten injured and made hurried passes that derail our air attack. With an unproductive offense, our comparitively stout defense has had to be on the field way too much. A healthy offensive line wouldn’t have made this season as bountiful as some thought, but it certainly would’ve made it less miserable than it is now.
4. Last one: the pretty much unanimous division champs were Virginia Tech and Wake Forest last week. Given all the craziness that just happened, give us your updated ACC Championship scenario.
Florida State and either Virginia Tech or Georgia Tech.
