Posted by Chili

This man is a soothsayer, fear ye not his power of vision. Drink deep the kool-aid.

Posted by Willy Mac

Since I don’t have a “Know Your…” this week for you, enjoy some Levon Kirkland and a big ass Tiger. This is how Clemson football players used to take pictures. I guess there aren’t many big cat handlers in the area anymore.

Posted by Chili

@CUVinny on Twitter sent some audio my way of Danny Ford speaking to a local radio show about Clemson’s current situation and being a bit more candid than we’ve heard him be about Dabo in the past. Here’s a rundown of some of what he had to say:

On fans being nervous about Dabo here at mid-season and his future at Clemson: “Everyone in the administration says we don’t do anything in the middle of the year, they said it a couple years ago with Bowden, but it looked like he pulled the rug out from under [the AD]. ” He then went on to say that basically the only thing that’s going to turn the tide of fans being concerned with the team will, of course, be victories. “but NC State’s a lot better than they’ve been, Md is tough against CU, FSU is getting better every week and they’ve got to play down there. South Carolina is a lot better… [SC] beat ‘em last year and they’ve got to come up here to play this year, but that don’t mean a whole lot.”

“Clemson might not win more than one or two more football games then there’s gonna really be some talk.”

“People will let you know how you’re doing… [look at] how many people show up on Saturday.”

On OC Billy Napier’s playcalling: “The first two games BN was a small Spurrier, he was becoming a genius offensively, you know. Then the last two, the last three, they’re questioning what he’s doing.”

“I don’t think you can have a bad year after nine years of Coach Bowden, keep a lot of the same coaches, and be an average football team or below you’re second year, and somebody won’t think you need to make some kind of change. You can’t be satisfied with that, you can’t be satisfied with that as a head coach or with people stopping showing up to watch you play.”

He went on to talk about his relationship with Dabo when asked by the radio guy. It’s about what you’d expect, he’s around for advice and will give it when asked, but generally it’s Dabo’s show and he doesn’t need to be peeking over his shoulder. He reiterates that he never wants to see another practice session in his life so the team inviting him to watch has no appeal. Overall he was extremely to the point and blunt, just like he was in his career. He was just the slightest bit wait-and-see with Dabo and crew, but was also clear that if things aren’t working a change has to be made, be it mid-season or after a bad year like this one is shaping up to possibly be.

Posted by Chili

Ladies and gentlemen, your first “Bring Back Danny” post of 2010.

Posted by Chili

First, some sad news. As you have heard by now, Da’Quan Bowers’ father passed away suddenly of a heart attack this week in Augusta, GA. Bowers has left practice to be with his family and the rest of the team will join him Friday to pay their respects. Certainly our thoughts are with Da’Quan in this difficult time.

DANNYSTALGIA FIX

Get your fill of God’s musings on Dabo and the football season in this article from the Post & Courier. The choice quote of the article is Danny slapping some reality upside your head when asked about championships:

I don’t know that Clemson will ever win another national championship. I don’t know that we would have won another national championship. They are just so hard to win.

PICK EM’

Block-C pickem is live for this year. Confidence points and no spreads, as our informal poll of a couple weeks ago decided. Group ID:6206, password: kfuckingp. Join it or I will spray paint obscenities onto your family pets.


CDS x SVP

Coach Dabo Swinney was recently interviewed on the Scott Van Pelt show. SVP remains the single tolerable, neigh endearing, entity on ESPN and his interview with Dabo can be found here.


PRACTICE? WE TALKIN’ BOUT PRACTICE!

How’s practice going for the Tigers? By all accounts, pretty well. A couple of freshmen runningbacks, D.J. Howard and Demont Buice, were knocked out of practice with concussions for a few days when they got “welcomed to Clemson” (Swinney’s words) after Clemson’s version of the Oklahoma drill. DeAndre Hopkins is doing so well that it’s news when he doesn’t catch the ball.

Clemson had their first scrimmage of the season Tuesday morning, and both Kyle Parker (9-18, 114 yards, 14 yard TD run) and Tajh Boyd (7-18, 71 yards, 13 yard touchdown run). I think we’d all like to see a little better from Parker, but he’s been reportedly a little rusty and that should wear off in time. The receiver corps is trying to put itself together, and Coach Jeff Scott is trying to imbue them with an underdog mentality to combat the constant (and accurate) critique that they’re the biggest question mark on offense. 5 receivers each had 2 receptions, with Dwayne Allen leading the way with 49 yards.

As the Post & Courier points out, Rod McDowell has been impressive this preseason and will be working to fill the enormous shoes of one Clifford Spiller. He was said to be “tougher” since the Spring, and showed it on Tuesday with 76 yards on 12 carries and a long of 34.  Andre Ellington had 11 carries and rushed for 45 yards. Jamie Harper had 35 yards on 7 carries.


NUMBER CRUNCHIN

Which is my favorite type of crunchin, besides the one immediately proceeded by Munch. Sports nerd site Statistically Speaking has a breakdown by the numbers on the odds for each ACC team this coming season, and it is a post that you absolutely should check out. Clemson is predicted to finish just behind FSU in their division, and no surprise, VT is tabbed to take the Coastal. Can someone point out a publication that has anyone but FSU picked for the Atlantic? I mean I’m sure it’s somewhere, but I’ve never seem someone anointed so quickly, especially when the Jimbo era really began a while ago to anyone really looking at the program.


UH OH FOR UNC-CH

In opponent news, things seem to be getting more interesting up at Chapel Hill where connections between assistant coach John Blake and “prominent NFL agent” Gary Wichard are coming to light, with Wichard having signed more than his fair share of Blake’s former players. Barking Carnival has a great take on the bullshit being spewed by Wichard here. More shit is being stirred up now that former UNC player Cam Thomas admitted that he and Marvin Austin were flown to California by Kentwan Balmer, another UNC football alumnus, in the summer of 2009. The Raleigh News & Observer covers that rightchere.