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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.
Posted by Willy Mac
Thanks to CUTigers1984 for the image.
Posted by Chili
God doing a bit of snooping for his old team. Dabo will have a beer stained, handwritten report on the PJ offense on his desk by morning.
Posted by Willy Mac
It’s no secret that Clemson has both ends of the talent spectrum operating within the offensive scheme that Billy Napier has concocted to run every Saturday. As the season rolls on and criticism grows louder, Dabo Swinney and Napier are going to have to figure out a way to win quickly. With a defense that’s building a reputation for brick-walling offenses around the league it might be best to let them win the games and take a ground approach to offensive game planning. In essence, the coaches could take the team in a very vanilla direction in terms of the offensive game planning.
Time and time again the option attack offense has shown that, if run properly, it is nearly unstoppable (I know Tom: “Option, Option, Paul Johnson, Option, Pau-” …We get it already.) It’s especially good for teams that might not be able to block too well or match up physically with other teams. The problems with running a full blown Wing-T option is that it takes too long to implement, it’s one dimensional, and it won’t attract the players we need to create some noise on a large scale. However, a quick pitch option run out of any kind of power formation could potentially change the face of Clemson’s sour offense in dramatic fashion. The biggest plus about this approach is that it could be injected immediately in many of Clemson’s current sets creating many spread and I-formation option attacks that could be run with very little practice.
With this approach, going with a vanilla offense no longer has to be so… well… vanilla. It put’s greater emphasis on execution and holds everyone responsible as opposed to one player who didn’t do their assignment. In fact, the quick option paired with a staunch defense was the foundation that the glory days of Clemson football was built upon. Another huge plus to installing a quick option attack is that it could potentially take more pressure off of our stagnant passing attack and receivers by getting more defenders in the box to stop the run. Perhaps this could be the help the Tiger receivers needed. Their inability to get separation from the defensive coverage has been just one of a handful of glaring weaknesses they’ve shown throughout this season.
It also doesn’t necessarily mean that the passing game has to be cut out of the picture completely in this proposed offense. With Kyle Parker’s passer efficiency ratings falling and with the youth on the team starting to make itself apparent it might be one of the better choices to move forward for this team. An offense like this could also mature some very green receivers in a hurry and force them to concentrate on more than just catching the football. There are just as many cons as there are pros in adding a speed option. Quarterbacks can be injured very easily in an option attack offense. Some players might not buy into it as they were promised something different when they committed to Clemson.The idea could completely backfire and be abandoned after just a series or two.
The talent that the Tigers possess in terms of team speed and the “it” factor beg to differ against the cons. The situation at hand is practically begging for at least a minute sprinkling of running and pitching behind a blocking fullback or tight end. One thing an option attack can do is bring a team together and test their worth as a unit. It could answer several rumors about team unity and cohesion that the Tigers have been facing this year in more ways than just developing catchy phrases and gimmick slogan t-shirts.
Posted by Willy Mac
I gotta agree with him here… That call was bull hockey. It’s a big conspiracy against all Clemson folks. Danny’s my home boy. He keeps it real.
Posted by Willy Mac
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Image courtesy of Liz Hunter.
