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 Chili

I wasn’t in Clemson for the first day of practice, but members of the media were, and here’s some info gleamed from their tweets. Follow Paul Strelow, Travis Sawchik, and Greg Wallace to get more updates in a more timely fashion than I can deliver at this point.

DeAndre Hopkins, Jaron Brown, and Rod McDowell were all returning kicks. A surprise kick returner was apparently DeAndre McDaniel. Christian Ponder saw firsthand the kind of hits D-Mac can deliver when carrying the ball, so maybe there’s something to this. The loss of CJ Spiller leaves a massive gap in this part of Clemson’s game and no one player will be able to take his place. In pass and kick receiving, Hopkins was praised by Coach Swinney for good hands. Paul Strelow was really high on Hopkins’ future potential as well.

Bryce McNeal also got some kudos from the writers and will be counted on to produce this year.

TE Dwayne Allen seems to be turning the most heads in terms of those receiving the oblong pigskin and should continue to buck the Tommy Bowden trend of underutilizing the tight end position.

Kyle Parker, to the surprise of few, was pretty rusty in his first outing back. Tajh Boyd is coming along nicely and was said to obviously have had a “great summer,” which to me would mean adult beverages on a beach and lots of grilled meat, but to him probably means things like dieting and lifting weights and watching film.

Dabo praise D-Mac, Gilchrest, and Jamie Parker Harper for their leadership.

That’s about all the blood I can squeeze from this stone for now.

Posted by Chili

PICK SOME GAMES Y’ALL

We’re going to start up the Block-C Yahoo! Pick Em league this year, but I wanted to ask you guys how you wanted it set up. Comment on this post letting me know yea/nay for confidence points and for whether we’re picking straight up or against the spread.

AND SO IT BEGINS

Today marked the first day of practice for both Clemson and Sakerlina. Clemson comes into practice looking to replace three huge offensive weapons in CJ Spiller, Jacoby Ford, and Michael Palmer. The wide receiver position is basically a gaping hole at this point, with Xavier Dye being the most experienced returning receiver with all of 14 catches under his belt. As the article says, the defense will be the strong point this year. I really like what Coach Steele is doing with that squad. Speaking of D…

TIME TO STEP IT UP

Da’Quan Bowers is a beast, no doubt, but a beast who has yet to produce results near worthy of the hype with which he entered Clemson two years ago. Travis Sawchik at the Post & Courier has penned an article on the subject of Bowers and the expectations thrust upon him. Sawchik writes that “In 955 career snaps at Clemson, Bowers has four sacks.” The article goes on to compare Bowers to everyone from Julius Peppers to Courtney Brown. Bowers vows this year to stop taking shortcuts, and quotes from coaches go on to support this newfound focus on excellence and his fight against the vile temptation of hot McDonalds on those long Clemson nights. I think I remember hearing a similar story last year… Right now Da’Quan is Garrett Morris, and we need him to be Eddie Murphy.

MCDANIEL ON THORPE AWARD LIST

DeAndre McDaniel is on the Thorpe Award watch list which is a prestigious award for the nation’s top defensive back and homemaker. I’m sure it’s one of those two things.

ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER ONE GONE

Clemson hitting coach Tom Riginos is leaving the Tigers to take the head coaching job at Winthrop. Pitching coach Kyle Bunn bolted for Bama last year.

Posted by Chili

According to a recent tweet from Joe Schad, the NCAA’s interest in Clemson stems from Facebook postings made by players. Again, this is not expected to be a serious issue. Here is the USA Today article citing the tweets.

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.