Posted by Willy Mac

Boston is a great city.  If you’ve never been, you should go.  Never mind what people say about Bostonians being rude, the city being too cold, or there being too much crime. There are so many other good parts about Boston that are not only literally tucked away in nooks and crannys but they’re out in the open and just around the corner as well. All in all, the city itself is a great and crazy place, you just have to know what to look for and what to avoid.  Also, having a really good friend that lives there to point you in the right direction helps too (Thanks Boston Tom!). Willy Mac reports in on what he experienced in Beantown.

Friday

After getting in Thursday afternoon and checking out Boylston Street with Tom, we stayed out till pretty much all hours of the night.  Friday morning didn’t come in like a gentle breeze, it hit me like a ball-peen hammer to the head.  I can only liken it to a few other hang over I’ve ever had and more so a night that was after a pledge night from way back in my fraternity days. Some how I managed to get out of bed and thought that hiking all over Boston on the Freedom Trail would be a great idea.

It turned out that after I got something in my stomach and worked all the kinks out, it was one of the better parts of my entire trip.  The Freedom Trail is essentially a line of different colored bricks paved throughout the sidewalks and streets of Boston that take you on a self guided tour to the major historical points from the city’s history.  I got to see a bunch of really cool things along the way but one of the cooler points was the Ladder 1 Engine 8 fire house.  They had to be the nicest bunch of guys I met from area.

We also did go to Mike’s Pastry shop and it did live up to potential.  Although that was the first time I’ve ever eaten something and felt my blood pressure rise while I was doing it, the food was well worth it.  I literally think I came extremely close to lapsing into a diabetic coma right there on the street. For those of you that might want to order from the site, the Lobster tails are awesome.

Later that night my family and I checked out the Clemson Dinner in the Marriott Hotel at the wharf.  It was a very well put together dinner featuring lobsters as the main course that were great.  Afterwards the wife got me to go on a ghost tour of the city which I thought was going to be cheezey at first but turned out to be very fun and educational in the end.  One awesome point is that we learned all sorts of crazy things about the graveyards in the city.  People being buried on top of other peoples’ graves, the cultural stigma of having skulls on your tombstone, and the defamation tactics of the British in the War of 1812. Below is a picture of the grave of one of the greatest American patriots ever.  Who is Daniel Malcolm, you ask?  He was an officer in the American Army whose sole responsibility was to sneak booze into the country during the Revolutionary War.  The British responded by shooting his headstone with their muskets as you can see.

Saturday

Saturday morning I spent backtracking what I’d seen on the ghost tour so that I could get a grasp on what I had seen in the daylight.  A cool place I took a look back at was the graveyard in the middle of the city known as the Granary.  In the graveyard lay Ben Franklin’s parents, Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Sam Adams (picture below).

Ok, that’s the last graveyard picture, I swear. Boston is all about their grave sites though I guess it being Halloween guided me on where to visit this time, making it a little morbid centric. There were more graves that were shot by the British there as well.  Just down the street is the Omni Park Hotel, which was also claimed to be one of the most haunted hotels in the world. The coolest part of this area of town though was the bar right across the street from the Granary.  It dubbed itself, “The only place you can toast the grave of Sam Adams, with a Sam Adams.” The Beantown Pub also had some great eats as well.  I’ve never had a better BEC sandwich anywhere.

Onward to the game where I’ve already given you the thoughts on the game. I will add that they have the worst fans ever. I mean, they pipe in sound worse than any team in America. Literally, their athletic department put a giant system in their stadium and pointed the microphones right at the student sections and the band. It is really bad. They generate little noise when the microphones are down.

We capped off the night with Vinny T’s and Cigar Masters, both of which turned out to be outstanding.  I was a little worried that Vinny T’s wouldn’t be good the second time around but not so.  It was actually even better now that I knew what to look for.  Oh yeah, turns out it was in fact started by Vinny Testaverde, but he sold it a few months ago. I think downtown Greenville could definitely benefit from a cigar lounge/late night bar like Cigar Masters but I don’t think it would last.

Posted by Willy Mac

The Game

Sorry this came so late guys. Overall, most of the media outlets and pundits have discussed the game in depth.  One of the most important points that we can take away from this game is that there is still hope to salvage this team and that the Clemson world is not coming to an end.  We got up 17 – 0 at the half, then somehow the ghost curse of Tommy Bowden invaded Chestnut Hill and everything started going wrong.  We were finally able to pull ourselves out of the quicksand and beat our own self destruct mode.  That’s a really big foundation to build on for the remainder of the season.  You can check out the CUAD box score here. Here are a few things to chew on:

- The team seems as if it is no longer struggling to find itself.  They’re starting to come together and they’re starting to play like they care and that they have a purpose.  They ran through pregame drills with a certain concentration and pop they haven’t had previously.  They displayed in different ways that they were now united as a team.

- Thomas Austin was apparently furious about being moved to guard before the game, but it looks as if that decision turned out to be a great one as he was awarded ACC Player of the Week.  Surprisingly, Bobby Hutchinson didn’t do too badly.  Also on that link, you’ll see that CJ Spiller was also awarded ACC Player of the Week.

- Keeping with CJ, he is officially a man beast and there shouldn’t be a Clemson fan left that questions him.  It’s safe to say that any heartache over his growing pains or transfer-drama should be wiped clean from the slate.  Spiller got knocked woozy and any other player would have stayed out.  He came back and won’t he game.  Get some.

- The trophy idea is a little cheezy, but it is a good olive branch to extend especially given the overwhelming dissatisfaction of the Clemson fans showed over the 2006 game that was played in Boston.  It seems as if the BC students are just trash.  The older Boston College fans are genuinely interested in the game and are friendly. Maybe this thing can get some momentum underneath it and become a neat thing one day.

- What you guys didn’t see, as we’ve mentioned in the comments of previous posts is that the players went over to the fans to celebrate.  James Davis led the charge.  What was really cool is that Dabo and CJ brought the trophy over to the fans section. It feels really good to finally beat Boston College since their arrival into our conference.

- The referees weren’t very good at all.  It’s an old horse to beat on and usually you get the over critical fan from the opposing team that thought the officials did a poor job but c’mon.  Seriously. There was some pretty bad holding going both ways, but BC got away with more of it.  That pass interference call in the endzone against us was absolute crap.  Also, the large discussion surrounding the Aaron Kelly touchdown shouldn’t have taken place.  They should have figured out the problem, made a quick decision, and let the replay work it out.  Speaking of replay, it’s probably a good idea to make sure the instant replay is working before the game starts next time.  Lastly, most of the gripes mentioned above can be seen as judgment calls and that’s a fair counterpoint.  It’s just nerve racking when they allowed a few late hits to occur against Clemson and not call them.  When it comes to that, the yellow hankies need to start flying because people can start getting hurt in those situations.

- We need to find a solution to Cullen Harper.  It’s hard to imagine how good he was last year as compared to this year.  You can’t judge him as a person and it’s not right that a lot of people are, but as a quarterback he needs to grab a seat.  Don’t even give him the headset.  Willy Korn’s injury must be worse than was reported.  Also, there must be a large drop off in talent between Cullen/Willy and Kyle Parker (who is redshirted)/Michael Wade.

And yes, this just happened:

Posted by Willy Mac

For those of you actually going up to Boston to catch the game, we’ve put together a list of some things to check out as Willy Mac went up there back in 2006.  If you haven’t gone up to Boston for the game you should check it out sometime. Since there are a bunch of Tiger fans staying near or at Copley Square, most of the items we’ve put on this list are located close by there.

Be sure to pack plenty of warm clothes, thermal underwear, and jackets (Thanks mom!) as it will be very cold, ranging from lows in the mid twenties to highs in the mid fifties.  We’ve found a ten day forecast from Weather.com for you guys.

Vinny T’s

This is a great Italian restaurant that is extremely accommodating. Dress nice but not too nice.  The menu is fairly priced but you might want to set up reservations in advance if eating dinner there.  Here is a link to their corporate website.  Here is a link to the contact info and a review for the restaurant near Copley Square. At first we thought that Vinny Testaverde had something to do with this joint but apparently this isn’t so.

Copley Place shopping mall

There is a pretty good mall set up and connected to the major hotels.  It kind of resembles a really nice Peachtree Plaza.  If anything, it’d be a nice suggestion if you’re bringing chicks along for the trip.

Cigar Masters

Cigar Masters is a very good cigar lounge/shop located just a few blocks from the Copley Square area.  The website says you need reservations but Willy Mac went there in 2006 and got in just fine without any.

Sam Adams Brewery

This is probably one of the cooler parts of a trip to Boston.  You can check out their tour schedules on their website. It’s not the main brewery, but it is a lot of fun.  They take you through the history of the Boston Beer Company, Jim Koch, and the process they use to make the beer.  At the end there is a gift shop as well as a free pitcher of whatever booze they have on tap.  Definitely a must see.

Boylston Street

Located just a few blocks from Copley, this is where a bunch of good bars, pubs, and restaurants are located.  When in doubt, just find that street and you’ll be fine.  One tip: the streets heading towards the bay are all in alphabetical order if you get lost.  Oh yeah, one more tip: Don’t go to a bar named Ramrod.  Don’t even google it.  Trust me, I fell on that grenade for you already.

Posted by Willy Mac

Willy Mac had the chance to get to the game this past weekend and take in the city for the weekend.  Here is a poorly constructed remembrance of the happenings.

Friday

I got into town around four (beating not only Friday work traffic, but most of the construction-based jam up as well) and checked into the Westin. That one there at Peachtree Plaza is usually a toss up. When it’s good, it’s good. When it’s bad, it’s astonishingly terrible. This time it was decent, mostly because my room and view were incredible. I could see everything I needed for the weekend.

After settling in, I checked out College Gameday Live which was broadcasting from the stage that was set up. It was pretty cool to watch it on television, then look down and see it as it was being broadcast.  I headed to Olympic Park to meet my ESPN contact after a few minutes of rest. I met with my contact, Mike Humes of the ESPN Public Relations department.  Mike was entirely cool and his tour of the area really made my weekend. What was even cooler was that Mike had contacted me.

I got to sit in on a question and answer informal interview dinner put on by the Home Depot. The Talent (that’s what the ESPN guys call Corso, Fowler, Kirk) were answering questions from the crowd and I got a quote from Herbstreit which is painfully useless now. [When asked about the inexperienced linebackers] “The biggest question will be line, but, I talked to Keonning on Tuesday, and he said that this group of linebackers may be inexperienced but they’re the best bunch he’s ever coached. He’s confident that the linebackers will do well.” BLAM! Quote One for Willy Mac has been blown out of the sky. The linebackers weren’t too bad, but nobody played well.

This is when I got my first taste of how bad Alabama fans were. Just your typical brand of SEC fan that likes to get embarrassingly drunk, wear outlandishly trashy clothing and accoutrement, and be as overbearing and dimwitted as humanly possible.  Check out this guy for a taste:

After that hullabaloo, Mike showed me the production truck which is beyond awesome. He told me so much that at one point I kinda got lost and just started staring at the television screens and just started nodding. I felt like a prick doing it but it was so much to take in at first. It really was incredible. I think it’s pretty nuts how these guys do this week in and week out for most of the year (to include basketball as well). You gotta figure that Bristol (That’s the one in Connecticut for you NASCAR centric readers) isn’t close to their destinations, which I’d put the house on betting that the majority aren’t in the north eastern United States.

Then I got to go to the Talent (there’s that word again) bus and see the awesomeness that they get to hang out in. Hands down the coolest bus ever. I mean, as well as you can figure, it’s hooked up. Also, they have live satellite feeds connected via satellite to the bus so they can pretty much check out any game that is being filmed from their bus. Another cool thing is Desmond Howard’s live chat segment is done from that bus. On the bus I got to see Herbie and he’s pretty cool.

As I was headed out Mike got me to meet Fowler and we caught up on the 2006 Gameday when they came to Clemson for the Georgia Tech game. Good times abound and I got another killer quote that won’t pan out. [When asked about his experience with his Clemson Gameday experience] “We look forward to it when it’s on the schedule. We’ve had a blast both times (I guess referring to the trip they were on at the moment as well) and I hope your season goes as expected so we can see you guys again.” OH SNAP! We’re down two quotes now people.

Friday night saw a nice dinner at Sotto Sotto that was awesome. Thanks again Milton! Also, apparently I like sweet balsamic vinegar to dip bread in a lot. I also like Italian wine as well. After that we hit the Brickstore Pub with reader Tiger Sack who I’m proud to say has graduated to the big boy beer, finally, after years of grooming his redneck, Honea Path palette with bud diesel. The night came to an end when I rode the MARTA home (no shivving took place, although one guy on there needed it). Then we found this kid when we got home:

Saturday

Saturday had an early start as I woke up at 7:30 and saw people already lined up to get into the inside barricade for Gameday from my window. I threw on some clothes and was down there by eight with “Tiger Sack” and his brother where we had excellent position just beyond the second barricade. We got on television a few good times, even before they started rolling. On a preview walk-by shot I got a little too excited and whilst yelling I accidentally fired some spit (AKA “The Holy Spirit” for you Rackbar fans) onto the camera lens. Not just a little where it’s like “Oh it’s all good” and then dude holding the camera nonchalantly wipes it off with his shirt. No friend. A big ass glob of it. I felt bad. Also, we found a guy with a “Block C” beer funnel.  Give them a check at Gameday Guzzler. It holds four beers friends.  Get some. GET SOME.

Tiger Sack and his brother had to leave and my buddies Scott and Roy showed up to help. Oh, they brought beer and Roy’s loud ass started organizing freaking chants and yelling semi-vulgar things at Erin Andrews… or at least I was feeding him lines and he wussed out on most of them. By the way, big ups to my lady who not only rocked out, but helped me out with everything as well. I say this cause she’s a trooper and because she put up with a guy standing beside us who was literally a creep. Like, you know the old guy by himself, not sporting team colors and taking pictures of hot girls he doesn’t know whether they know it themselves or not? Yeah, that’s this guy, times two. Plus he had that hot and damp halitosis breath that only a creepy pedophile would have and he wasn’t afraid to blow it on any of us. By the way, the best sign was my buddy Wofford’s who printed a humongous artistic piece as shown with his crew here:

Gameday ended and I caught back up with Mike and a writer from SI.com named Will and we checked out the madness that was the post broadcast public relations scramble. There I got stung by a bee and almost had my day ruined were it not for Mike getting me some cold water to quell the half heat, half Budweiser dehydration.

I also took an awkward picture with Lee Corso. We got together and he thought the picture had taken when it hadn’t so he shook my hand and started walking away when the picture finally snapped so it just looks like I’m some crazy Clemson Jehovah’s witness and he wants nothing to do with me and just wants nothing more than to get the hell away from me. Or who knows, maybe he just thought I was a creep… whatever. The picture is still pretty pricelessly hilarious. I also got a quote from him to. [When asked about Kirk's comments on the linebackers] “I don’t know about the linebackers, but I sure am excited to see James Davis and CJ Spiller in action tonight!” POW! I was hoping that last sound was me eating a shotgun barrel for being a Clemson fan, but it was just my third and final quote getting killed. Man, I thought I had GOLD! Also, you can’t get mad at the guys for ripping us on television because they did put most of their eggs into our basket and we pretty much turned over that basket on the pavement.

After the ESPN tour was Legal Seafood and then on to the Clemson shindig at Stats. I saw reader Robert (Enough Already from “Short Musings“) there and his group and handed out some t-shirts. The beer was flowing like wine at this point, and we were rolling the wheels towards a pretty good day of tailgating.

Back to the hotel… shit, shower, and shave. We met up with reader Joey B and his lady and grabbed a bite to eat at the CNN center before the game. It’s sad really. We put on those little Clemson eye black stickers: half because we thought it was a good drunk idea; half to be funny… Yeah, they came off around 5 minutes left in the first quarter. Anyways, we caught up with some college buddies of Chili’s ‘n’ mines and it turns out Krella didn’t die after all… hope that life insurance payoff is working out for ya buddy!

As for the game, you can figure on that but I was directly in a Bammer dominated Clemson section. One exciting point here is that I got the scenario where an old codger payed good money for these seats and he’ll be damned if he’s gonna have some younguns who also payed good money to stand up in front of him at the football game. Dude yelled at me to sit down and I semi went off on him. I mean, I was standing for the team entrances. If you don’t plan on standing some or don’t want to be stood in front of then DON’T COME TO A FOOTBALL GAME, OLD FART. We took it to Taco Mac to avoid any other shouting matches, downed some more beer, ate wings, and left late in the third quarter. Now I almost know what it feels like to be a Gamecock fan. I say almost because they would have left at halftime or beginning of the third, like most Clemson fans did (which I don’t blame them for). Angry Gamecock mouth breathers in the comments section in 3… 2… 1…

The walk home was the worst. Some Alabama fans left early just to talk shit but what can you expect. I got spit on from the back by some mountain of a man and made the best decision of my life by not trying to fight the guy. I just called him a redneck piece of trash and walked away. Some ways down, I was in a crowd of Clemson fans that had a bottle thrown at them.

All in all I had a great time until around 8:20 pm on Saturday night, but, oh well. What’s done is done and again, hats off to Alabama. We got whipped. I kinda can’t wait for the rest of this year because I know it’s going to be more tailgating-centric for me. Look for us at future games and don’t be afraid to stop and talk to us if you see us out. I know for sure that Chili is gonna be at the FSU game and I will be up in Boston. Thanks again to everyone who helped with Gameday and thanks again to Mike Humes.

Posted by Willy Mac

You know, usually we give things two days to cool off after a loss… then one of us will write the wrap up. Well, I got to Monday afternoon and turned on my DVR and started to watch the game. Then I had to stop. It made me physically ill. A wave of terrible memories of the sights, smells (mostly of the drunk and ugly KU fans), and etc etc [insert hack material and terrible, corny jokes here] of last Friday’s clusterfuck of a bowl game came rushing back to me.

Let me start by saying this much. If you like Myrtle Beach, and I mean, genuinely like the tourist trap aspect of it, then you’d love the Gaylord Hotel. The rooms and the hotel itself is nice. There’s a problem though, its like five HUGE hotels connected by two giant malls and a huge courtyard. Every convention you could imagine was in Nashville staying at the Gaylord Hotel. We get to the hotel at 8 PM only to be informed that our rooms are not ready. Check out is at 11 AM. Check in is at 3 PM. We get to the hotel at 8 PM only to be informed that our rooms are not ready. On top of all this, of course we have some disgusting woman who takes no pride in personal appearance (she was more of a pear shape rather than a coke bottle… I’d never seen a fat girl without big boobs until I met her.) Then we finally get a desk manager of the age of 26 who informs us that he graduated from Hampden Sydney and that the Gaylord Hotel is HIS hotel and he will have us escorted out if we continue to act displeased, even though it is completely justified and even though we were treated poorly and we get to the hotel at 8 PM only to be informed that our rooms are not ready. Have I mentioned that? I calmly explain to him that he is a closet homosexual and his degree is worth shyte. Then we finally get the on shift manager who explains to us that the hotel is very sorry and that they have overbooked. We were finally given some decent rooms and some compensation… by the way, the hotel manager that helped us out graduated from South Carolina of all places. Long story short, the average fuse on a member of the Mac family is very short.

When we arrived at the shithole that was the Tennessee Titans stadium, it was flooded with blue and white with nary a bit of orange to be seen. We were totally outnumbered. It would have been neat if UK fans were as cool as TAMU fans, but not so much. Imagine USC fans dressed in blue and white that are far more desperate. To accompany the UK fanbase’s already growing annoyingness… was their cheer. C-A-T-S CATS! CATS! CATS! I got into an argument with a UK fan after I had simply chanted “J-E-T-S JETS! JETS! JETS!” He asked me, “Jyust whut are ewe trayan tuh imply there sitty boy.” Floored for many reasons, I stated that Clemson was far more of a country school than UK, we’ve just been to a few bowl games and know how to act/dress/talk/handle ourselves at them. Then I stated that any team in sports with three to six letters in it’s name does the SAME stupid cheer. He quipped, “Well ya’ll do it to!” I informed him that unfortunately for his argument, our cheer was steeped in rich military tradition because it is an actual cadence count that cadets would sound off with while marching… while their’s was just made up *cough, stolen, cough* some drunk Saturday. Yes folks, I got into a shouting match with a UK fan over which teams cheer was better. And yes, my ego was stroked after I won. I know, I’m an idiot and an asshole. Deal with it. Well, his closing argument was “Well, yeah? Fuck you.” Me. “Ok. good.” UK fan. “Yeah, I said it.” Me. “I heard you… congratulations on your bowl invitations the past seven years… wait… that didn’t happen.” The guy was plastered so I pulled anchor before fists started flying and just made my way to my seat in time for the game. The Nashville jail did not sound pleasing to me.

Finally, the game. Here is my assessment after finally making it through the replay.

- Proctor, Stuckey, the team, overall played well, but only one stat counts. I pretty much expected Proctor to blow the game but he gave a genuinely good effort and didn’t screw anything up… for the most part. There were some bad decisions, but he’s a first year QB so that’s expected. The team played hard and for that I am proud.

- Overall coached poorly. We abandoned the running game that was killing UK. I don’t understand why you would do that. Davis and Spiller had 13 carries for a combined 77 yards. Thats an average of 5.9 yards per carry. IF UK HAS TROUBLE STOPPING THE RUN, THEN RUN THE BALL. Tommy Bowden is still timid in the redzone and is now officially hopeless. Give it a few more losses like this and Tommy Bowden should find a real estate agent.

- Stupid penalties. After the second missed field goal in the first half, one of our players had their helmet ripped off. Flags flew everywhere. That’s the point you pick up your helmet and walk off the field. First and goal, Clemson. But no, we’ve got to be the rap superstars of the college football world. A guy ran his mouth and more flags flew… offsetting penalties, loss of downs, first and ten, Kentucky.

- No Reggie… that’s a shitty way to send him out Tommy, I’ll never forgive you for that one. Reggie has won you games Tommy, and you don’t even have the custard in you to give him ONE SINGLE CARRY.

- We got hosed ref wise. I hate to be one of those fans that blames it on that, but hey, it’s true. A good referee once told me, “You know the refs did a good job if you didn’t notice them during the game.” Let’s just say, those referees stuck out like a turd in a punch bowl. Two calls really could have changed the game. The Proctor fumble which was clearly NOT a fumble. Guess who doesn’t have the nuts to throw the red flag??? Bowden. Same thing in the USC game. TOMMY, THAT RED FLAG IS THERE FOR A REASON. LIFE IS FULL OF CHANCES, TAKE ONE PLEASE. The other bad call was when the Kentucky DB clearly pushed down Chansi Stuckey in the endzone and was left wide open to make the interception. I guess that’s the football gods (Danny Ford & Co.) shitting on our chests for Gardner in 2000. But Gardner didn’t push off, he just positioned himself well.

- Nashville sucked overall. I never want to go back to the Music City Bowl and Tommy Bowden better not take us back there anytime soon.

Look, all I want is a championship. A real meaningful championship. It could be an ACC or natty… I don’t care. Then I’ll give Bowden a break if we have more mediocre seasons. I JUST WANT ONE. IS ONE OUT OF SEVEN YEARS TOO MUCH TO ASK? I guess every one trained Rocky style while Bowden was busy on his ranch for this game.

Willy Mac: Representin’ the struggles of the Clemson fans that went to Nashville.

Meanwhile, suddenly stumbling on DFIG…

“Wait… is that Kunta? Oh hell no that ain’t right.”