Posted by Chili

If you don’t have a baseball cap with razor blades on the back, knife aviators, and a bear claw necklace on at all times, you may be highly vulnerable to attack. Don’t be.

Posted by Chili

All the faxes are in (except one, I’ll get to that later) and Clemson racked up an unbelievable day of commitments that filled a lot of pressing needs for the Tigers. When all was said and done the Tigers racked up four 5-star recruits (according to Rivals) and came away with a class ranked 8th by Rivals, 8th by ESPN, and 11th by Scout.

“Uh, this kid is in high school?”

The highlight of the class has got to be the signing day decisions of 5-star linebackers Tony Steward (above) out of St. Augustine, Florida and Stephone Anthony out of Wadesboro, NC. Ranked by some as the top two linebackers in the nation, the duo will make an immediate impact in a spot that looked to be a weak point coming into 2011. Add to that Lateek Townsend out of Bennettsville, SC, who is ranked as the 10th best LB in the nation.  Another position where the coaches significantly upgraded their talent was in WR. Clemson signed the #3 prep recruit in the nation in WR Martavis Bryant, and the number 2 and number 4 ranked WRs in the nation in Charone Peake and Sammy Watkins. The improved receiving should do well to compliment one of the nation’s top RB recruits, 5-star Mike Bellamy. Clemson added a late OL commitment from Spencer Region out of Alabama who should help add depth to the Clemson corps.

The numbers here are pretty impressive:

• Clemson signed four USA Today All-Americans (1st-Anthony, Steward, 2nd-Bellamy, Peake)
• The Tigers got three Parade All-Americans (1st-Anthony, Bellamy, 2nd-Townsend)
• Only four 5-star players have left Florida to play out-of-state since 2002: CJ Spiller in 2006 and Mike Bellamy, Tony Steward, and Sammy Watkins in this class
• Clemson hauled in a total of four 5-star players this year in Stephone Anthony, Mike Bellamy, Tony Steward, and Sammy Watkins. LSU brought in three and six other teams brought in two.
• Four players played in the US Army All-American game (Peake, Steward, Townsend, Watkins)
• Three played in the Under Armour All-American game (Anthony, Bellamy, Region)
• 7 players were on the 2011 ESPN.com top 150 list

SCOTT OUT, CALDWELL IN
Often times schools will announce staff changes immediately after signing day. Reasoning for this is pretty obvious as the schools don’t want any potential signees scared away by an appearance of staff instability. Clemson officially makes a change today when it swaps one former SEC head coach for another. It had long been a known fact that former Vanderbilt HC and well-respected OL coach Robbie Caldwell would be taking over the line while Brad Scott would step back and take an administrative role, but today it was finally and formally acknowledged by the University.

THE CHEESE STANDS ALONE
In an interesting note, Jadeveon Clowney, a DE from Rock Hill and the nation’s #1 overall recruit by most services is not announcing until his birthday, February 14. Now, I’ve been with a lot of other people all along in saying he’s going to be a Gamecock, and for a while it looked like Clemson wouldn’t even get a sniff at him. However, he took an official visit last weekend after being persuaded to do so by Dabo and said he had a great time and was now considering Clemson alongside the Gamecocks and Alabama. Lateek Townsend said to a Myrtle Beach TV station that he was trying to get Clowney to go to Clemson and that he thought Clowney would ultimately be a Tiger. Clowney has remarked positively about Clemson’s signees, saying he’d like to play with them. Dabo Swinney answered a question about room for late signees this evening by saying that they have room for one special player, an obvious nod at Clowney.

Is Clowney going to be a Clemson Tiger? No. I don’t think so.

Everything I’ve read about this guy leads me to believe that he has never had any intention on changing his allegiances; I’ve even heard that he’s a silent commit to the Gamecocks. If he’s mentioning Clemson as a real possibility late then I have to assume it is just a harmless ploy to create a little more drama around what is really a foregone conclusion. I don’t doubt he had a good time and maybe even gained a bit more affinity towards Clemson during his visit, but I don’t think it was a game-changer.

Posted by Chili

FIRED

News just hit today and was confirmed via Tiger Illustrated that Dabo Swinney fired offensive coordinator Billy Napier and running backs coach Andre Powell. Napier was a no-brainer. The Clemson offense was absolutely pathetic this year and after the bowl loss all Napier could do was take some blame and put some on a perceived leadership vacuum in the offensive players. I am not sure, however, details of the Powell firing. He contacted TI and let them know he was gone. It’s no surprise firings came on the offensive (and special teams, in Powell’s case) side of the ball. Right now we do not know if other coaches will be let go.

REACTIONS

Some messageboard denizens are taking this opportunity to hope for the firings of Brad and Jeff Scott. That’s not going to happen. For one, Clemson fans cannot and will not get over the fact that Scott was the head Gamecock back in the day. He is a hell of a hard worker and knows recruiting in the southeast as well as anyone. His recruiting repertoire is well worth his paycheck at Clemson. His son is another good recruiter and has a long future in the business.

CJ Spiller reacts to the news online.

5-star running back Mike Bellamy said that the loss of the OC was a big deal, but his relationship with Brad Scott was more important. One has to think we’d lose a couple recruits from the fallout over the firings. It could depend on where the two men go; if they bounce back to D1 assistant coaching positions right away they could take some recruits with them. Fans will be upset at losing recruits, but it’s really an instant gratification thing. Seeing 5-star and 4-star players ink papers is a nice thing to see right away, but long term development through competent coaching is far more rewarding in the long run.

A number of recruits have gone on record saying that the firings will not change their commitment to Clemson. None have yet to decommit, though I’d be shocked if it didn’t happen.

REPLACEMENTS?

Right now Ralph Friedgen has to be the number one target for the vacant offensive coordinator spot. TI reported that he expressed interest, and it’s being picked up elsewhere. Ralph would cost a good deal and would only be around until he got a better gig, which could only be a year, but his offensive expertise is unquestioned. He would be a home run hire for the Tigers. So much of a home run that I can’t possibly see it happening.

***UPDATE*** An official statement has been released by Clemson on the firings: LINK.

Posted by Chili

Miami 30, Clemson 21

Apologies for taking a while to get this posts. Due to the extremely long Saturday I needed an entire Sunday to recuperate.

Here are some ways that Clemson can improve its woeful receiving down the stretch:

- Hire NFL free agents
- Lobby the NCAA to ban the forward pass
- Preach that 5 loss seasons are as intrinsically “Clemson” as the color orange
- Go back in the past and not drop the ball in recruiting players who won’t drop the ball
- Just call all our receivers tight ends, seems to work for that position

Okay, so there’s all that.

- What we were told at the beginning of the semester was that Clemson’s receiver corps would be a weak spot. I had no idea just how weak they would be. I try to, when sober, steer clear of criticizing individual players. I mean, they’re out there busting their ass on the practice field right now while I’m sitting here eating a wings and things from Zaxby’s. I will just say that it appears that through four games Terrence Ashe, Xavier Dye, and Brandon Clear have not performed as needed. Even Coach Jeff Scott has said this. Coach Swinney has harangued the receivers on the sidelines for dropping balls and not creating separation from defenders. These will be recurring issues all season. DeAndre Hopkins, Marquan Jones, Bryce McNeal, and Jaron Brown will be counted  on more as the season goes along.

- Add to the receiver issues the fact that Kyle Parker tended to throw behind his targets most of the game. The kind of precision passes we saw against Auburn were few and far between this past Saturday. Clearly there were still some lingering effects from the spearing he took on the Plains.

- Clemson had six turnovers and only lost by 9 points. I, uh… guess that’s a positive?

- I really thought that our defense would be a strong point of the team this year and while there’s still plenty of time for them to come together, they seem marred by inexplicable brainfarts that give up huge offensive gains. Miami gashed the Tigers multiple times  Saturday. JACORY HARRIS HAD FOUR FUCKING TOUCHDOWNS. Jacory Harris. C’MON.

- Last year CJ Spiller had two 50+ yard touchdowns at Miami. We can talk all we want about how impressive Andre Ellington and Jamie Harper are, but you just can’t replace what CJ brought to the table.

- Was I the only person who thought that our playcalling was not respecting Miami’s speed? Going into the wildcat against them just seemed dumb. Again, some of this is because Miami had plenty of options at defense because they knew they didn’t have to be worried about our receivers and could load up ‘tween the tackles.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. Blogpoll up next.

Posted by Chili

Jack “The Assassin” Tatum passed away today at the age of 61. The former Raiders and Ohio State defensive back was known for his punishing open field hits on wide receivers. He crushed Sammy White of the Vikings in Super Bowl XI, knocking his helmet off in one of the best NFL Films clips I can remember. Most infamously he delivered the hit that paralyzed Darryl Stingley in a preseason game.

While nobody doubts the toughness of modern NFL defensive backs, Tatum represented on of the last of the menacing old guard that patrolled the defensive backfield. ESPN has an informative obit here.