For those of you trying to lower your expectations for the football team this year, this information will not help. Heather Dinich at ESPN has compiled her list of the ACC’s Top 30 players. Clemson landed 5 players on the list, which tied for the most with Virginia Tech.

Here’s how Clemson’s players fit in (with Dinich’s commentary available at each link):
1 - CJ Spiller
5 - Thomas Austin
17 - Jacoby Ford
20 - Chris Chancellor
24 - Da’Quan Bowers

There’s a good interview with Dabo by Travis Sawchik over at the P&C (note: the formatting on their site is a little off, so some of the questions aren’t bolded and it looks like Dabo is talking to himself, or, at least, I hope that’s what’s going on). Having read it, I feel a lot more comfortable with Dabo as the head coach. This paragraph stands out:

I can draw Xs and Os all day on that board; a lot of coaches come in and do great things on the board, but coaching and leadership is really about getting people to do things they don’t want to do, getting them to places they can’t take themselves. Motivating people to be great. … Coach (Bear) Bryant also talked about there are four kinds of players. You’ve got those players that have it and give it, like C.J. Spiller. You have players that have it but won’t give it — you want to get rid of those guys. Then you have players that don’t have it — and this is what the majority of your team is — but don’t know they don’t have it and give way beyond their ability. And then you have the guys that don’t have it, and know they don’t have it. You want to be nice to them because they will make great alums. … You’ve got to be able to motivate all those different guys. … I think that’s what separates good coaches from bad coaches.

Hopefully Dabo’s thoughts are translated to actions. In short, he has to convince the team that winning is more important than they currently believe it to be; this is no small task.

So you’ve got guys who A) have it and give it, B) have it and don’t give it, C) don’t have it but give it, and D) don’t have it and don’t give it. One criticism for Bowden was that he was much better at finding the “have its” than he was at developing the “don’t give its”. Any coach who can do both is going to enjoy a long and successful career.

Via Larry Williams

For my first post I’ll tell you all how we go 7-5, this year . . .

Sept. 5 Middle Tennessee
The tigers will come out looking strong with Willy Korn at the helm throwing and scrambling like a madman. All 55,000 fans in attendance will be someone happy with the victory, but astonished at when Willy takes off his helmet to reveal his new orange hair.

Clemson 49 MT 6

Sept. 10 at Georgia Tech (ESPN)
This grueling grudge match will leave both teams feeling like losers, but GT will win 12-9. Willy Korn will be sacked no less than 5 times, and Parker will be the new poster boy for T-netters. Oh, and CJ Spiller would have pulled a groin muscle or something and won’t be able to play.

Clemson 9 (1 TD, 1FG, 1 missed extra point) GT 12 (1 safety, 1 TD, 1 FG)

Sept. 19 Boston College
Let’s face it. Boston College sucks, but we choke, big time. Willy throws two interceptions, and CJ is still out due to injury. Boyd comes in and scores a TD to give us hope, but then he is knocked out and leaves the game with a concussion muttering something about a Roy Orbison tattoo.
Okay, with a different schedule, this game just became a little more important. Our guys know we have to get the job done, and BC does suck. CJ will not let us lose this one.

Clemson 24 BC 17

Sept. 26 Central Michigan
Willy is threatened by almost losing his starting position. Incidentally, CJ is better. The tigers have a “complete” game against a “complete” pushover.

Clemson 70 CM 14

Sept. 26 TCU (oh shit)
Well, on the one hand, I’m happy to play a competitive team. On the other, fuck.

Clemson 10 TCU 35

Oct. 3 at Maryland
Riding high from their display of awesomeness from beating someone, the Tigers roll into Maryland feeling pretty cool, and Maryland reminds them what it is like to play a real team. Clemson gets their act together late in the game, but Ron Cherry is ref. Okay, we will still win this game because fuck Maryland. CJ will be back, and Willy or Parker will have his act together.

Clemson 35 MD 28

Oct. 17 Wake Forest.
Clemson has their act together. They are pissed, and want revenge. Incidentally, WF’s QB is questionable for the game and . . . WHAMMIE!!

Clemson 42 WF 17

Oct. 24 at Miami
The tigers are feeling like a real football team again. Tardnetters are going crazy. A new hip slogan is made- something like, I don’t know – Orange U Glad to be a Tiger! - The tigers play well. UM gets lucky. We don’t really know why we lost.

Clemson 21 UM 22

Oct. 31 Coastal Carolina
Parker and Boyd flip a quarter to see who gets to play the second half.

Clemson 49 CC 14

Nov. 7 Florida State
Playing a patsy before playing a giant is not as beneficial as you may think. The tigers come out strong, rested, and look good early, but FSU plays the whole game, and Bobby wants some.

Clemson 28 FSU 35

Nov. 14 at NC State
We should have won that last game . . . poor state.

Clemson 35 NC State 12

Nov. 21 Virginia
Orange you glad to be a Tiger! R U ALL IN! This is the pre USCe warm up game. We’re still pissed and healthy and want to make a statement . . .

Clemson 31 Virginia 17

Nov. 28 at South Carolina
If we win this game, Spurrier will never coach again. For one game a year, we click on all cylinders. This game will make us think we should be ranked. We think of this year as a rebuilding year despite the fact that we really haven’t changed anything. We play to our potential. We are ready to go bowling . . . so is USC. Clemson wins because fuck USC.

Clemson 28 USC 17

With our traveling fan base we’re going bowling and talking about how we’ll improve next year. This is a rebuilding year. A true rebuilding year, but I think we’ll still feel a little robbed with 7-5. I want to go to a crappy bowl game, and win. There, I said it. Give me the Humiliation Bowl with an 8-5 record

I said, “Let me tell you what I’m looking for in a fuckin’ tree. I’m looking for a tree that you can tell is alive even if you don’t know shit about trees.”
-Ron White

With the uninspired and uninspiring Clemson baseball season at a recent end, my mind has wandered to the subject of coaching expectations (and today’s Block-C post reminds me of the subject). It occurs to me that our expectations are frequently far too-short sighted. They’re adjusted and readjusted after every game (after every win we expect great things, and after every loss we know that the future is doomed). We even re-adjust expectations season after season. However we rarely write down, in advance, just what it is we expect over, say, the next three years. This lack of clarity, I think, leads to the Tommy Bowden situation where his retention could constantly be justified despite the fact that he really wasn’t accomplishing things that he should have been. All this leads me to ask: for Dabo to keep his job at the end of his 3rd season, what must he accomplish? Perhaps the best follow up question is, are Clemson fans willing to create and stick to such a list of accomplishments?

Now that we’re beyond the championshipless years of the Tommy Bowden era, I feel we’re definitely looking for more than just being an above average football team. Using that as something of a guide, I have only two requirements for Dabo.
1.) Make it to at least two bowl games
2.) Make it to at least one ACC championship game
If the team doesn’t do those two things, then I’ll be ready to move on.

En route to winning the Clemson regional yesterday and advancing to the Super Regionals, Kyle Parker had 2 RBIs, and now the media seem to be treating him like a God. I wish very good things for Kyle, but I’m already sick of the media love fest. Moreover, I simply fail to see how a guy who “was mired in the worst slump of his college career”, who was benched for the start of the deciding game in the regional can be considered “clutch”.

This past Sunday, I read Will Vandervort’s (Roy Philpott’s? It’s really hard to tell) post about why Swinney “will get the job done”, whatever the hell that actually means. He concludes:

There is no doubt in my mind that Dabo Swinney will get the job done at Clemson. His history says he will.

I find his abundance of faith disturbing.

I mean, no doubt? None? Zero? Nada? Is he even aware that “no doubt” isn’t just some band?

Anyway, let’s look to the article for Dabo’s history:

He was an A-student in high school despite playing three sports and dealing with serious family issues at home, and keep in mind he was still trying to be a teenager.

Was he an A-student or a valedictorian?

He somehow worked his way to the University of Alabama – his dream at the time – to attend school. Despite those that said there was no way he could make it or could find the funds to attend college, he made it happen.

Good for him, but lots of people go to college.

“I was going to be a doctor. I majored in biology and was going to make something of myself. I wanted a better life.”

FAIL.

When he decided to walk on to the football team at Alabama people laughed at him and coaches said they doubted he could make the team. What did he do? He made the team.

When he said he was going to earn a scholarship and was going to play instead of just being a punching bag for the starters, again people doubted him. What did he do? He played and he won a national championship by doing it.

Great, he made the team. That’s quite an accomplishment. Maybe played with all of his potential, but that didn’t make him the best on the team or anything. Effort is only part of this equation.

When he decided he was going to be a coach at Alabama, he became one of the best young assistants in the country.

“One of the best”, or “the best”? “One of the best young assistants”, or “one of the assistants in the country, period?”

While staying at Alabama and working out in the summer, Swinney took on a job as a door-to-door salesman for a knife and kitchen company. What did he do? He became one of the company’s top salesmen and was honored for such.

After leaving Alabama in 2000, Swinney got involved in commercial real estate at AIG Baker. What did he do?

“I made more money than I had ever made in my life while I was there,” Swinney said.

Apparently he didn’t even rank as one of the best commercial real estate people at AIG, let alone in the entire industry.

After joining the Clemson staff, Swinney was out to prove he made the right choice. He instantly became a difference maker as Clemson’s wide receivers coach – coaching an All-ACC first-team receiver each year as the position coach – while becoming one of the top recruiters in the country.

Did he turn the player into an All-ACC receiver? Or was he just the coach of a kid who was going to do that anyway?

Only All-ACC? Not All-American?

Again, “one of the top recruiters”, or “the top recruiter”?

Then last year came. No one gave Clemson a shot to do anything after the school fired Tommy Bowden at midseason. I heard some say; “the Tigers would not win another game.” But Swinney again proved he can get the job done.

There are those out there that say he isn’t a proven coach. Hello! If getting your team to go 4-2 when all else seemed lost than I don’t know what a proven coach is.

By the way, I’m not counting the Georgia Tech game because having less than three days to prepare for a team with all that was going on you can’t really count that. Clemson University should be charged with that loss. And even with all that, Clemson nearly won that game.

The job was to go 4-and-fucking-2?

Here’s a tip, Will/Roy, you don’t know what a proven coach is. Not that it really matters though, because proven coaches stink up the sidelines all the time.

By these accounts, Dabo has done pretty well with the opportunities he’s had. That’s great. However, he has rarely been the best. If he’s only one of the best head coaches in the ACC, then that won’t be good enough. More importantly, if you look at any head coach in college football, you will undoubtedly find a string of successes in their life. No one makes it to the top by sucking. But plenty of people make it to the head coaching level only to find out for the first time that they can’t will their way into success. The phrase, “past returns are not an indication of future performance” should be flashing in big bright lights in your mind right now. And on that Will/Roy can say that they have “no doubt”? That implies a serious lie, serious lack of thought, or a seriously low bar for whatever “the job” is. I hope that Dabo goes on to be a great coach, or at least, one who can win some ACC crowns and maybe even a national one. There is some chance that will actually happen. But only time will tell.

Skimming through the news this morning, the reports from TigerNet make it pretty clear to me that the draft didn’t go so well, at least for Clemson-related interests. It’s somewhat good to know that it went great for the ACC, but when the first bullet of the Clemson NFL Draft Notes is about the “first time in history two Clemson players were taken with consecutive draft choices”, which happened to be in the fifth round, you know that there weren’t really any highlights.