For those keeping track, SportingGnomes favorite Rendrick Taylor didn’t catch on with Tampa Bay. He has landed in the UFL. ManBearPig is now #36 for the Omaha Nighthawks, and they’re playing right now in Rosenblatt Stadium (you’ve probably heard of it). I’m watching live right now on HDnet. Here’s wishing ManBearPig the best of luck in his new home.

PS: One of Rendrick’s notable new teammates is Maurice Clarett.

• I dare to say it, but Clemson may be peaking at the right time. Last night the Tigers pulled away in the 2nd half to defeat Georgia Tech 91-80 in Littlejohn. The Tigers have won 5 of their last 6 and seem assured of a spot in the NCAA tourney. That’s the good news. The bad news is that 4 of those 5 wins came at home, and it may be that the late season strength is just a reflection of being scheduled well. This is also potentially bad news because the team may relax and lose intensity at just the wrong time now that the NCAA bid seems assured. It’s imperative for the Tigers to go to Winston-Salem on Sunday and put down Wake Forest giving Clemson a very respectable 10 wins in conference.
• Via Examiner.com, there’s a poor quality video of the NFL network’s official 40 runs at the combine. Despite the low-quality, it’s pretty interesting to see the results with Ford and Spiller taking 1st & 3rd places, respectively.
  

  There is some speculation that Spiller could end up being drafted by the Browns. That would likely re-unite him with James Davis. Chansi Stuckey is also with the Browns right now.

• Bleacher Report lays out the case the Michael Palmer should be getting more attention from the NFL than he is. Since Palmer became one of my favorite player’s last season, I would love to see him overcome the odds and make it in the NFL.

• After last night’s road win over FSU, I took a deep breath. However now is definitely not the time for the basketball team to relax. They’re still something of a bubble team with 2 regular season games remaining. Next up is GT, at home fortunately. The last game is Sunday at Wake Forest. Wake is on a three game skid and just lost at home to UNC.
• The baseball team remains undefeated after sweeping Wright State over the weekend. With the wins I can now claim collegiate baseball dominance over my dad, a Miami University alum, and my brother a Wright State alum who even made a decent run to be a walk-on for the Raiders many years ago.
• From the NFL combine, we get some reports of the best 40 times. Per the Buffalo News:
  

  The fastest running back was California’s Jahvid Best at 4.35 seconds. Next was Clemson’s C.J. Spiller at 4.37 seconds.

  The fastest time among receivers was run by Clemson’s Jacoby Ford, who was timed in 4.28 seconds, according to the NFL Network.

• The Bills are apparently taking a look at Charlie Whitehurst. Maybe he’ll end up getting some playing time within the next 5 years.
• Lastly, Khalil Greene’s fresh $750k contract with the Rangers has been voided. Hopefully Khalil can get his shit together.

• Clemson hosts 10-1 Western Carolina tonight at 7:30 PM. The CBS Sports preview notes that Clemson is 9-0 all time against the Catamounts. It should be a good game.
• Collegiate Baseball Newspaper released its preseason Top40. Clemson checks in at #16. Other notables include Virginia (#3), Georgia Tech (#6), Florida State (#7), Miami (#12) and North Carolina (#13). Such is life in the ACC baseball world: being a top-20 team means being a mediocre conference team.
• Kyle Parker’s future as a football player remains up in the air. As I’ve said before, I’d take the money and run if I were him. Fortunately for Clemson football fans, I’m sure most college athletes don’t think like me.

Outside the lines…

• Clemson is escalating it’s war on the squirrels. I’m not exactly sure what university the squirrels belong to, or even what sport they play, but I support this just war.

  Honestly though, they’re talking about trapping and euthanizing about 200 squirrels, and I’m wondering why they’re going to let anyone eat the goddamn things?

• Clemson’s Mayor Abernathy trots out his standard defense for everything he proposes, “If we only save one life, we’ve done our job.” No you haven’t, you dumb fuck! You’re job is not to intrude in everyone’s life to immeasurable levels to “save one life.” You don’t understand how much I hate this guy. I’d rather the mayorship be run by Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier.

  In this case the mayor is defending a proposed text messaging ban. Frankly, the fines for these things tend to be so miniscule, and the chances of being caught so small, that the bans are pretty much symbolic. But let me be very clear about one thing: STAY OFF YOUR GODDAMN PHONE IN ALL CAPACITIES WHEN YOU’RE DRIVING YOU FUCKING DIPSHITS!

  And stay off my lawn, too!

I’ve been really down on the defense, especially since the GT game. I said this about last year’s defense and I’ll say it about this year’s: they’re good, but they’re not good enough.

In the GT game, the defense allowed 4 touchdowns, “forced” 4 field goals, and produced only one real stop. Not a great performance by the defense. Clemson lost by 5 pts.

However, on the other side of the ball, look at the missed opportunities. One field goal was missed and there were two interceptions. It was a one possession game and Clemson threw away three possessions.

I was even upset with the defense after the USCe game. Looking back at the stats, especially after the ACCCG, the D’s play looked great by comparison. Yes they gave up 4 touchdowns and 2 field goals. But they also made an interception, recovered a fumble, and forced 3 punts.

It was the offense that blew that game. Jamie Harper fumbled on the first drive, foreshadowing that this game was going to turn out about like the ’08 ‘Bama game. What followed was this sequence: interception, punt, punt, fumble, punt, punt, punt, punt, field goal, turnover-on-downs, turnover-on-downs. Say that list out loud and you force yourself to realize how bad it was.

• interception
• punt
• punt
• fumble
• punt
• punt
• punt
• punt
• field goal
• turnover on downs
• turnover on downs

To further emphasize how pathetically the offense performed, note that 4 of those punts were on 3-and-outs. The 2nd fumble was on a 3-play drive. In total, the offense produced 260 yards, only 48 of which were on the ground.

The defense wasn’t good enough. And they got gashed for a lot of a yards. But there are few defenses anywhere who will look good when the offense can’t stay on the field.

The Good (amazingly optimistic):
• The entire teams ability to adjust at the half.
• The defenses inability to tire. Seriously, they had to have been cursing CJ and Jacoby after they ripped off those huge TD runs and sent the D back on the field after only a few breaths. And then the D would tear up the Tech offense all over.
• DeAndre McDaniel!! Period, nuff said.
• Bamberg bookends. Not really that much opportunity to make sacks but when you have them on the ends and a QB who is afraid to throw the ball, all they can do is try to pound it down the lines throats.
• Kyle Parker’s overall ability to get back in the game after a rough start in a hostile environment.
• CJ Spiller’s amazing performance as a leader. He was obviously gassed and you could see him motioning to the coaches to leave him in. That may or may not have cost a TD, but CJ is determined to lead this team through all 4 quarters.
• Dwayne Allen’s hands. Yes, that was a TE that made the grab in the end zone for the second score of the Tigers 24-0 run.
• Hey Jacoby can catch! (see last of The Bad for retort.
• No fumbles or INT’s……I don’t think
• Richard “Boom Boom” Jackson’s 53 yard FG…..holy crap, that had 10 more yards on it. (almost made up for that horrible pooch kick)

The Bad (ahhh more like it):
• Kyle Parker’s close calls. 2 missed INT’s from him trying to thread the needle and a couple of floaters to Jacoby that he luckily received.
• Parker’s obvious love affair with the sideline passes. OK, you can lead your receiver but at least make it humanly possible to catch the ball.
• Not sure wearing all purple to GT on a Thursday night was the best idea. Yeah it might have pumped the team up to the “remember last time we played GT on a Thursday night”, but GT probably remembered as well. And yes, that game still lives in infamy for the most awesome juke I have ever witnessed in person.
• The 1st half. Were they not prepared? Was it the freshman jitters for Parker? Whatever the hell it was, I hope it s over.
• Hey Jacoby was the only one catching the ball!

The outright WTF-OMG-I need to drink more to cope with this-Ugly:
• Fake FG / Punt: Seriously…..seriously!!!
• Fake FG coverage. In case you missed it….that was out of Clemson’s playbook. No seriously, the boys over at Block-C even recalled it in a GT blog post. SEEEEEEE!!!!
• CJ passing…..this isn’t UVA. Once again…..mentioned in previous blog post.
• Officiating on both sides of the ball. It was like they would make a bad call and then try to make it up with another bad call on the other side of the ball. Both teams got screwed with that group.
• Punting….honestly, we have a scholarship player who averages 31 yards? And they aren’t lofting time consuming 31 yard punts either.

In the end, I am not sure who should have won that game. Tech seemed to have a play book that Clemson figured out in the second half and rattled the QB enough to keep the game on the ground. Tech also had some lucky turns of their own with the fake FG coverage on both sides of the ball. On the other hand, Clemson just had some lucky breaks. From Jacoby’s longest TD reception of his career to CJ breaking one off for the score. I think this early game against a tough opponent will be a help rather than a hindrance. The rebound from this game will be interesting to watch but I believe that Swinney has a motivational building block to work with. I do not believe in “moral victories” but this was one inspiring game to watch as a team that looked completely outmatched, regrouped, rallied and almost won. As for GT, well…..I think that defenses down the road might have a game plan now.

SSDC.

Same shit different coach.

GT has run 8 plays and put Clemson down 21 points. Paul Johnson’s message to Dabo: welcome to big time college football, kid.

Tommy Bowden is laughing his ass off right now.