With all the regular season travels completed for the Tigers, everyone is glad that the team can stay home and play only in Death Valley. But just how important is playing at home? I decided to look into the numbers to see.

To keep things relevant, I looked at only the statistics since Tommy Bowden became coach

starting in the ‘99 season. Since that time his teams have gone 36-12 at home, 19-20 on the road, and 1-0 at neutral sites during the regular season. That leaves the bowls as neutral site games, in which Bowden is 3-3. Road trips are clearly a 50-50 proposition.

For simplicity, I’ll leave out neutral site games.

In percentage form, the home winning percentage is 75, with the road being 48.7. So the chances of winning by playing at home are improved by about 54%.

However, with two important league games looming, I went ahead and took only league games into consideration. Here, Bowden is 20-10 at home, and 16-16 on the road. Compare that 66.7% home winning percentage to the 50% road winning percentage, and the team is only about 33% more likely to win any given league game at home.

There is some bad news to be added to this year’s 4-0 start at home. So far under Tommy Bowden, we’ve never had an undefeated home season. And through 7 full seasons, there have been only three 1 loss seasons. However if we consider only home conference games, there is a lone season where the team did not drop a conference game at home. That year was 2003.

So how does Clemson compare to other ACC teams under their current head coaches? Read on…
Read the rest of this entry »

Shoeless Works has put together another amazing video of not only the GT v Clemson game but the entire day leading up to the game. It also is reinforcement to the argument that James Davis and C.J. Spiller are superhuman in their abilities to burn everyone on the field while Gaines Adams is just an unfair advantage for the Tiger D line in that he swallows human opponents souls with every trip to the backfield.

Did everyone watch Gameday like the true Tiger fanbase should? If you did you saw the massive gathering of overe 7,000 Orange clad maniacs flooding Bowman field for the loudest Gameday presentation ever (which I am SURE that the shamecocks are set on beating). You also witnessed the creativity and weeklong preparation of the traditional Gameday signs in the crowd. I don’t know about you, but it seemed like there was an abundance of signs in the crowd. Everyone knew which commentator they were behind and when that guy would start talking the background would flood with signs. I witnessed multiple battles for sign positioning, the greatest being between Clemson fans and a lone Michigan fan with a big sign on a stick that left after abotu 30 minutes of harrassing. Unfortunately I did not put my sign on a stick so I had only my arms length to get on TV but that served it’s purpose as everyone around me were fighting for the higher ups with their “stick” signs”.

Now on to my story. As we approached the site my wifes friends called and directed us to their position which was located behind Herbstreit. We finally reached them and their signs, another stick sign. After about 45 minutes, the drinkers in the group decided to head back to the tailgate and left myself and my wifes friend with our signs to fend for ourselves. Every time that Herbie would come on I would be the directional guide for our friend to the ideal position to getting the sign on TV. This went on for an hour and we had been defeating the other stick signs in positioning successfully when the unimaginable happened. During a series while Herbie was talking an officer of the law started meandering through the crowd looking at the signs that people were holding. He was obviously being directed through his radio as he would listen for sign reference and turn and walk in a general direction. As he walked in front of me and the friend he halted, turned to us, looked up, looked at us, grabbed the stick that the sign was mounted to (which was a tent pole), and said “let go of the pole”.

Yeah, our gameday sign was confiscated by the cops, how ya like dem apples?! He wouldn’t even let my buddy keep his tent pole and yanked the sign while stating that it was a “dirty sign”. The guys around us who had begun to help direct the sign started booing as the cop trudged back through the crowd.

So that’s my gameday story. Oh yeah, the sign……you may have seen it ALOT and alot of Clemson people were probably commenting on the crassness of the sign and it’s meaning. All it said was “SHOCKEM TIGERS” with the infamous Shocker hand signal.

Now who saw it!!!

Given the uber-yardage performances by James Davis and CJ Spiller, don’t overlook the Clemson defensive unit’s effort on Saturday night.  Statistically, their performance was what we have basically seen all year.

Georgia Tech managed 88 yards on the ground, or just 48% of their pre-Clemson average.

In the air, the Jackets picked up 117 yards, which is just 68% of their pre-Clemson average.

Altogether, that was a 205 yard performance from a team that had been picking up 354 yards per game.

That means that Clemson is now, on average (with national rankings in parenthesis), giving up 72 rush yards (7), 158.4 pass yards (17), 230.4 total yards (4), and 12.5 points per game (7).  And you can even argue that a decent amount of the points shouldn’t be laid on the hands of the defense.

At this point, the biggest offensive output by the opposition was Boston College who put up 322 yards en route to their double-overtime victory.  That included just 290 yards and 24 points in regulation however, but that still sets the high water mark against our defense this year.

But that didn’t happen with GT.  In adherence with what seems to be the rule, the defense showed up.  Tech’s usual weapons were completely silenced.  By the end of the game, the Jackets looked completely wrecked.  Reggie Ball wasn’t able to connect with Calvin Johnson.  And Reggie himself was able to net just 8 yards on the ground.   The lifelines had been severed.  Perhaps I’m sympathetic because of my engineering background, but the damage against Tech seemed so thoroughly demoralizing that I actually feel sorry for them.  If we can repeat that this Thursday against Virginia Tech, however, I will have no sympathy.

First my oberservances:

James Davis and CJ Spiller are downright scary as a tandem. James is a powerful runner who drags guys for yards….if they can hang on for the ride while CJ just gets one step off the D line and blazes through the secondary if given the chance.

Gaines Adams should have had at least 5 more sacks in that game. The Tech O line was holding onto Gaines’ shoulder pads and jersey all game long.

The secondary continues to improve as well as the entire injury prone defense. No one stood a chance against the rabid D last night. Tashard rarely found yards while Reggie never had time to look up field as a flood of purple was flying at hime from all angles all the time.

The Tiger O-line is HUGE. We watched them push 3 to 5 yards every play which easily gave James and C.J. room to run. It almost looked as if the Tech D line was swallowed by the Purple mob throughout the night.

And now for the national medias bits and pieces:

• Gaines Adams now owns the Tiger record for consecutive games with a sack. His third quarter sack of Ball gives him six straight games with at least one sack. He leads the ACC with 8.5 sacks and 24 for his career, which ranks four behind Michael Dean Perry for the career-record.
• Saturday marked the first time in the modern era the Tigers donned their all purple uniforms with the orange helmet. The last time Clemson wore all purple uniforms was the 1940 Cotton Bowl, which the Tigers won that day 6-3.
• Running back James Davis rushed for 216 yard and three scores, while C.J. Spiller had 116 yards and a score to go along with a 50-yard touchdown reception. The rushing numbers were the first time in school history that the Tigers had a 200-yard rusher and a 100-yard rusher in the same game.
• Davis rushing performance was the most rushing yards by an ACC player this season and the most by a Clemson player since quarterback Woody Dantzler’s 220 at Virginia in 2000.
• The win over No. 13 Georgia Tech marked the 12th top 25 victory in Bowden’s Clemson career. He moved ahead of Frank Howard into second place on the list of all-time head coaches. Danny Ford owns the record with 20.
• Saturday’s 31-7 win marked the first time Clemson has won a match up of top 20 teams since 1991, when the Tigers defeated N.C. State 29-19. Clemson won purple jerseys in that game for the first time since 1939.
• Clemson’s defense held Yellow Jackets star Calvin Johnson without a catch for the first time in his stellar career.
• James Davis is just 2 touchdowns short of a seasonal record set by Raymond Priester

Jeff from Ramblin Racket invited us earlier in the week to participate in some friendly pre-game banter. But because I’m a slacker, I didn’t see his email until yesterday afternoon. Nonetheless, I came up with some answers and questions.

My questions and his responses are below. Check Ramblin Racket to read my words and find increased evidence that yes, I just might be talking out my little gnome ass most of the time.

Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Calhoun, the unknown gnome for the following

EDIT:  For proper attribution, this was written by Tigernet’s FallsChurchTiger®.

This is it

Folks, make no mistake.

This is the Hump game. This is our football version of Gettysburg, Alamein and Guadalcanal.

This is the proverbial Corner.

This is the fulcrum point for the program I think for the next ten years.

The whole country is watching to see if we are for real. We even want to know if we are for real.

If we win big things are happening. If we lose, people will say… “It’s just another Clemson team.”

This is the combination most hyped/ most national stature at stake game we’ve played at home since the FSU “rooskie” game. Most of our players weren’t out of diapers then. It’s been that long.

There will be legions of young men, Friday night football heroes, on the sidelines, in the stands, in their living rooms at home. Watching. Thinking about making a choice. Will they see something special, something they want to be a part of? For years to come? For the rest of their lives?

Will memories be made that inspire kids in high school around the country to want to learn more about just what it is that makes those hills so special? To experience that for themselves?

We know the writers and talking heads around the country will tune in. They can’t miss it – it’s Gameday. Corso will have the head. Herbie will pontificate. Orange painted faces all behind them. Screaming.

The television will show it all for them. The paws on Hwy 93. The Esso. Bowman, Tillman, Fike. The WestZone. The Graveyard.

The Ring of Honor. The Rock. The Hill.

If we win, I have no doubt we will go into Blacksburg and blow them off the map and win the Orange Bowl.

If we lose, we could ride the low into Blacksburg and lose that one and maybe another one.

And be just another Clemson team.

And that, we are not, and will not be.

No, for this is a different Clemson team.

Built not only on talent, but on character.

Players who are just as welcome in your homes on Monday and as comfortable in church on Sunday as they are on the field on Saturday.

Built by coaches, who not only scheme and coach, but who support and who care.

A group of people working together who care about each other, care about Clemson, and not only believe that something special can be done… but will be done.

Saturday, Clemson gets over the Hump. We turn the Corner.

The Blue Ridge yawns it greatness for all to hear, and the Tiger’s Roar echoes across the land.

And we honor the ghosts of the past… Howard, Fuller, Davis, Kinard, Perry, Ford… as the heroes of the present stand on their shoulders and chart a new course… for years to come.

New heroes, a new history. Even better, even brighter, even bolder.

Even bigger.

Let’s go.

Fight Tigers, Fight Damnit, Fight, Fight, Fight!

We’re 7 games into the season.  We’re 6-1 and already bowl eligible.  Now we have 5 games left to determine if this season will have 13 or 14 games and which bowl we’ll go to.   Is this a championship season?  That remains to be determined but the potential is there.  And the the biggest remaining question mark looms in the form of Georgia Tech this weekend.  Although the next 4 games are all equal important to the overall ACC Championship Game question.

Georgia Tech:

Stat junky gnome, Clem, has already covered this one.  I’ve pored over the numbers myself.  I’ll even add that Sagarin’s computer rankings put Clemson at #10 and Georgia Tech at #35.

If this is to be a championship season, the team has to overcome all those short term negative trends that commentators and pundits love to spew to sell TV coverage.  This means beating Florida State in Tallahassee.  This means getting the Winston-Salem monkey off our backs.  Moreover it means beating Georgia Tech soundly: none of this 3 point-or-less bullshit.

Statistics and rankings aside, this is Clemson’s game to win.  To our advantage, I think our running game will prevail, Koenning will have a good defensive plan, and don’t forget about the homefield.  Georgia Tech has played only one road game this year.  If Clemson takes care of the ball, they should win by at least 12.  Altough I personally think the actual margin of victory will be closer to 8.

Read the rest of this entry »