It’s hard to win on the road in the ACC. Clemson lost at Wake Forest last night by a final score of 70-65. Clemson came in on a hot streak and Wake had recently been stone cold. With the loss Clemson dropped from being the #3 seed with a bye in the ACC tourney to the #6 seed.

My advice for the Tigers moving forward is to set smaller, albeit no less challenging goals. Namely, don’t try to win the ACC. Set a goal to become good on the road. Achieve that and championships will follow.

• 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.

If Wake wins on Saturday, it is, in my opinion, officially time to start looking for a new coach. I don’t say that lightly because a) over the summer I was ready to give Dabo 3 full years and b) I don’t like coaching changes.

However, I’ve recently been further considering the circumstances of Dabo’s position. His goal is not to rebuild. Rather it is to push a good team to a higher level (i.e. the conference championship game). Let’s face it, the Atlantic Division is a cesspool of football right now. A loss to Wake makes winning the division all but impossible. Leading a team out of contention for the division championship only halfway through the conference schedule is not going to easily be confused with leading the team to a higher level.

Moreover, it’s hard for Dabo to argue that he lacks talent at his disposal. There are two reasons for this. One, as Jim Grobe explained, “We don’t see anybody that has more talent than Clemson.” Second, Dabo used to be the recruiting coordinator, and he was a highly regarded one. So, Dabo is either unable to get results from the talent at his disposal, or he really wasn’t that good at recruiting in the first place. It’s a lose-lose situation.

Dabo’s only hope to justify his job is to win against Wake and then proceed to finish the season very solidly. Maybe he can get away with another conference loss so long as he beats Coastal and Carolina, but he can’t afford to lose to Wake now. Otherwise no matter how well the season ends, it will have been far too little too late.

As you’ve probably heard, Oliver Purnell’s team completed the first half of their season last night with a convincing win over a pretty good Alabama team. The 11th ranked Tigers won 66-59 while shooting only 13-22 from the free throw line (perhaps that word, “throw”, causes some confusion for our shooters?).

At the halfway point the team is undefeated at 15-0, which is impressive and fantastic. But it is not something that hats can be hung on. There are games left, all of which are in-conference, and we know from past experience that ACC play in the 2nd half of the season isn’t the same as OOC play in the first. At this point, the correct way to judge this team is based on how well they do in the 2nd half. Good/great starts are fine, but they’re worth almost nothing with a bad/horrible finish.

The 2nd half kicks off with with games against NC State, Wake Forest, and a road trip to UNC. Those teams are a combined 35-4 at this point. Talk about a challenge!

From my perspective, this season is just getting started.

My thoughts throughout the game. I’m not bothering to filter this time. There’s no point.

You’ll note that the thoughts at the start are pretty similar to the thoughts at the beginning.

The firings can’t begin soon enough.

Don’t click more. Seriously. Don’t.

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Surprising news from Wiston-Salem this morning:

Sam Swank, Wake Forest’s star kicker, missed practice yesterday with an injury that may sideline him for Thursday night’s game against Clemson.

It’s kinda sad that it has come to this, but this news really brightened up my day. It shouldn’t be like that.

As in Wake Weekend Weather. It may be a month late getting here but fall is upon us this second weekend of November. The leaves are turning and orange is everywhere. Expect this to be the same in Death Valley for the noon game this week. Nothing but sunshine, perfect temps, and clear skies for the days this weekend with crisp to cold nights. Lows in Tiger Town will hover around 40 Friday night. The tailgate fields will be cool to say the least for the throngs of hearty tailgaters getting out a few hours prior to the early kickoff Saturday. Don’t let the cool temps fool you though. Midday sun in the stadium will keep things plenty warm starting at kick off. Don’t forget the sunscreen on the face unless you are a fan of the half face burn and raccoon eye look. Kickoff will see temps around 60, warming to a high in the mid to upper 60’s…we’ll call it 66. If you are in the shade, any breeze will be on the cool side. Overnight lows will drop to the mid 30’s. Be sure you have your allotment of anti freeze if you plan on carousing around town following the game. The drive home will be more of the same, sun and 60’s.
The carousing comment is made as I see plenty of folks sticking around and celebrating a win over the proverbial thorn in our side. Expect lots of post game tailgate action on a near perfect football day. Last year was our turn to be the spoiler, in the rain, in an otherwise magical Wake season. This year, the boys in Orange know what’s on the line. Next weeks night game is big and will mean a lot with regards to divisional, conference, and possibly even national rankings. However, it only means these things with a Clemson and BC win THIS week. I think Bowden and company. Wake has a chance to up their bowl tier prospects while stealing our mid/late season momentum and foiling any chance the Tigers have of sneaking into the ACCCG, after the early/mid season slump. Most of the D has seen the quirks of the Wake Offense and Riley Skinner in the pocket. The Wake D is tough against the run (according to ESPN.com) but give up a deuce and a quarter, through the air each week. Look for a steady dose of Thunder and Lightning early to see if Wake’s stacking the box, like most teams, will hold back Davis and Spiller. If so, Kelly and Grisham figure to be game changers if the Tigers break recent trends of keeping things too close for comfort against the Deacs. Either way, look for these two and the TE’s to punch it in the end zone for three Cullen Harper TD passes. History says this will be something like a 20-16 game, which I don’t like the sounds of. Why? Because Sam Swank for Wake is one of the top kickers in the ACC if not the NCAA, though I feel we are much more competent than in years past. I think if the team comes out focused on this game alone, and doesn’t get caught looking ahead (GT), it will be more like 30-13 and I’m going against my gut, and recent history and giving Tommy the nod for keeping the team focused and getting them fired up for this Noon, ESPN2, nationally televised affair.