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.

Like last year, I have done my best to roundup all the competing post-spring/pre-season rankings.

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The Tigers decided to turn the heat up in Jacksonville last night as they once again dismantled the Florida State Seminoles in a 5-1 win. This is the 3rd loss for the Seminoles to the Tigers this season (FSU was the home team every time), too bad it came in a showdown for a chance at the ACC title game. It looked as if the Tigers had a handle on the game from the get go and never looked back. Their determination payed off as they now have a chance to play in the title game against the same team that knocked them out of the CWS last year; UNC. That all depends on how the Miami vs Wake Forest game plays out on Saturday. By the way, if you’re a Tiger fan, you will be rooting for the ‘Canes.

In other news, the football team just picked up a huge commitment in the verbal of the number 1 running back in South Carolina, Andre Ellington for the class of 2008. The short of it is he runs a 4.4 40 and had 1600 rushing yards and 15 TD’s his Junior year. He says that his verbal commitment is firm and that he wanted to get the decision out of the way before he underwent his senior season. This takes care of one of the two RB holes for next years class, let’s hope that the Tigers can pick up another stellar one to continue the RB lineage that James, CJ and Reggie have established in The Valley.

Clemson lost the 2nd game to Wake. It was knotted up at 2 until the bottom of the 9th. There isn’t much else to say about it.

The Tigers play again today at 4 against Florida State. If the Tigers pull off they upset, they can advance to the championship game if Miami beats Wake Forest.

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With the tournament looming, and the team’s NCAA aspirations hanging in the balance, I find myself right where I want to be: pessimistic to the point of not caring. Ever since the disaster against Virginia, I’ve been in a pretty bad mood. Things got worse with the lose to a miserable Wake Forest team. Things have improved though. The Tigers beat Miami and a ranked Virginia Tech team on the road. Plus after taking the league lead, Virginia got beat by the same sad Wake Forest team. Schadenfreude? You betcha.

Moving on, tomorrow the team plays Florida State at noon. Clemson is 21-9, FSU is 19-11, and both teams went 7-9 in conference play. Two of Clemson’s wins were against Florida State. Clemson tends to be ranked a bit higher by the computers, and Vegas favors them by 1.5.

In my view, there are two burning questions that have to be answered.
1.) Does Clemson have enough luck to win in what is almost a home game for Florida State?
2.) Is it worth skipping work tomorrow to watch the game on TV?

There’s no good way to predict the answer to #1. So I did what any rational person would do. I flipped a coin; heads=yes. Two flips led to 2 tails. You heard it here first.

The 2nd question isn’t as easy as it sounds. Watching the team lose is more painful than work. And as demonstrated by the coin flip, it’s going to be painful. Going back to the coin, it says to skip work.

And thus it is decided.

The basketball team is done.

The done as in finished part is correct. But there is absolutely no comparison to made that suggest that the team is hot.

After starting 17-0 (3-0), they’ve lost 7 of the last 9 to sit at a lukewarm 19-7 (5-7).

Eternal optimist I am not, and I see a high probability of this team, which seems to have forgotten to win, losing it’s remaining games to Duke, BC, Va Tech, and even lowly Miami. Today they got destroyed 82-66 at home by Maryland.

The Terps (20-7, 6-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) saw its [sic] 12-point second half lead slip to 59-58 on Cliff Hammonds’ driving basket with 8:19 to go. But Strawberry, despite the Clemson crowd’s singsong chants of “Darryl, Darryl” about his famous baseball playing dad, scored eight of Maryland’s next 15 points to regain control, 74-63.

You can’t say that Clemson fans aren’t classy…

Anyway, I already said that the team has forgotten to win, and at this point it also appears that they’ve forgotten that games last for 40 minutes. And for that, Virginia, Wake Forest, and Maryland are all eternally grateful.

With the season winding its way to a gut-wrenching halt, and a 19-11 final record looming, I am remind that our basketball team never makes sense or does things that others describe as “likely.” Therefore it would be in character for the ol’ Tigers to show up against Duke on the 22nd and pull out a victory. However, I am not betting on it. I will bet on three things:

• 1.) A horrific loss at the hands of Krzyzewski,
• 2.) A bunch of really lame taunts and gags demonstrated by the Clemson faithful in attendance that will refer to our last, poorly officiated game against Duke and/or to their lacrosse team, and/or maybe even black strippers, and
• 3.) After the loss the Clemson faithful will blame John Swofford and the ACC.

To wrap up this post o’ sunshine, I will summarize: Clemson finishes the regular season 19-11 (5-11) to earn the pre-season predicted 9th place ACC finish; they lose their first ACC tournament game just like they lost their last 6 league games; the vocal Clemson fans will blame Swofford & the ACC; and the Tigers will become a bubble team for the NIT where they’ll drop their first game to end the season at 19-13 (the same as last year). Or in other words: “just like football.”

PS - There’s no need yet for you to buy me a “Fire Oliver Purnell” shirt nor fireoliverpurnell.com nor firecoachpurnell.com (neither of which are registered). Suicide watches will also be unnecessary. This time.

Clemson’s future out-of-conference opponents are always up in the air, but at least we know which ACC teams we’ll play through 2015 (assuming the conference stays together).

2007 Clemson Football Scheduled Opponents (in no particular order)::
@Maryland
Wake
@ NC State
FSU
BC
@ Ga. Tech
@ Duke
Va. Tech
(OOC: Furman, UL-Monroe, some MAC team, SC)

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As I waded through some old bookmarks yesterday, I ran across the BC blog For Here Men Are Men. According to FHMAM, head coach Tom O’Brien just isn’t good enough. They want him fired and do not mince words about it. I guess I just have a hard time being too critical of a coach who, including this year, has four 9-win seasons among the last 6, as well as a 52-22 record for those seasons. That’s a 70.2 winning percentage.

FHMAM may get their wish though. Sort of. Stanford has a job opening and Tom O’Brien may be as eager to leave Boston as FHMAM is to get rid of him.

On the surface that would make sense for Stanford and for Tom O’Brien. But what the hell is Boston College going to do?

If O’Brien leaves, BC will have successfully chased off one of, if not THE, most successful coaches in their history. O’Brien will have left because of a lack of support from the college and the fans. College football isn’t the most important thing in that region, let alone the state. Hell, BC isn’t even the most important college in that city. I really don’t know who they expect to lure into such an attractive position.

But if that’s what BC wants, that’s really up to them. I suspect their odds of finding a better coach — especially for the long term — are quite slim. But in the words and spirit of Peter Gibbons, “I hope your firings go really well.”

PS - I have a hard time labeling Jim Grobe as a “great coach.” He’s certainly had a great year, and Coach-of-the-Year honors are deserved. But was he a “great coach” when he went 6-5 in 2001? Was he a “great coach” when he went 7-6 in 2002? How about 5-7 in 2003? Or 4-7 in 2004 and 2005? Time will tell, but he won’t get my very important seal of approval just yet.