Put on your orange glasses, The Tiger Nation is getting hyped again. Hey everyone! A new coach is in town and he’s better than the guy before him!! Yeah, I saw this before when Bowden replaced West, only that time Bowden WAS a head coach for an undefeated Tulane team. Yeah that isn’t D1 football per se, but there is a lot of hype going on this guy who has never been a head coach….or assistant coach, aside from last year which could be excused as a refreshed team on the back end of the season (didn’t they always do that with Bowden anyway?!?!). Along side this hype comes the complete exclusion of a offensive coordinator who, again, has never been a coordinator running an offense that somehow has “experience” after last years dismal performance. Yeah, they got experience but did they actually grow from it to a position where they are considered somewhat similar to what Whitehurst had in front of him his last year? And then there is the QB situation: 2 QBs never in the spotlight in college ball and all the pressure that is to bring. Ya know what, screw the explanatory typing, here’s a freakin list of why you shouldn’t get yourself too T-Netted (yeah I just coined that) over this years team.

• Inexperienced QB’s leading a team. One good thing is that the “toss ups” are coming to DV and not vice verse.
• 1 well defined and publicized work horse for the entire team, he won’t have a target on his back… don’t worry.
• 1 solidly defined WR, who has not gone through a season without some injury.
• 2 kickers with no definite consistency
• Do we have a punter? How about the long snapper? Not an obvious concern, but if the Tigers are relying on Defense all day they need to put the teams deep.
• The “seasoned” offensive line is still defining its guard position I think.
• Completely new offensive and defensive playbooks. I don’t know about you, but extremely aggressive blitz tactics can bite you in the ass most of the time. And the removal of bubble screen and James Davis up the middle will force the athletes to learn a lot more.

So there you have it. I am excited to see the Tigers turn the page, but man, PLEASE, do not hype the fan base into over expecting foam at the mouth idiots before the ball is even spotted! But then again… ManBearPig will be on the field so there’s always that…

Posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 7:55 am by Clem

Filed under Clemson, Coaching, Football.

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