Regional wrapup, one game left to go

Clemson won Game 1 against Tennessee Tech 5-4 Friday night, beating their best pitcher, coming back in the 9th trailing 4-3. Delk didnt start well and was chased from the game in the 5th with it 4-1, and then Graham Stoneburner came in and shut TTech down with 4.2 innings of 2-hit relief til we could come back.

Game 2 didnt go so well against Oklahoma State, as we lost the pitching duel between Casey Harman and Andrew Oliver 3-2. Again we had a defensive lapse that cost us when Medchill’s eighth-inning single off 1B Ben Paulsen’s glove provided the winning run.

That loss snapped Clemson’s 16-game home regional win streak; the Tigers are now 22-2 in NCAA Tournament home games dating back to 1999.

”That was a tough loss for us,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “Casey pitched a heck of a ballgame. We have to come back tomorrow, put this one behind us, try and win the first one, and try and win from here on out.”

Larry Williams interviewed Leggett in the post-game and writes about the poor hitting performance here, but I would say that Oliver is likely going to be a 1st or 2nd round pick in the MLB Draft a couple weeks from now.

Oklahoma State and TTech conspired to eliminate Alabama before we even had to play them.

On Sunday afternoon, Clemson eliminated TTech 10-0 behind Scott Weisman's 8-innings of shutout ball. Later, we saved our necks from elimination by Oklahoma State behind Chris Dwyer and pounded them 15-1. Kyle Parker was benched before the game because of poor production, his average has steadily declined down the stretch. In the past 17 games before Sunday’s nightcap, Parker went 16-for-87 (.184) with two home runs and six RBIs. That after pounding 10 homers in Clemson’s opening 42 games.

Tonights winner in the rubber game at 7pm will go to Arizona State, who won their Regional final over Oral Roberts for the Super Regional. The chickens face a similar fate tonight against ECU, for the right to play at UNC next weekend.



From the rest of the ACC, Florida State, Virginia, and North Carolina have made it to the Super Regional round. The SEC has sent Florida (former clemson pitching coach Kevin O'Sullivan), LSU, and Arkansas to the next round, with Vandy, Ole Piss and USuC still in it until tonight's final matchups.


Etc.
Clemson 4+ varsity rowing claimed their first national championship.

“I believe this is one of the few times when a first-time team has won a national championship,” Clemson coach Richard Ruggieri said.

Tajh Boyd's family has moved to the area to watch him play. Not much as been written about his brother but you can bet he'll get an offer when that time comes.

David Cutcliffe has dismissed former starting QB Zack Asack from the Duke football team, though he had been moved to safety.

The SEC has moved to limit the signing of players in February to 28, the only other major conference with a similar rule is the Big Ten. Just to restate the rule, when you sign 25 players and 5 of them enroll for the Spring semester of classes, like say Malliciah Goodman or J.K. Jay did this year, their signing counts towards the 2008 class. Rivals or Scout rates them in with the 2009 class. The rules only state that no more than 85 can be on a football scholarship, and only 25 new players on scholarship in fall semester.

Regional Preview

CUAD Preview

#15 Clemson plays at 7pm against Tennessee Tech Friday night, while Alabama plays OK State in the early afternoon game. Trey Delk (4-1 2.98 ERA) will take the mound in Game 1. Delk has made ten appearances this season, all starts. He has given up 47 hits in 45-and-a-third innings of work, while striking out 38 batters. He'll be lined up against TT Jr. Starter Lee Henry (9-2, 2.96, 74 K in 76 IP), with 5 complete games.

Clemson is 35-7 in NCAA Regional games played at Tiger Field, and finished the season 19-7 and hitting .341; we've definitely finished the season strong, but the defensive play in the ACC Tourney worries me the most. Fridays game will be just the third meeting between Clemson and Tennessee Tech. Clemson won a two-game series in March of 2003.

Tennessee Tech should not pose a problem for Delk, but given Jack's predilection for taking pitchers out too soon, I'm not sure how it matters. They have one player with 20 Homers, a rarity in college ball now with the altered aluminum bats (A.J. Kirby-Jones, .344, 20 HR, 66 RBI).

Leggett: "I've been in a lot of NCAA Tournament games, and that first one is probably the toughest. You come out of the blocks, you have to get your game going and the other team always has a good pitcher, so it's always a close ballgame where you have to find a way to make it swing in your favor.

"I've been doing this a long time. When a team comes off winning a conference championship, they're at a high. They're playing their best baseball of the year, and they've got confidence, so that's what I expect to see from Tennessee Tech."

The GNews has capsule previews of each team in the regional.

Tennessee Tech comes to Clemson with a 30-22-1 record after winning the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament with four straight wins, including each of the last two by one run in extra innings. The Golden Eagles defeated Jacksonville State in the championship game 4-3 in 10 innings. Tennessee Tech was 10-11-1 in the regular season in the OVC and was the #4 seed in the tournament. But Head Coach Matt Bragga's team scored 33 runs in the four tourney games to take home the trophy.

Tennessee Tech is led on offense by A.J. Kirby-Jones, who has a team-high 20 home runs and a team-best 66 RBIs in starting all 53 games this year. He is also hitting .344 and was named MVP of the OVC Tournament. Casanova Donaldson is the top hitter with a .351 batting average, while Chad Oberaker is second at .348, but they have very little power other than Kirby-Jones.

Oklahoma State has fairly good pitchers in Andy Oliver (5-6, 5.58 ERA) and Tyler Lyons (6-5, 3.75 ERA), and have a good closer (Randy McCurry (3-1, 2.45 ERA, 9 SV)). Don't let that high ERA fool you, the Big XII is a tough league too, and their defense is ranked 9th in fielding nationally. The Cowboys are led by Neil Medchill, who is hitting .337 with a team-high 14 homers and 55 RBI, and Micheal Dabbs (.325, 13 HR, 38 RBIs).

#20 Alabama has some great hitting but little pitching depth, leading the HR count against their opponents 107-50 and outscoring by 185 runs. we'd be wise to walk Kent Matthes (.365, 28 HR, 81 RBI) and look for Ross Wilson (.349, 9 HR, 46 RBI) and Brandon May (.343, 12 HR, 68 RBIs). 3B/RP Jake Smith is lost for the tournament due to injury at the SEC Tournament. Austin Hyatt (8-2, 3.14 ERA) is their top starter.

Etc.

Ben Paulsen's experience here has brought him closer to his father, Clemson assistant Tom Riginos.

Clemson's catchers have always been solid, dating back before Matt LeCroy.

Kyle Parker's two-sport journey is chronicled in this article from ESPN.

Lee Corso suffered a minor stroke, but is expected back on ESPN Gameday.

Phil Steele ranked Clemson #25 in his preseason football prospectus.

Humphries takes himself out

After losing a year because of injury and working hard to get another final year to play football, and being a Clemson graduate, you would think a guy would have his shit together. Barry Humphries apparently doesnt.

Humphries was arrested at 5am May 2 by CUPD for DUI.....on a moped. EDSBS gave us some Fulmer Cup points for the whole deal.

Dude you've got to be pretty fucked up to get a DUI on a liquorcycle. Apparently the cop saw a swerving moped with a very large subject riding and he failed the field sobriety tests.

“I was proud of Barry when he graduated from Clemson earlier this month, but I was disappointed in his decision in this situation,” said Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney. “Even though he was on a motor scooter, we take this charge seriously. He came to us the next day and told us what had happened. Barry will be suspended for the first two games this year (Middle Tennessee and Georgia Tech) and we will continue to monitor the legal process in this situation throughout the summer.”

Humphries started two years ago, and was the starter early last season until an ACL took him out. He's listed as the 4th team Center, but thats really only because he wasnt cleared for full contact this spring. Recall we posted before that he's a definite contender to take away the Center position from Cloy, who barely held off Freeman. We could handle not having him for MTSU, but if Cloy doesnt get his act together, we might've been able to use him against GT's large heavy linemen. Humph is also the strongest player on the team.

SEC Coaches Meetings Under Way

The coaches of the SEC are together this week, and it appears SOS will need to find some other recruiting/placement/expulsion/greyshirt/redshirt/whatever other policy that he can to ensure the Cocks have a full roster each year (go from his standard 4 strikes, you're out to 5-6 strikes and you're gone policy?). This all derives from the ridiculousness that is over-signing.

27 roster spots, I guess we should sign 40-50 prospects

Also, on a SOS note, Spurlid apparently got loose on his buddy Lane Kiffin.

Don't eff with Stevo at an elevator

And now they have even pissed off the commish Slive Rages


In Clemson news, I think we are all excited about hosting a regional this season. The Tigers played well down the stretch, but will need quality pitching this weekend to get past Bammer.

And as referred to by the Good Dr. earlier, Humphries will have to sit the first two games this season. Ban the woo-hoo, ban the purple, and ban the moped for football players.

More fallout from TO

Larry Williams writes a nice article on the points and counterpoints of Oglesby's leaving the team. Strelow reports for the State here.

Like he says, I see in the blogs and other articles, as well as TNet, that this is a good thing for Clemson basketball. I would like for someone to show me how you lose 13ppg, and a shooter who could take over a game from the perimeter (remember ECU and Sakerlina, as LW points out), and be a better basketball team.

Yes his defense was suspect. Yes he got emotional and fucked up a time or two, but those were also problems WITH THE WHOLE TEAM down the stretch this season. He's young and still needs teaching. You might point out he could be selfish: well good scorers tend to be that way, you would only complain if he goes cold from the arc. He wasn't a polished player but then neither is Booker by any means, who we'd all agree is the best player on the team with the most potential. Another season of instruction on defense and theres no reason to assume TO wouldn't be a better defensive player, hasn't OP proven that he can teach and motivate? We might have faltered down the stretch this season but we've certainly improved every year OP has been around (but perhaps moved laterally the last two).

No matter what your complaints, he could still hit FREE THROWS. Don't tell me we don't need that. Don't tell me with Jennings and lil' Booker coming in that it wont hurt this year either, because neither of them is a 2G.

I believe Young and Stitt will lock down the Guard spots (though Tanner Smith plays with the most hustle of them all), but as good a shooter as Young is, I'm not sure he has the raw talent that TO had, and although I think we're certainly a 20-win NCAA team either way, I'm not sure we're going to do any better than 9-7 in conference again without TO.

Afternoon update: Purnell gave a conference call with reporters this afternoon, and apparently had no idea TO was thinking of doing this. He was on vacation to the Isle of Palms when he received the phone call.

"My reaction was, this is quick and a bit odd. I would have loved to have had a chance to weigh in and give information and so on and so forth. But if he's made up his mind to that degree, then so be it.

I had discussions with Terrence, just like I had with all of our players after the season was over, I asked all the guys what they think about the beginning, the middle, how things ended. And Terrence and I were certainly in agreement that we weren't happy with way the season ended. But we had conversations after that that had gone very well – and as late as three days before I heard about this."

Other stuff...
-While Purnell is happy at Clemson, he's not happy with our facilities just yet. Virginia Tech will soon open a new basketball complex and he wants something more than the Littlejohn Annex to impress recruits, and he wants it all for Men's Basketball.

-Season ticket sales for football appear down 12%, and with Verizon and Bi-Lo pulling sponsorships to the hit of $1 million, the Athletic Dept. is reeling.

-Tajh Boyd is taking Maymester classes and doing rehab on campus. Jonathan Meeks is impressing in the summer drills; the second week of voluntary drills is ongoing. Tyler Shatley is going to start off at DT, as predicted after signing day, but he has to bulk up a lot (260 now) to play at Clemson there.

-Clemson received a commitment from Battery Creek (Beaufort) Safety Ricky Chaney (6-3 195, 4.45 40). He has no star rating as of yet, and was pulled in by Dan Brooks. At that height, its likely he could bulk up and play OLB.

Terrance Oglesby leaving for Europe

According to various sources, Oglesby is signing an agent and looking to play in Europe next year and hoping to play in Italy or Spain. He has several offers and played in Norway last year.

We all know of the rumors of his leaving since the NCAAs ended. Nothing official out of CU/OP yet however.

If true, you can go ahead and knock a few W's off next year's schedule. You dont replace a pure shooter like him very easily.

Update-now official from the AD.

“Over the past several years, I have had the opportunity to play internationally, and as a result I have been given the opportunity of playing professionally in Europe,” Oglesby said. “After much thought and consideration, I have opted to take my basketball career a step further and pursue a professional career.

“I have enjoyed my time at Clemson University and want to thank all the fans and friends for being supportive. My decision is based solely on chasing the dream of being a professional basketball player. I would like to thank all my coaches and teammates for a memorable two years, and wish them the best of luck in the future.”

Clemson gets NCAA Regional

The ACC locked down 4 host sites for the NCAA Tournament that starts Friday: GT, FSU, UNC, and us. Virginia got the shitty end of the stick. Its our 12th selection to host and the first since 2006, and Jack Leggett's 10th in 16 years. Its our 22nd selection to the NCAA in the last 23 years.

Since we have played well at home of late and are 7-1 in hosted regionals, this is big. The full bracket is here in PDF.

Clemson will host Alabama (37-19), Oklahoma State (32-22) and Tennessee Tech (30-22-1) this weekend. It is double-elimination in this round. To get a Super Regional, we need Arizona State to fall in their host regional, as they are the #5 national seed. Ard gives his take on the team and the regional here.

Greg Wallace talks about the fluke that was 2008 baseball, but honestly I dont have his confidence after the way we played defensively in the ACC Tournament. It was just bad. Alabama is a good offensive team, but at least we could thump Chris Smelley again. Oklahoma State has good pitching but poor offensive and defensive stats.

Next year's ACC Tournament is set for Myrtle Beach, as it should be, but with UNC being the only draw for baseball this year, they might have problems filling seats.

An article on Khalil Greene's struggles in St. Louis makes his baseball future look bleak.

Spring football recruiting's evaluation period, when 7 coaches could be on the road at any one time, is now over. The staff will be trimming down their lists to about half of the original (around 700 on mailing lists) and create a working recruit board. Recall that Dabo has said they will try to bring in a full class this year, around 22-23.

Cluckers...
Sakerlina assistant Brad Lawing talks about the star rating used by Rivals and Scout to rate HS players, and how it means nothing. He forgets, as does Korncoot, to mention that the Chicken Curse factors heavily in the poor performance of SC's highly-rated recruits. That and a lack of intelligence...since if they were smart they'd pick the better academic school and consistently better athletic teams and happier students. It just goes to show you that they'll never figure it out.

Greg Oliver at Upstate Today did though, and points out that Steven Orr is losing his mojo.

However, if the 2009 season resembles anything close to the past two seasons, or even worse, Spurrier will have a lot more time to spend on radio and television reliving his past glory and trying to sound funny again because his gridiron days will end with a thud that would make even Chevy Chase shudder.

Maybe Steve is rightfully pissed? At least Axon saved the scholarships of Ajiboye and Whitlock.

Remember the "Cocky Cloth"? Fear the towel!

Tigers blow game against UVA

Trey Delk started well yesterday, but as usual Jack took him out early and handed the game over to the bullpen. I can't say the loss was because of that decision or the hit that followed off the Left-Center field wall, it was more because of bad defensive play. The triple and errant throw should not have happened, and an infield hit to SS shouldve been played better earlier. It looked like no one could handle playing in the tricky cornered outfield. We were up 5-3 and choked it away 6-5, then UVA's pitching shut us down totally. We now must win against Puke today, and pray UVA loses the next two. Either way, a win in our next two games should seal up the regional. FSU already locked up one spot in the ACC Title game Sunday.

Dan Foster has passed away.

Ard answers questions about Byrnes and Butch Davis here.

What is Steve thinking? How is he reinstating players when he has too many coming in anyway? Maybe Ben Axon vacated a spot...

Fridge has been released from the hospital:

AIKEN, S.C. (AP) - William "The Refrigerator" Perry has been released from the hospital after a monthlong stay for complications of a nervous system disorder.
Aiken Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Melissa Summer said the former Chicago Bears star was released on Wednesday after being treated for Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
Summer had no details about Perry's condition other than that doctors considered the 46-year-old improved enough to go home.

Depth Charts released, baseball sweeps midweeks

Andrew Carter of the Orlando Sentinel writes about the ruckus at the ACC annual spring meetings, and that the coaches want an earlier signing date than the one in the first week of February.

The conference’s coaches are in favor of a signing period that would begin on Dec. 18, said Mike Kelly, the ACC’s associate commissioner for football. ACC coaches for years have tried to push for an early signing period, and have argued that it would alleviate unnecessary pressures on both recruits and coaches.

Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney said he’d be in favor of a signing period that began some time in August. Swinney said that would allow recruits who have already made their college choices to officially end their recruitment. Further, it would allow coaches to rest more easily knowing that a player’s commitment is binding.

I doubt it will happen anytime soon, but it would make things less of a headache as far as recruiting goes.

Another 'official' post-spring depth chart has been released (recall there was one on Clemsontigers.com 2 weeks ago) and Korn/Parker hasnt been resolved going into the summer, as we all expected really. RT is still up for grabs, and Spencer Benton beat Richard Jackson out for PK. Ard details the DE lineup for the fall here.

Clemson beat Furman at Fluor Field in greenville Monday 8-5, got moved up to #14 in one poll, and then beat CofC 5-2 yesterday, CofC had won 10 straight and are on the NCAA bubble.

Tigers fail to sweep another inferior opponent

Despite thumping them 13-2 and 11-3 in the first two games of the series,Sunday's 4-3 loss to UNC-Wilmington gives us only two weekend sweeps all year: Charlotte and Wake.

“We’re not quite good enough to finish off the weekend right now. We’ve got to get better,” Leggett said. “We’re a good team at times, but not quite where we need to be. Hopefully we can get ourselves better between now and next weekend, because it doesn’t get any easier from here on out.”

“It’s frustrating,” second baseman Mike Freeman said. “After playing so well Friday and Saturday and coming out here and not getting the job done, it’s definitely frustrating, especially late in the season when every win’s going to count. We feel we’re good enough to beat any team in the country. Today we didn’t show it.”

Wallace then asks the question as to whether we'll get to host an NCAA Regional now. I think the answer is still yes, but we have to show up ready next weekend and pull off a sweep against the Pack and sweep CofC (tuesday) and Furman (today) and have a good showing in the ACC Tourney to seal it. The RPI and SoS are on our side, but just like the basketball tourney selection, its how you finish that counts.

Some perspective on the QB race between Korn and Parker, circa 1980. Headen went on to become a LB/End for the 1981 team as I recall, and I'm quite sure he broke up a pass against Nebraska in the Orange Bowl game.

LB commitment Jake Nicolopulos has been rated a 3-star player by Rivals, #21 at his position.

Ron throws us another gem

Typical Ron Morris, he makes it sound like we'd fire Dabo if he loses to Sakerlina no-matter-what.

THE SOUTH CAROLINA-Clemson football rivalry might mean more to Dabo Swinney than to Steve Spurrier. And why not? Swinney’s job might just depend on how well his Clemson Tigers fare each season against Spurrier’s South Carolina Gamecocks.

“That’s an important game to people in this state,” Swinney said Thursday before he and men’s basketball coach Oliver Purnell addressed a gathering of about 800 Clemson fans at Lexington High School.

“It’s important to me because this is my livelihood,” Swinney said.

It also is Spurrier’s livelihood. The difference is that no one believes for a minute that Spurrier’s job will be lost or saved based on his record against Clemson. Nor did his predecessor’s job status ride on how USC played against Clemson.

Coaches such as Lou Holtz and Spurrier can rest on their Hall of Fame credentials. Winning a national championship —- even if it was achieved at another school — will go a long way to washing away a few losses against your closest rival.

That’s a good thing since Holtz’s 1-5 record against Clemson included an embarrassing 63-17 drubbing and an ugly benches-clearing brawl. Spurrier’s teams have won only once in four cracks against Clemson.

Conversely, more than a few Tigers’ fans believe Tommy Bowden bought himself some extra time as Clemson’s coach by consistently beating USC. Bowden’s 7-2 record against USC kept Clemson fans happy as his teams fell short of winning an Atlantic Coast Conference championship.

The last Clemson coach with a losing record against USC was Frank Howard. He stuck around by winning ACC championships, bowl games and gaining legendary status despite going 13-15-2 against USC.

Aside from Marvin Bass, whose USC teams won three of five games against Clemson in the early ‘60s, only Rex Enright experienced consistent success against the Tigers.

Enright started slow, his teams going 1-3 against Clemson from 1938 through 1941. Then he picked up steam when he resumed head-coaching duties in 1946 and ran off a 7-2-1 record against Clemson over the next decade.

Enright was much beloved by the USC faithful despite a 64-69 overall record. That admiration had everything to do with Enright’s teams’ ability to beat Clemson. Following one season, fans rewarded him with a new Cadillac because his boys defeated their hated rival.

So, what has happened over the years is a simultaneous shift. Where Clemson once had the legendary coach whose record against USC could not cost him his job, now the Gamecocks have that. Also, while USC once had coaches who could keep their jobs by beating Clemson, now it’s the Clemson coaches who can hang on by beating USC.

Swinney knows well the intensity of the USC-Clemson rivalry because he sees similarities to the rivalry he grew up with.

“I didn’t like Auburn,” said Swinney, an Alabama native. “From the time I could drag a diaper across the road, I was saying ‘Roll Tide.’ War Eagle was bad words. I disliked orange.”

That dislike for the orange of Auburn extended beyond his youth when Swinney played as a walk-on at Alabama, then served as a Crimson Tide assistant coach for eight seasons.

The transformation to a love for the color orange has been easy, says Swinney, who was an assistant at Clemson beginning with the 2003 season. He was Clemson’s coach on an interim basis over the final seven games of the 2008 season before being named head coach Dec. 1.

“This rivalry, there’s a lot of similarities,” Swinney said by way of comparing USC-Clemson to Alabama-Auburn. “It’s bitter in both states. You’ve got two schools that don’t like each other. Their fans don’t like each other. Everywhere you go half the people like you, half the people don’t like you.”

Swinney said the biggest difference between the rivalries is conference affiliation. So much more is at stake because Alabama and Auburn compete in the same Southeastern Conference.

When Spurrier arrived at USC, he infuriated some Gamecock fans by saying he was setting bigger goals for his team than beating Clemson, like winning the SEC East Division championship. Swinney agrees with Spurrier by saying that Clemson must first strive to win the ACC Atlantic Division title.

Of course, if Clemson falls short in that quest, Swinney stands a good chance of keeping his job by beating USC.

I'll tell you what Ron, Tammy did stick around longer because he could beat the Chickens, despite losing the ACC/Division every year, but owning your rival in everything is a lot better than getting beat by your rival and still not winning the Division.

APR Ratings released

Clemson did well in the APR rating system, and among the sports that were ranked we beat SC 9-7-1. Football beat them 955-929, Men's BBall 929-909, and baseball 974-926. Hell even our dumb Girl's basketball team (recall they had the lowest GPA of all sports at Clemson this year) beat the Cluckers by one point.

Can a hammer have a rivalry with a nail?

The penalty for scores below 925 can result in loss of scholarships, just ask Ole Piss.

NationalChamps.net previews the season here. Its long but I do agree with most of it. Heather Dinich gives her post-spring analysis here, and I'm left wondering why she gets to cover the conference more and more.

Ard highlights the backfield situation here, and it turns out we have another QB prospect coming in as a preferred walk-on for this fall, Taylor Ogle. He's a pro-style QB and is 6'6", from Gatlinburg. He plans to arrive in late June to participate in summer workouts. He wasn't recruited much, only Carson-Newman and Tennessee Tech offered, but UVA and UT were dangling preferred status to him it seems.

It drank pretty good dont it?

Scout.com previews Middle Tennessee's upcoming season here. Stockstill is entering his 4th year at MTSU at 17-20 overall. Predictably, it looks like they have the best WR corps in the Sun Belt conference, and with Tony Franklin (he who was fired at Auburn midseason) in to run his spread offense, it could be very explosive. I'm still of the opinion that Tubby is the reason Auburn didnt do much with Franklin last year, as Tubbs kept his old position coaches in place and didnt let Franklin bring in his own people, so they had a situation where the other assistant coaches didnt buy into Franklin's philosophy. You can't meld a I-formation running team with the spread unless you completely commit to it.

Since football news is at a premium, we're going to start going into more X's and O's over the summer about our opponents.

Heres an early recruiting wishlist via Scout.

Looks like Will Korn has been working with a famous QB coach to fix those troublesome mechanics. Jerry Rhome was Aikman's QB coach in Dallas; Joe Theisman, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien in Washington; and Warren Moon's coach in Houston, among others.

The importance of OL experience in winning games, according to the WSJ.

Ard gives his post-spring tidbits on the Cornerback situation here. If you are able to read the latest LW article on Rendrick Taylor, I suggest you do so. I won't C&P it here, but it's enlightening about what the guy wants and has been through.

OL Graduate Assistant Bobby Hutchinson, who hadn't been officially hired yet to replace Sulkowski now that he's left for Colorado, has decided to take a job back in Florida. Former OL Marion Dukes was hired to replace Hutch. A replacement for Sulkowski hasn't been decided.

Oh no! Sakerlina is gonna get us this year!


Baseball
SEBaseball still projects Clemson as hosting a Regional. As long as we don't have a huge hiccup again like the last MD game, we should be set. We have Furman set for Wednesday night. We're still ranked as high as #19 in the Nation.

The ACC pulled the Baseball tournament away from Boston, and putting in in Greensboro, saving Swofford from a blunder just as stupid as putting the basketball tourney in Atlanta. If people wont travel to Jax for football in December, then why would you think they'd go into yankee territory?

Despite having record attendance in Greenville when it was there, it created an unfair advantage to Clemson....like Greensboro wouldn't for UNC or the other NC teams.....sure. Just put the thing in Charlotte or...even better, Myrtle Beach. Myrtle in mid-May, pre-bike week.

Baseball takes series against Maryland

If you are a student at Clemson, or have been, then you know that 123 through Easley is a street that is rarely patrolled by cops enough, and you know that you've sped well beyond the 55mph limit. I know I pushed my car to over 100mph on that street several times, late at night. I've lost count of how many students have been killed or badly injured on this road. I know at least 3 or 4 died on it during the 4 years I was a student. Its sad but not terribly unexpected to hear another has died. Our condolences to the family.

Football
WILL KORN was interviewed by ClemsonInsider over the weekend, check it out.

This article talks about the usual, tired-as-hell-comparison between the ACC and SEC. I could care less, I want to see Clemson do well, to hell with the rest of the conference.

This NC blog talks about how Butch Davis managed to get around his oversignage for another year, now I'm just waiting for the article on Spurrier

Ard answers mail in his usual "free" friday mail call here, which were mainly questions about the interviews with Pearman and WoodyMac, along with some recruiting bits. Nothing in the interviews was terribly enlightening though. He then talks about our LB Corps for next season, but alot of it is just things that I've covered before.

Dr. Saturday talks about the Congressional BCS hearings last week. Its a good summary of the arguments to to the committee. About the best we can hope for from this, however, is a new impetus to fix the system. The NCAA does not care what Congress thinks about anything at all, and there's nothing Congress can do to them to MAKE them change the system into a playoff.

Spurrier says Emmanuel Cook and Munnerlyn were misled about their draft prospects. I think its just more that they are idiots who didnt listen to the smarter people around them.



Baseball took 2 of 3 from the Turtles this weekend, but we should've swept them altogether. Clemson won saturday, 11-2, won game 1 of the doubleheader 7-4, but "ran out of gas" in game 2 and lost 8-6, blowing ANOTHER game at the end. Maryland is now 2-53 at Tiger Field after splitting the doubleheader yesterday. Sunday's results clinched a spot in the ACC Tournament for the Tigers, but still allowed Florida State to clinch the Atlantic Division title. We're still predicted to host a Regional, but just barely, and depending on the next weekend's games we could be off the bubble altogether. Clemson is up to #20 in the Baseball America poll, from #21 at 32-16 overall, still #8 in RPI.

Correction, dropped to #10 in RPI.

An article on Chris Dwyer's draft prospects.

Strip Club Awesomeness