Mid-Season Sunday Thoughts

We’re halfway home.  I’ve kind of been in hibernation since the Ryder Cup debacle.  Of course I’ve been watching our Tigers and been in awe of #4 as most of you have.  I will take this opportunity to man up and say that I was wrong about Watson starting.  Padge was adamant over the summer that he would be one of the greatest in school history and would start this season.  Many others gloated over his skills.  I was of the opinion that there was no way a true freshman could learn enough of the offense and adjust to the speed of play to get significant snaps.  I figured Cole was way ahead of him in understanding the offense and the ability to use that much more of the playbook would leave him in—at least through the NC State game.  Well, I was clearly wrong.  Deshaun Watson has emerged (to date) to be the real deal.  Chad Kelly is lucky now that he got the hell out of town, because Watson is simply better.  The only others with as much hype as him in my memory include Michael Carr and Billy Luckie.  Neither did shit at Clemson.  Now we’ll see how Cole plays over the next month and wonder what will happen when Watson is back healthy.  More about Clemson Football and my other musings following the jump (too much to eat up the whole page, so click the article's title link to open).

I do not want to hear folks bashing Cole Stoudt.  He is not as mobile as #4 and not as exciting as the freshman but definitely is not the reason behind any of Clemson’s struggles (we’ve already discussed the poor playcalling at Georgia and I am about to discuss Clemson’s real problems on offense).  He is very serviceable and Clemson is fortunate to be in the position they are in (talented starter gets hurt, 5th year senior steps in).  The receivers did nothing yesterday to help either passer.  Besides, Clemson’s biggest problem isn’t the QB position, it is the guys who are supposed to block for him.  The offensive line is a complete clusterfuck, but we’ve all come to expect that bullshit after all these years.  Don’t blame this whole fiasco on Caldwell nor Morris.  Those two certainly don’t deserve to get out unscathed but I won’t hold either significantly responsible for the crap we see on the field each week.  Caldwell was one hell of a coach at Vandy.  Morris has been complaining about lineman development for years.  While those two don’t get along, both agree that significant changes need to be made in the recruiting process and within the S&C program.  The recruiting strategy and the S&C stagnation are all on your boy Dabo.  For all the impressive firepower he’s brought to Tigertown, he has completely neglected building an offensive line that’s worth a shit or has any depth.  Want proof?  Ryan Norton is reinventing the matador profession as a college football player.  When not yelling “olé,” Norton is flat on his ass with tire tracks on his chest.  Norton is far from the outlier on this team.  We could go up and down the depth chart and still not find five guys who get an inch of push nor can protect the guy in the pocket.  Joe Gore is hurt.  Kalon Davis hasn’t improved.  Crowder looks more out of shape every week.  The list goes on and on.  We have one “serviceable” of everything up front.  None are great but the backups are nauseating.  Because of bonehead roster management, we get to look forward to a 2015 season where neither the line is worth a shit.

While I am on the no push discussion, our short yardage and goalline offensive performances yesterday were pathetic.  We already know that Clemson’s front can’t crack an egg, much less get a yard.  Knowing this, I don’t understand why the Tigers are so bent on (A) running a slow developing power play out of the gun and (B) not kicking the ball and choosing to run a slow developing power play out of the gun.  It was pathetic that this team couldn’t close out Louisville with the ball on the 2 yard line late in the game.  Even more pathetic was Clemson’s end of first half fiasco.  Clemson managed to come out of that one with no points despite being at the goalline.  I was disappointed (but not shocked) that the OL provided no protection for Stoudt and disappointed he wasn’t able to throw the ball away to stop the clock.  I was more pissed off that our tight ends and receivers were pissing around and in no hurry to line up to try and get another play off.  I spent the last 3 years praising the effort of the wide receivers but after what I saw yesterday (drops and the lack of urgency), Jeff Scott absolutely needs to deliver an ass-chewing to that whole unit.  The end of first half crap cost us at least a fieldgoal and, again, could have helped avoid drama at the end of the football game.  I am surprised my television didn’t get thrown through a window on our final offensive drive.  Again, short yardage is pathetic.  That and a defender who slipped almost cost Clemson another football game.  It already cost Clemson the biggest game of the year so you would think fixing this crap would be at the top of Morris/Caldwell/Swinney’s list.

Defensively, there isn’t much to complain about this year sans the NC game and being gassed/giving up late against Georgia.  Enjoy this defensive front because next year is going to be a real struggle.  Again, the staff has managed to have nearly nothing but seniors in its front seven meaning that this group will be inexperienced next year.  The more I look at what we’ll have next season up front on both sides of the LOS, the more depressed I get.

I thought we were extremely fortunate in the kicking game yesterday.  First and foremost, let’s give a shoutout to the kickers.  While I haven’t forgotten the early-season issues, Lakip did everything he could do yesterday to help this team win.  Same goes for Bradley Pinion.  Punt return was the biggest story.  Adam Humphries’ return for a touchdown surprised everyone.  While that was great and was a major reason Clemson won, he made his share of bonehead decisions.  Biggest was the decision to field a punt while backpedalling to somewhere around the 6 yard line.  Everyone knows the rule:  Do not field a punt inside your own 10 yard line.  If you have to backpedal to your 6, you shouldn’t even consider touching that football.

I’ve done a lot of complaining and have been fairly doom and gloom to this point so I will try and even this out.  Clemson is halfway home with a 4-2 record.  They lost the two games I thought they’d lose and were able to get past Louisville—a game that I thought would be a tough one.  The schedule from here on out is not too difficult so there is a definite chance Clemson could run the table.  Even though South Carolina hasn’t been able to close out games lately, I obviously won’t downplay that one as you’ve seen how successful Swinney has been against Spurrier.  All this said, Clemson can still win a boatload of games this year.  It is especially disappointing that Watson got hurt Saturday but I think everyone is comfortable (not cocky) with Cole Stoudt.

You know me, I want to really talk about golf.  The Ryder Cup was the most depressing thing I’ve seen in years.  I guess it is easier on the stomach to get Rickrolled than what happened the last time (to recap for those who don’t remember, the US was in position to boat race the Euros two years ago then produced the biggest choke in golf history).  Much more entertaining than the matches was Phyllis Mickelson firing into Tom Watson.  Don’t get me wrong, I like Phil (my wife despises him, but she ain’t on the keyboard right now).  I think Phil is correct in saying that the Euros are more interested in winning than the Americans and that they plan more as a team.  But, as former golfer and current Golf Channel announcer Brandel Chamblee states following the Mickelson comments, there was one team member who didn’t participate with the group…and you can guess who he was firing into.  The United States needs to adjust its strategy going into Ryder Cups. 

Phil is right, but is also part of the problem because of his ego.  I think that the US needs to build pods and cliques going into the Presidents Cup.  The US should identify the most likely 30 players who will make the Presidents Cup / Ryder Cup roster and make an effort to unify them long before matches ever start.  I think Steve Stricker should be the next Ryder Cup captain, though I am not sure he’d accept since he seems happy whipping ass on the Tour as just a hobby, not a job.  Since Stricker may not want it, Freddy would be my next pick.  The man has captained three (3) consecutive Presidents Cup winning teams, so that is almost a no-brainer and likely the most obvious move (if Couples has time to participate).  After that I go Zinger.  Better than all this, let’s let the greatest of all time, Johnny Miller, get his shot at it.  There is nothing I’d love more than hearing Johnny Miller call himself a choker and an idiot on NBC.  I still struggle to get over his 2014 US Open coverage:  “Rog, I just don’t understand nor agree with Kaymer putting this far off the green” – every freaking hole as Martin Kaymer plays exceptionally great shots and is lapping the field at the US Open using his putter from non-traditional putting surfaces.

Jameis Winston and Florida State are something else.  One of my buddies yesterday suggested that Winston would be better off just leaving school and avoiding this tribunal.  At first I thought that was a bit crazy but after thinking about it a bit, that seems like the best option for Winston.  Roger and the pro teams will skewer him once this actually happens.  Jimbo Fisher and the school already look like idiots for their botched response to Winston’s latest idiocracy so I can only imagine how suspending him for the first half of the Boston College game will work for their public relations folks after he gets rung up by this tribunal.  I am not sure why there isn’t more outrage about how the case was handled originally and why FSU waited two years to investigate the issue.  I think the real items to recognize is that Winston repeatedly makes very poor choices, Winston is constantly given a free pass because he can throw a football well, and Florida State does the school and Winston a discredit by allowing these shenanigans to continue.

Todd Gurley may have just ruined Georgia’s season but probably made himself a lot of money.  Any player who has that much money to make, unfortunately, would be better off selling a jersey on eBay then get suspended indefinitely so that he can enter the Draft the following Spring completely healthy.  Why should Todd Gurley risk millions and millions of dollars so that the University of Georgia can make millions winning the East and Gurley gets not one cent?  Wouldn’t make sense to me either.  The reality is there is just too much money out there for these players to justify being “true to your school.”  It is a very sad reality and I hate to say it but it is true and you would hope the NCAA would do something about this.  I’d personally like to see the NCAA pony up for big insurance policies for their best players.  I don’t want them to help these players.  I want the NCAA, the school, or the conference to pay 100% for a multimillion dollar insurance policy for a guy like JD Clowney.  This would hedge against lost money for the player if there is an injury and better justify the money that these schools are making off of these big name players.  I am not a fan of college players union but think that the NCAA needs to get ahead of this issue before it blows up in their face and college football officially becomes the NFL’s paid minor league system.

I still don’t like the new NASCAR points system but won’t bore you with the discussion again.  Roger has enough problems that I won’t take the time to pile on him today.  Enjoy the second half of the college football season.