More photos » Mary Ann Chastain - AP

3 months ago: Florida State's quarterback Christian Ponder (7) looks on from the sidelines as he is pulled out in the fourth quarter during their NCAA college football game against Clemson Saturday, Oct. 7, 2009, at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, S.C. Clemson defeated Florida State 40-24. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)

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IF Clemson makes the ACC Championship Game, and yes I think its premature to say we'll go, since we're Clemson and we screw this kind of thing up, he stands to get a big (and deserved) payraise:

With an appearance in the ACC title game, Swinney's contract calls from his guaranteed compensation to increase from $800,000 to the "median" of all ACC head coaches. The ACC average head coach's salary is $1.7 million according to contract figures analyzed by the Post and Courier.

An ACC title would further increase Swinney's guaranteed compensation to $2 million, the average of the top seven compensated coaches in the conference.

According to the contract, the increases take effect "for the contract year in which the team participated in the ACC Championship Game."

-Tajh Boyd is preparing the scout team for Russell Wilson's throws, though Wilson is a better runner than what I've seen of Boyd.

The NC State offense is not the reason their team has had problem, its been Mike Archer's 4-2-5 defense. NC State plays alot of spot-drop zone out of the nickel set, but zone blitzes more often than Koenning did. They are younger in the secondary and I dont think they are very good up front despite being older players, other than DE Willie Young who is highly talented.

-Dr. Saturday writer Doug Gillet talks about Clemson:is it time to panic?

-Sometimes the collapse comes late, as in 2006's November collapse, or in 2007, when Clemson only needed to beat Boston College at home to sew up the division but gave up the winning touchdown pass on a busted coverage with less than two minutes to play. Then there was last year, when the title hopes of the overwhelming conference favorite evaporated before the clock hit double zeroes in the season opener. Either way, though, putting the phrase "division leader" anywhere near "Clemson" in a sentence has been the sportswriting equivalent of dousing a voodoo doll with gasoline and lighting a cigarette.

-In theory, the Tigers should be able to all but name their score against the wretched Wolfpack defense, which gave up a total of 101 points to Duke and Boston College last month, but any team that failed to crack 300 net yards against Maryland can only be so confident.

-D. McDaniel apologizes for taking out Ponder....why? it was a football hit.

-Strelow thinks the Tigers have a new-found swagger but I'm still quietly optimistic about the rest of the year.

-Ron Morris doesnt think Steven Orr is washed up.

-Having suffered through generations of hit-and-mostly-miss football, they naturally believe every new coach can be the instant solution to all of the program's problems. They naturally are disappointed.

-He discovered that overcoming more than a century of mediocrity takes more than five seasons. Heck, Rex Enright could not overcome the program's consistent malaise in two coaching stints that covered 15 seasons. Paul Dietzel had his moments, but in nine seasons he had a losing record.

Jim Carlen managed a winning record over seven seasons, and Joe Morrison produced a couple of outstanding teams and a winning mark in six seasons before his death.

That is a pretty fine lineup of coaches who have come, not conquered and departed. Some were chased away. Others threw up their arms in disgust. Most of USC's 31 previous coaches were shown the guillotine rather unceremoniously, some too soon, some not soon enough.

What is puzzling to me, though, is that the same fans who want to kick Spurrier in the fanny on the way out the door wanted to hug Lou Holtz and keep him aboard. Holtz had a losing record, brought NCAA probation to the school and left the program in shambles.

He's a shit-stirrer, but I love it when Morris pisses them off.

-Injuries: Chancellor sprained his ankle and should be "probable" for this weekend. Butler should start. Bowers will likely miss the game but was jogging, that will be decided later.

 Not much of interest in the Press Conference today, but we might look at the Coordinator interviews later. A basketball preview is forthcoming.