• Dr. B has elaborated at length on our walk on statistics.  The State paper shows more reasons that Swinney will continue to reward those who walk on as his tenure continues.  The P & C lets it known here also.  I think this is an issue that this staff must address moving forward as we cannot keep running such deficits (11 original walkons on this year's squad).
• Clemson has released the depth chart for week 1. Chandler Catanzaro has won the starting K position it appears, with Richard Jackson coming in 3rd. Chavis and Thompson are tied at NG. Dye is tied with Clear at X. Thats really the only surprises within. They are otherwise sandbagging a little and not announcing the true starters until they see them play against North Texas. The depth chart for Auburn will be more telling.
• Since its something we've tracked, ESPN points out that only 14 schools made money on sports last year.
• P & C is all jacked up about staff continuity here at Clemson.  All this staff consistency needs to put out some results, as we have already demanded heads role for certain positions and will not back off if there is no improvement. Sapakoff gets it wrong when he says our staff wasnt approached by other schools though.
• Outside the Clemson arena, Garnet and Black Attack have been discussing what it will take for SC to improve this season.  They also discuss the trials and tribulations of an NCAA investigation (and TE woes) as well as the emerging/interesting QB situation.
• I won't even attempt to sum up what the boys over at Tomahawk Nation are up to, as it would fill this page.  Do yourself a favor and do your FSU homework in one spot.  These guys know their stuff and bang out jam-up stuff daily.
• If you need to get all riled up for work, Roll Bama Roll has your early morning fire with some nice clips from the Tide S&C coach.  You may want to warn the coworkers and rival companies before ripping this bad boy up.
• GT's blog From the Rumble Seat has been counting the days down to football season for some time now.  In an interesting story, they discuss prep time and its effect on defending the Jackets.  We surely will discuss this topic when GT rolls to C-Town this season.
• Rocky Top Talk chats about a second helping of the Sabanator and how it would affect the perception of the Third Saturday in October.
• Courtesy of www.gobblercountry.com, smash this one to tour VT's new facilities:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhNv0K5o-hc&feature=player_embedded.

Have a good Thursday!

This shit is pissing me off.

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Yesterday Clemson announced that CB Mansa Joseph would be put on scholarship for the fall, bringing the total number of walk-ons currently on scholarship to 11.

Yes thats ELEVEN. Eleven guys on scholarship and how many get snaps aside from Special Teams? 3? 4? Eleven guys, 2 kickers, a punter, and a long snapper who doesn't play at all aside from long-snapping.

Don't worry about playing well enough in High School to get into Clemson! Come on and we'll put you on scholarship in a year anyway because we DONT KNOW HOW TO SIGN ENOUGH recruits to fill the open spots we have each year. We went and signed only 12 a couple years ago, so we could sign more later, and yet we still don't sign enough to fill the open spots?

Some teams play with 85 scholarship players, and have to cut good ones to make room for new recruits. At Clemson we play with 74 (73 if McKelvey doesn't qualify, and it looks like this is the case) and invite guys to walk-on and give them a scholarship place holder instead of signing good players up out of High/Prep Schools. Is it any wonder we continue to have depth issues?

Its a self-imposed NCAA probation. The Trojans will play with 71 (in any given year) under their probation.

I don't have a problem giving a scholarship to a guy as a senior who has worked his way through school or one that has cracked the depth chart enough to get meaningful snaps, 3 or 4 is fine, but 11 of them is taking it too far.

More photos » Mark Humphrey - AP

8 months ago: Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, right, hugs linebacker Scotty Cooper in the closing moments of the fourth quarter of the Music City Bowl NCAA college football game on Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009, in Nashville, Tenn. Clemson beat Kentucky 21-13. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

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Cooper came in as a highly rated 4-star recruit from Lake City who had offers from Michigan, Penn State, LSU, SC, and Clemson among others. However in his first year or so he had two knee surgeries that essentially robbed him of his athleticism and speed, and has never lived up to his billing since.

Last year, it was expected he would get considerable snaps, but he didnt get over 200 as a Strongside Backer in Steele's system to spell Kevin Alexander, and finished with only 12 tackles for the season. He last got significant PT two years ago under Blackwell's horrible tutelage, but never finished with more than 33 tackles in VK's scheme. Cooper really doesn't possess the size to play SLB in Steele's scheme, nor the speed to play Weakside in coverage, so he was kinda stuck.

Cooper said that since the Maryland game last season he has had a neck (nerve) problem that causes him a lot of pain when he makes tackles, and it has gotten worse in camp, so much now that he has decided to give up football. He's going to remain as a student coach with J.K. Jay and Stanley Hunter. Hopefully he'll make a good coach and recruiter someday soon for us.

Clemson now has 7 recruited LBs on scholarship, and we need 10 for a full compliment. This puts Daniel Andrews at backup Sam and may force a move by Parker to strongside for depth. While I did not expect Cooper to get more than 150-200 snaps again this year, it does put us in a serious bind with numbers. The plan was to take 3 LBs in recruiting already, so Cooper doesn't affect that.

All that means is that Steele will play even more substituted nickel coverage this season.

Here is a primer.  Fan app day is tomorrow and we get to see (hopefully) some good looking uni's.

This year, with The BlogPoll moving over to SBN and the ACC down on voting members, and me usually watching 30 hours of college football each week, we decided to sign up for it. Other than this initial ballot, it'll be up for discussion every week before we submit on Wednesdays. You can give your opinion on how we move teams up and down and how wrong the national polls are.

Everyone knows the preseason polls mean nothing at all, and usually half the poll falls out before coming back in around midseason, with the usual surprises.

Below you'll see how we rated the teams in the Top 25 initially, taking into account their returning cast, last season's performances, and who we think is actually going to improve next year.

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This year I decided to take a new approach to predicting what the Tigers will do this season.  After being impressed with a method the folks at Tomahawk Nation described at the beginning of last football season, I have decided to utilize their method to try to guage my confidence in the Tigers this season.  The format is pretty simple.  I will lay out a schedule and give my estimated confidence level (from 0% to 100%) on a Clemson victory over that week's performance.  This will allot fractions of wins over the course of the schedule.  At the end of the schedule, I will then sum these confidence projections and give a projected record that may or (probably) may not consist of whole numbers.

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More photos » Mark Crammer - AP

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Clemson had their 3rd scrimmage in 8 days and again the running backs piled up significant yardage against the 2nd and 3rd team defenses. Jamie Harper had a big day, the first significant mention in my memory of him this fall, with 141 yards on 9 carries. Andre Ellington and Daniel Barnes both had pretty good/decent numbers as well. Hot Rod got his clock cleaned by Quandon Christian and has a bad concussion, so he will be held out at least a couple weeks if not more. Shouldn't be a big cause for worry to anyone unless either Harper or Ellington get hurt in the first two games.

The rest from the AD:

The scrimmage completed the fall camp portion of the preseason schedule. Classes start Wednesday at Clemson and the team will have the day off from football activities. Practice will resume Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The team will hold its annual Fan Appreciation Day at Clemson Memorial Stadium on Sunday at 3:00 PM.

Harper had a run of 59 yards early in the scrimmage and another of 50 yards for a touchdown late in the session on his way to his 141-yard rushing day. He also had two receptions for 31 yards, one of which went for 25 yards and a touchdown.

Andre Ellington also had a strong day with 13 carries for 57 yards, while Daniel Barnes, a walk-on who was just put on scholarship this week, had 10-39 rushing.

Tajh Boyd quarterbacked the first team offense and Mike Wade quarterbacked the second team. Starter Kyle Parker had the day off as he attended to duties related to his signing of a professional baseball contract with the Colorado Rockies late Monday night. Parker, who was taken in the first round of the Major League Baseball Draft, will be back at practice on Thursday and will play the 2010 season for the Tigers football team. He is then expected to join the Rockies organization sometime in 2011.

Boyd completed 9-20 passes for 68 yards and two touchdowns. He threw a two-yard scoring pass to tight end Dwayne Allen and a 25-yarder to Harper. Wade was 2-10 for 16 yards but had to go against Clemson's number-one defense for most of the scrimmage. Allen was the top receiver with 3-15 and the score. Barnes added two catches for 21 yards.

Defensively, Tyler Shatley was the top tackler with five, while Marcus Gilchrist had four stops, including a caused fumble. DeAndre McDaniel and Tig Willard both had fumble recoveries. Jarvis Jenkins had three tackles, a sack and a caused fumble.

The first team defense did not give up a score.

"It was a good practice, a good ending to camp," said Swinney. "It was a scrimmage in which we worked on a lot of situations. We worked on short yardage, two-minute drills, offensively and defensively, and running out the clock.

"I was pleased with the running backs, Jamie Harper and Andre Ellington. We could have games this year when they both rush for 100 yards. They continue to run well and catch the ball out of the backfield."

Swinney began the day by taking the entire team across the street from Howard's Rock to the Scroll of Honor, the new memorial that honors Clemson alumni who have lost their lives serving the United States military.

There were two injuries reported in the scrimmage. Red-shirt freshman running back Roderick McDowell suffered a concussion, while junior tight end Drew Traylor suffered a sprained ankle.

In addition to Kyle Parker, freshman Justin Parker missed the scrimmage as he was home with his ailing mother.

Da'Quan Bowers had not returned to the team after enduring the sudden death of his father a week ago Sunday. He was expected to return to school on Tuesday

Napier:

"We know who we are from an identity standpoint now, and the repetitions they're able to get at this point in camp are completely different from where we were at. I like their identity. I like who they want to be. I like what they're about. I'd go to war with them every day of the week."

He praised the OL and said that K. Davis has done well aside from being gassed out at the end of practice. He doesnt expect any of the newcomers to be ready to play physically this fall. Napier was pretty down on the line last fall camp, saying repeatedly that he only had 6 he could win with, so it appears they really are getting better up front for a change. RB depth may be a problem if McDowell is out longer, and he said Demont Buice is not ready to be a college RB and Howard has been injured.

Again Steele produced great numbers on YPC of 1.6 with (presumably) the 1st team defense handling that. If that is the case then its quite clear the 2nd team and 3rd teams are getting whipped up front. We do play the 2nd team guys on defense quite a bit, and if Goodman/Rennie Moore/Chavis/Brown are getting beaten this badly, I'm pretty discouraged about their performance this camp.

Still, folks shouldn't go crazy thinking the defense is going to suck because of this yardage given up. Its still just a scrimmage. They ran out many backups with the 1's, so you don't know who was out there at any given time when they got pounded up front the worst. Xavier Brewer was out with a hammy, Parker was gone to be with his mother, Bowers is gone too and Scotty Cooper is battling some neck problem.

Powell said that Gilchrist, Ellington, Adams (fastest guy on the team), and Harper are all working on kick returns. My best bet is Gilchrist for now. No word on how the damn kickers did today.

More photos » Richard Shiro - AP

9 months ago: Clemson's Andre Ellington (23) celebrates his touchdown against Florida State during the fourth quarter of their NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 7, 2009, at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, S.C. Clemson defeated Florida State 40-24. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)

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Once again everyone must be reminded that it is early AND the coaches and players can dictate what gets out to the media (for the most part).  Also, we are just hearing opinions about practice and we all know that things change when you lace them up on Saturday...so take it for what it's worth.

We are hearing from all areas of this program that year two is providing the players and coaches with the experience needed to embrace new coaching strategies, get more experience for the offensive line, and get over all the bad habits that this program developed before Swinney took the helm (and no, I am not ready to anoint Dabo the next savior, just realize that the ship appears to be a little tighter now than when he was the receivers coach--and I have heard that he is a good Christian man also).

We will expand upon how veteran depth and an extra year in a different direction may effect this team. 

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