Basic Game Information (courtesy www.clemsontigers.com)

Overall Statistical Comparison (courtesy ESPN):

Clemson/West Virginia All-Time Belt Game Records (courtesy College Football Belt Dot Com):

Continue reading this post »

Statistical Comparison (Courtesy ESPN):

Overall Game Information (courtesy ClemsonTigers.com):

Hokies vs Tigers coverage

Hokies vs Tigers preview

Gobbler Country

Continue reading this post »

General stats for both teams (courtesy ESPN)

General Information Courtesy of www.clemsontigers.com

Continue reading this post »

Tigers vs Wolfpack coverage

Backing The Pack

ESPN Preview

Textile Bowl Information (Courtesy of Wikipedia):

**NOTE**  This series wasn't officially dubbed the "Textile Bowl" until the 1981 season

Comparison of the two teams (coursety of ESPN.com):

This week's Textile Bowl showcases the Atlantic Division Champs vs. an up and down North Carolina State Wolfpack squad.  My crew will watch this one intensely, as they absolutely love the Textile Bowl.  Our Tigers look to make it eight straight over the Pack when Clemson visits their interdivision research triangle foes.

Head Coach Tom O'Brien leads the NC State Wolfpack into play this weekend as they battle the Clemson Tigers up in Raleigh.  O'Brien is a graduate of the Naval Academy and achieved the rank of Major in the Marine Corps.  This military background surely set the path for his coaching style, as shown specifically through his teams at Boston College.  O'Brien was a coach at Navy then the offensive line/offensive coordinator at Virginia prior to accepting the head job at Boston College in 1997.  O'Brien was successful at BC, first tying for 1^st in the Big East (2004) then winning the Atlantic Division of the ACC the following year.  O'Brien left BC following the 2006 campaign to take over as the main man at NCST.  TB's time at State has been rather lackluster.  The highlight of his reign over the Pack was a 9-4 record and Champs Sports Bowl victory last season.  This year has not been so kind to the Major as NC State currently sits at 5-5 (2-4 in conference) and desperately needs victories to become bowl eligible.  O'Brien is definitely on the hot seat.  Alumni, students, fans, boosters, and administrators all gave him the benefit of the doubt in prior years but are growing impatient as his time in the state of North Carolina lengthens.

Continue reading this post »

Basic information regarding both teams (thanks to www.espn.com)

Demon Deacons vs Tigers coverage

Blogger So Dear

ESPN Preview

Clemson Tigers

Wake Forest

Jim Grobe is a former Virginia football player, graduating from UVA in '74. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant in Charlottesville. He moved around for a couple of years coaching linebackers at Marshall then at Air Force. Grobe stayed at Air Force for 11 seasons before landing a head coaching job at Ohio University where was the head man at Ohio from ‘95 to '00.  At that time Coach Grobe left to take the Wake Forest job. Grobe built the Demon Deacons in a methodical fashion, eventually reaching the apex of his career to date in 2006. The ‘06 season saw Wake win 11 contests, an ACC crown, and the Deacons play in the Orange Bowl to culminate the season. This achievement should not be discounted as the growth of this program was incredible considering the state of WF's program when Grobe took over.

Continue reading this post »

Overall Game Preview (thanks to ESPN and the GT Athletic Department--www.ramblinwreck.com for the help):

Paul Johnson is affectionately known as an option master.  Johnson's scheme has given Clemson issues in the past, particularly in the '09 ACCCG. Clemson had much more success against the Jackets last season, whipping Georgia Tech at Death Valley. Clemson was completely dominant in the trenches and was able to simply run over GT. On the flip side, I was surprised that Johnson abandoned his trusty option attack at times in favor of pass attempts at critical points during drives.

We have spent most of our time here studying Paul Johnson's offensive system from a defensive point of view, with the lone exception being a piece on specifically on option QB play.  Below we've captured a handful of defensive articles along with the aforementioned QB article listed above.  We think these are important enough to place on the article's front page.  Therefore, do yourself a favor and refresh on these concepts before our Tigers take the field on Saturday.  Understanding of these concepts allows one to accurately assess Kevin Steele's defensive performance and adjustment strategy.

Continue reading this post »

CUAD Basics w/ ESPN Stats (thanks ESPN and ClemsonTigers.com)

Tar Heels vs Tigers coverage -- Carolina March -- ESPN Preview

Vegas Odds (courtesy SBN Odds)

If you remember last season's UNC game, you are probably mad that I brought up the subject.  Last season Clemson was defeated in Chapel Hill by a depleted UNC squad.  Here is ESPN's recap of that football game.  We almost broke stuff here at STS, so if you want to see those analyses meltdowns, click back through the archives to last October. 

Otherwise, here is what happened:  In typical Clemson fashion, the defense gave up several huge plays that allowed North Carolina to score 21 points on 255 total yards and beat our Tigers.  Clemson's offensive playcalling was pitiful and our coaches' responses were equally as bad. 

This was also the game that broke the camel's back in terms of offensive philosophy and probably an inflection point for Swinney and crew.  It was obvious the playcalling and overall offensive strategy was not gong to work.  We refused to run AE when he was gashing the Heels for 5 yards a pop and forced him to share time with a back who was not producing.  Andre Powell's inability to properly substitute running backs along his stupidity in the post game presser probably got him fired.

Enough of last season's game.  Hit the jump and see what to expect tomorrow when UNC rolls into the Valley.

Continue reading this post »

Basic Information (courtesy CUAD website and ESPN):

Clemson / Maryland Team Statistical Comparison (thanks Grey Matter Stats)

Randy Edsall is no stranger to Northeast colleges and universities.  Edsall spent his playing days at Syracuse ('76-'79) playing quarterback then stayed with the Orangemen coaching various positions through the 1990 season.  Edsall was then the DB's coach and Boston College and for the Jacksonville Jaguars then spent a season as Georgia Tech's defensive coordinator ('98) prior to taking his first head coaching gig at UConn in December 1998 following the resignation of Skip Holtz (though Skip won there, he wanted the OC job at SC).  Edsall led the Huskies from the 1-AA ranks to 1-A then into the Big East and, following the 2010 season, to the Fiesta Bowl. There he ran a conservative I-formation offense that was very fundamentally sound, though low on outright talent.

Maryland's offense is directed by Gary Crowton, who we know well. Crowton has been a lot of places as offensive coordinator, including LSU, Oregon, Chicago Bears, and Georgia Tech. Crowton has two stints as a collegiate head coach: Louisiana Tech (1996-'98) and BYU (2001-'04).  LSU won the national championship with Crowton running the offense in 2007, so DrB is quite familiar with it. His scheme there was a blend of a no-huddle spread with a lot of carryover of NFL and BYUish principles. BYU guys generally prefer to throw the ball around, and at La Tech, where he really made his mark as an offensive guru, he threw it around a ton. He later grew to absorb whatever worked best for him, and the technical difficulty of an NFL scheme's formations and shifts did influence his offensive philosophy to the complex side. As a result, wherever he goes, he has had success and then later faltered. In Chicago he was one of the first guys to really try the bubble screens in the league. Once they were onto him, he got out. At LSU, his offense worked only with Quarterbacks that Jimbo Fisher had taught fundamentals to, and the offensive execution degraded from 2007 onwards steadily. Most of it apparently because it was too complex for the team to figure out. Ring a bell Clemson fans? You're looking at a Spence type of mind. Sometimes it'll look great, and sometimes they look completely lost, because he doesn't do a good job of keeping it simple for the players. Crowton values complexity to confuse a defense, as opposed to keeping it simple and executing several plays really well (like Morris).

Continue reading this post »