First things first, it is always good to see the '81 team and Coach Ford again. Continuing props to those guys.
I am a little pissed about Urban Myer's coverage of the game. When we played Auburn he gave you bursts of knowledge, telling you that the defense showed a single high look with press coverage all around, so you know a blitz is coming and you have C1. Then he tells you where they will throw the ball. Apparently ESPN shoved their head up their rear again and told Urban to act like another one of their noon game announcers and let everyone else talk because he clearly is too annoying. Let the man talk about football. When on-air I wish Spielman would shut up and let Urban tell us all the stuff he knows. In fact, get rid of everyone but Myer and let him talk about whatever he wants to talk about. Thanks ESPN...you've turned your best personality into Pam Ward. The only thing worse is the bachelor's in-game discussion. Two thumbs down.
Two of my responsibilities here at STS include focusing on wide receivers and defensive backs. We hammered former wide receivers coach Dabo Swinney and current coach Jeff Scott to death over the offseason-mainly because our receiver play has been nothing but crap since Coach Stock left. We almost gave Coach Cheese a coach of the century award. This year's on-field play has been the exact opposite of what we've seen over the past couple seasons.
Jeff Scott has learned a lot this year. He has one thing he didn't have last season: a supervisor who won't take any crap. As we recommended, Scott got under a coach who accepts nothing but perfection out of his players. Chad Morris is the best thing other than Sammy Watkins that has happened to the Clemson receiving crew. Last year, the only player who wanted to block was Nuk. This year everybody blocks AND catches the football...Amazing what talent and a guy who accepts nothing but the best will do for your offense. What make us happy is perimeter blocking. That has improved along with the receiving output (insert smiley face here).
Alright Coach Cheese...we obviously appreciate your services and understand that we lost a slew of players over the past two seasons, which was well noted here. I guess I'll go ahead and say it, you will be hard pressed to find a better coach than Harbison, period. But, there are some issues and talent isn't the issue. The play of the defensive secondary has been nothing short of a dumpster fire this season. Please tell Mr. Meeks that he has arms...and can use them while tackling. Coty Sensabaugh's coverage is terrible, but he is the only DB you can count on to give you run support. Safety play is crap and I have nothing good to say about that. The poor assignment football made me want to vomit then lack of open field tackling skills were nearly too much. We have issues in the secondary and that is very, very obvious.
Offense is Jam Up. Coach Morris has this thing running like a finely tuned machine. Tajh had another good day, tossing 5 TDs and avoiding the interceptions to the tune of nearly 379 yards. He did seem confused early in the game when UNC showed a lote of looks that no one had seen from them to date. Once he and Morris made adjustments, CU went on a tear--almost like an avalanche that just couldn't be stopped once it got a little momentum behind it.
My man Nuk Hopkins was MF'N BOSS. Last I heard, he drilled the 150 yard mark (157 yards) and scored once. Mr. Hopkins would be the #1 guy if Sammy Watkins wasn't so good. Nuk is a legit NFL player...but so are Watkins and Allen. We did not run the ball as much as I would like, especially in the 1st half. I really would have liked to see Ellington touch the ball more than seven times. As it stands, Bellamy got enough reps to keep him from crying and the Tigers managed to mix him in even though he appears to need more reps in the pass protection area. Ellington is clearly a better pass blocker and is "more aware" than Bellamy. He will get there and I wouldn't worry too much as pass protection from backs involves concepts that take time to master.
North Carolina showed us a bunch of looks we didn't expect. The most obvious was the Cover 0 they showed late in the first half. Chad Morris admitted that he, like us, had not seen that look out of the Heels. There was an adjustment and it was what we all would do during a game of Playstation football-If they want to show us C0 or C1 looks, heave the ball down the field and let your Jam Up receivers make a play or pull an interference call.
Kourtnei Brown gets big ups. It has only taken five years, but excellent game. Had we redshirted him his freshman season (as everyone outside of Tom and crew wanted) I am sure he would have enjoyed a better all-around career. The interception he had was pretty impressive considering the distance, trajectory, and velocity of the pass thrown.
I called out our kick coverage a while back. Guess what? Our kick coverage still sucks. Terrible and inexcusable. Run your bleeping lanes, how difficult is that? Run your bleeping lanes-then tackle. At some point this season this crap is gonna lose us a game...this is just no good.
Tackling left a lot to be desired here again today. On top of poor tackling the secondary was beaten deep more than once. If we were playing a more poised team, we would have gotten beaten or, at the very least, would have given up a boatload of points. Instead we were fortunate to play a discombobulated team that could not overcome our poor tackling and coverage efforts. Six turnovers won't win you a football game, especially if Morris' offense is clicking. Since I complained a lot early I need to give props to this team for forcing six turnovers on the afternoon--two of which directly resulted in six points.
Overall, you have to be happy with where we are at this point even though our Clemson Tiger football team leaves a lot to be desired.
Turn your face to CBS at 3:30 next week to see the big dogs. Those are two fantastic teams. One is the deepest, most talented team in the land. The other is the best coach in the game. All I have to say is that I will take Bama and the points and rely on Les Miles to act like a idiot late in the game, which he does even when the alternative is less exciting. That should be a remarkable football game that will have a huge effect on the National Title hunt.
On a side note...I was complaining yesterday about Al Golden looking like a complete douchebag. Sack up and rock a suit or leave the tie gig to the fraternities. Someone made a good point, saying at least he wasn't shredding the camo or rocking a white Auburn starter jacket in the middle of the summer, so I guess Mr. Golden has that going for him. I guess it could be worse, Golden could break out the bowtie. See the pictures below to understand how coaches properly rock the shirt and tie on gameday:
via clemson.greenvilleonline.com
