Post FSU Sunday Thoughts

Just a heads up, next week the mothership is going to shake up our site with "progress." In the end, it will be a very good thing. In the interim, we understandably will have some growing pains but for the better. That is a crappy way to describe all the new features but, sans all the training we have all gone through the past couple weeks, it is difficult to describe all the changes to the front end of our site the mothership has to offer. You will get more news feeds, a more navigational friendly site, and will eventually say that it kicks ass. All this being said, if you get to our site and it looks completely different, don't freak out--it is an SBN "United" initiative to make all our sites better. And don't for one second believe that any of that shit will keep us from telling you exactly what we think and shooting straight with you regarding Clemson football. If you want to live in some fantasy world, head over to Tigernet. If you want to put on your big boy (or girl) britches and talk about the truth, STS is where it is at.

On that note...prepare yourself for some profanity (sorry, but last night's second half deserves nothing less).

What a shtty second half. You know, I have been sitting here defending the Sweatshirt the past couple weeks but there is no defending the shit we saw last night. Why did we lose last night? Our defensive line isn't worth a shit. That is why you saw Venables using every kind of front he could dream up to try and stop FSU. In the end, he realized his best bet was to get one of his sorry ass defensive linemen off the field, show a three man front, then try and bring pressure with the extra LB/DB. This shit falls squarely on Coach Dabo. How in the hell can we have a defensive line with one senior, no juniors, and a bunch of inexperienced sophomores? Dabo controls the recruiting numbers. Hell, it is not like we were exactly shuffling linemen in and out a year ago. I would wager that our starting front four last year played 90% of the snaps. We couldn't bring in folks for help because we forgot to recruit defensive linemen at some point and the guys we had were either (A) too green to play or (B) sucked too bad to put into real game situations.

Before I start ripping asses, I'll begin by saying I thought our offensive skills players played well and the offensive line played well enough for any team with a defense to win. They are the reason this game was even close. Nuk, Sammy, Ellington, and a lot of the other offensive guys played their asses off last night and should be commended. Along those same lines, I will probably forget to say it later so I will now...Travis Blanks is a damn football player. The rest of our secondary is chicken shit. Pathetic.

And, again before I forget, the use of timeouts last night was pitiful. We tossed those bad boys around like they were candy at a parade. The fact that our PAT team can't get their shit together and at least get on the field is mind-blowing. That we waste a timeout on that shit is ridiculous. A field goal, OK. A freaking point after touchdown? Why waste a timeout there? Take the delay of game, scream at the idiots who cannot properly get on the field and move on with your life. Really, a timeout? What are you concerned that your kicker is good from 20 yards out but horseshit from 25? These kinds of things just irritate me and the logic behind such items is flat out ridiculous.

Note to Clemson decision makers: When you play a team with as much talent as Florida State, kick the ball out of the endzone and don't let them flip the momentum with a big kick return. That decision was plain stupidity.

To top all that off, I sat down after the game wanting to just drown my sorrows and listen to Hank Williams and somehow the good ones like "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Kaw-Liga," "Dear John," and "I Saw the Light" were removed from my Apple device. As you can guess, I was pretty pissed last night and spent the first part of this morning assuring they were back on the iPhone. Unacceptable to see Hank removed from my machine and even more unacceptable not to have Hank available for my listening pleasure after the bullshit we all endured last night.

But, it is like I told Dr. B last night, I am on board with the Sweatshirt. I like some of the stuff he has implemented, but the real reason I am "ass-in" with Coach Dabo is because I know his ass will be here for at least four more years. There is no way we fire his ass in less than four years. I have come to that realization and am behind our football coach (though if I were running the show, things would be somewhat different). All that being said here is what I really think:

We play a brand of football that most would stamp with the word "Pussy." Our defensive line is shit. When they hit, it sounds like two mice fucking in a cotton pillow. Our offensive line is getting better but still not there yet. On defense, soft would be a compliment. I would expect that Dabo-a Gene Stallings disciple-would make our team grow a fucking pair. You think Bebes would put up with half this shit on his football team? Hell no, he would kick the shit out of these players and they would be tough. I damn sure know Coach Ford would never put himself in this position. But mentioning Coach Ford around Clemson automatically turns you into some sort of jackass-living in the past and only out to get (insert name of coach here). Well fine, fuck it. If the BOT didn't have their heads up their ass in '99, Ford would be back and I'll wager we'd have more wins. I will guarantee you one thing-we wouldn't see this pussy brand of football. We wouldn't see Florida State just pushing us around at their muse. Yes it does start at the top. I don't think Dabo instills the real need to be a tough ass and has definitely dropped the ball with defensive line recruiting. I guess we can look forward to playing our cupcake ACC schedule (who is left now) then getting rolled by Carolina.

One note of crazinessy-I gave Dr. B 6.5 points and Clemson against Sakerolina last week. I gave him a chance to call the bet off last night and the reply I got was "hell no." If Clemson does the shit they did last night against Carolina, those 7 points will look like a mouse turd next to an elephant. They may beat us worse than last year. Man, I never thought that I would live to see Carolina beat us two years in a row, never mind the fact that we are in a three year drought and things don't look good. I will say this about Carolina...all I hear is that your schedule is ridiculous and no one else has ever played such a schedule. Your schedule looks mildly more difficult than ours. Missouri has no business in the SEC and completely sucks. Arkansas is a joke. Kentucky gets rolled every week. Tennessee is laughable. The verdict is still out on Florida. So, I guess that leaves us with just Georgia and LSU to chat about. I am NOT sold on UGa, and only wish Clemson had them on the schedule this year. LSU-I want no part of LSU. Even though they struggled (much more than I would have liked to see) last night against Auburn, I believe that had Mettenberger played last year instead of the two clowns that did run the offense, LSU might have given Bammer a run for their money. That and LSU is just that damn good, period. The LSU/Bama game will again this season be epic...then the rematch will likely be epic as well.

Sometimes I wonder if the coaching staff doesn't record a previous game or play episodes of "The Office" in Dabo's headset. I wouldn't blame them if they did after Coach Dabo showed his ass cussing out Napier in the Gator Bowl several years ago (that is why we wasted a timeout in that game--cause Dabo so busy cussing out Napier that they couldn't get a play in). I want to like Dabo, I swear to you. But there are too many nights like last night where we had victory in our grasp and stupidity/poor preparation and recruiting tactics killed us. Heck, let's be real. Dabo has done a much better job than his predecessor. I want Dabo to win and win big, I just question the tactics and how tough we really are. At STS, our standard is a national championship. That is all we care about. Period. Either of us would give just about anything to win a national championship. That is our standard and we will hold everyone else to that standard (fair or not, we don't care). If your goal isn't to win the whole thing, don't ever talk to me because you won't like what you hear.

As much as Coach Dabo sometimes pisses me off, it is nothing compared to the crap you hear when you tune into the Clemson Tiger Radio Network. Pete is no Jim Phillips, but there won't ever be another Phillips and Pete (other than his stupid "orange in the endzone lines") does a decent job. I will say that I would contact Charlie McAlexander about the job. I think he still has a few good years ahead of him and will tell it like it is. That is why Carolina got rid of him, they wanted a homer. I figured Tommy Suggs was a big enough homer for the whole booth but apparently that is wrong. The only thing worse than Clemson radio is SCar radio. It is not because of the voice of the Gamecocks, Todd Ellis (Ellis does an excellent job and I wish we had someone of his caliber with the school background and such on Clemson radio) but that damn Tommy Suggs makes listening to South Carolina on the radio near impossible. There are times where I swear I can hear Todd grit his teeth an count to five because otherwise he would just bitchslap Tommy Suggs after enduring an afternoon of stupidity with that jackass. There two people I really feel for in the entertainment business--Mark May for having to deal with Lou all day and Todd Ellis for serving time with Suggs for a football season. And, myself, for listening to Clemson on the radio--so I will quit diverging and get back on track. Will Merritt is terrible. I long for the days of Mike Eppley's insight instead of this yahoo. Sideline reporting is even worse. I need a freaking Patt Sapp to English dictionary to decipher what is actually going on in the game. Give me Rodney Williams back. He may butcher some words but I can understand him and know he will tell it just like it is. Make a plea to Eppley and Williams...for the love of your Alma Mater and the sanity of all Clemson fans, please save Clemson radio. It is at an all-time low now.

Onto happier notes, the PGA Tour wraps up its action today at East Lake. I didn't get to see as much of the tournament yesterday as I would have liked due to clamoring within the house to watch the gamechickens. Today I am committed to lunch and social hour with the in-laws. The good thing, though, is that those folks like golf about as much as I do. The great thing is that some of the youngsters follow the Winston Cup circuit and bet on the races. Since the Falcons play in the late game today, everything could work out well for FigureFour (and you guys know after last night, I need it). I swear, football season (and football seasons past) have taken at least 10, maybe 20 years off my life.

It is almost certain that Rory will win the overall FedEx Cup. The battle for the East Lake title is still very much up in the air. Snedeker and Rose are at the top of the leaderboard and Ryan Moore sits two shots back. Moore, as you will recall, was a college golf phenom. Moore was knighted by many as the next Woods or Nicklaus. Now he looks more to that form. If you are wondering about Tiger, he followed a disappointing 2^nd round with a three under par effort yesterday. He is four back heading into today's round but, if you've ever played East Lake, you'll know that making up strokes (never mind four strokes) is tough on that golf course. It was Bobby Jones' home course and plays as challenging as that last statement. Particularly tough for the pros is the rough (second cut) there. The course plays one way from the fairway and totally different a yard off the fairway. Should be exciting.

After some lull, FigureFour is back committed to playing more golf. The nine I played yesterday morning/afternoon was rough, but damnit playing golf is (almost) what life is all about. So if you see me tweet or write to some great extent about how I suck at golf (or somehow miraculously get back to respectable drives and hitting the irons well) just deal with it. Then again, when you compare my golf game to Clemson's defense, it doesn't look that bad at all.

With that, everyone have a nice week and we will do it again next week (oh, and tell Dr. B to get into that Z28 IROC he has always dreamed about!).