Thursday, March 28, 2002

Clemson renovations proceeding

Clemsontigers.com has the latest photo updates on renovations at Clemson's sports complex. I can't wait until they're all completed. I remember when the football stadiums got decks all those years ago. This is going to look really sharp when it is done.
Bowden visits Bama; Tigerpundit gets paranoid

I haven't checked in to the Tigerpundit site for a while, but I just saw an item that made my heart skip a beat. Tommy Bowden visited Alabama's football practice last week. Why does that worry me? Because this is an era of mercenary coaches who promise schools the world and get them to spend tons of money to upgrade facilities only to leave town when a bigger school comes calling. (Mack Brown did this exact same thing at UNC.) I'm sure it was an entirely friendly and professional visit, but I know his daddy's from Alabama, and he's stated in the past that he would love to coach there. I just have nightmares of him leaving us in the lurch to go to Alabama. Plus, I used to have a co-worker who was a Tulane grad. He said Bowden promised them the world, too, and bolted as soon as a big school came calling. But my predictions have been pretty bad. Hell, I was floating Nolan Richardson's name for the basketball job.

Monday, March 18, 2002

Tigerpundit to stick with football

OK, I dropped the ball on the Larry Shyatt post below. The day I put it up, Clemson gave him a two-year contract extension. And with so many players coming back next year, he'd better perform. In the long-range view, we still need to do better in basketball. Recruiting will remain a major obstacle, but the renovated Littlejohn Coliseum could help. A big-time coach would help even more.

Friday, March 15, 2002

Do we need a new basketball coach? Not yet

I 'm generally not too passionate about Clemson's men's basketball team, but I read this article and I think we ought to give Larry Shyatt one more year. If he can't produce with nine of his top 10 players returning, then it's time for him to hit the bricks. As for those folks who want an immediate change, let me float a name: Nolan Richardson. I know he's controversial, but he's a proven winner with a national championship under his belt (won at the Charlotte Coliseum in 1994) and his teams play ferocious defense. I think he'd be a nice addition to the league. The problem is, he wouldn't come cheap, and the powers that be in Tigertown haven't shown a lot of desire for a serious, big-time basketball program. Also, it's well-known that Clemson faces big recruiting problems in basketball when going against league powers North Carolina, Duke and Maryland.

Wednesday, March 13, 2002

Who is the Tigerpundit?

My name is Trey Barrineau, a lifelong Clemson fan from Charlotte, N.C. I was born in 1966, and was taught to love the Tigers by my father, Bill Barrineau. He's a businessman in Charlotte and has been an IPTAY member and season-ticket holder for many years. Now here's the funny part: Neither I nor my Dad went to Clemson. He went to Pfeiffer College and I went to Appalachian State. But we are both dedicated fans. (He was taught to love Clemson by his dad.) We've attended at least one (usually many more than one) game a year every year since 1975. We sit in the North Stands, Section U, and have for a long time. My father was inspired to join IPTAY by his uncle, Yank Barrineau, a huge Clemson supporter. He used to hook us up with tickets before Dad joined. We'd drive down from Charlotte and meet Uncle Yank and Aunt Thelma at the Holiday Inn there in Clemson, have a buffet breakfast or lunch, and head to the game. That was in the late 1970s, when Clemson was emerging from a long down period. Boy, did we stink. I was only a kid and I could tell we were lousy. We may not be a college football superpower nowadays, but I don't think we'll ever revisit the kind of gutter we inhabited in 1976. I now live in Northern Virginia, and am unable to attend as many games as I could when I used to live in Asheville, N.C. But I still went to five games last season, and I'll probably do the same this year. Heck, I'm already anxious for that Georgia game on Aug. 31. We will be there for that. It should be fun. I haven't been to Athens since the mid-1980s.
Tigerpundit kicks off

Welcome to Tigerpundit, a blog dedicated to anything and everything about Clemson football. Don't let the name fool you. I'm an ardent fan, but strictly an amateur when it comes to predicting outcomes or analyzing long-term trends. The objective here is to provide my personal take on one of the big passions of my life, the Tigers. One day I may reminisce about the 1980 Clemson-South Carolina game. We came out in orange pants for the first time and beat the 14th-ranked Cocks and Heisman Trophy winner George Rogers 27-6. The next I may talk about how recruiting has gone this year. Another day I may describe those sweltering summer days at Coach Ibrahim Ibrahim's soccer camp in the early 1980s. Or I may write about memorable tailgating experiences (there's been a few). All the while, I'll strive to provide as many Clemson-related Web links as possible. I've dug up quite a few already. I hope anybody out there reading this enjoys it. I think I'm going to enjoy putting it together.

Tuesday, March 12, 2002

Test