Dabo Swinney's Inspector Javert gives up lawsuit

Remember last year when that police officer gave Dabo Swinney a traffic ticket, posted about it on a University of South Carolina message board , then got fired?

 Well, he's dropped his lawsuit against the city of Pickens.

I, for one, will sleep better tonight.

Clemson vs. Georgia: The trailer!

I've seen a couple of these out there, but I want to know -- where is the "red band trailer"?
 

Audio: Dabo Swinney says UGA game could be tight

In a radio interview with The Mac Attack on WFNZ in Charlotte, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney says the Aug. 31 contest with Georgia will "come down to a few plays."

Listen here.

Book preview: 'Where the Tigers Play'

Check out this video previewing an updated version of Where the Tigers Play. The book, which is a comprehensive history of all Clemson sports, goes on sale on Thursday (Aug. 1).

If you love Clemson (the town), you'll love this

Wikipedia

A former Miss Downtown Clemson who blogs at Heartfelt Confessions revisits Tigertown:

It’s like an old, faithful friend that never changes. No matter how long you’ve gone between seeing each other, you pick up right where you left off.  I made sure to visit some of my favorite spots like the Amphitheater, Tillman Hall and Bowman Field. Of course, downtown is a “must see” spot when wandering around the green hills of Clemson’s campus. 

Be sure to check out her great photos of downtown Clemson today, then contrast them with photos from yesteryear.

Twitter talk: Tajh Boyd an early Heisman favorite

I like this:

Kevin Neghandi of ESPN picks Tajh as the Heisman fav #clemson #greenville #greenvillesc #upstatesc #clemsonfootball pic.twitter.com/Rvj5KN9B9P
— Tiger Moving (@TigerMovingSC) July 31, 2013

What if Clemson and Auburn traded mascots?

Sports Illustrated's Campus Union has the hypothetical details:

1. Clemson trades The Tiger to Auburn for Aubie the Tiger and a repair to Howard’s Rock: Foul things are afoot in Clemson, and seeing as Auburn has been there, done that with regard to vandalism after Harvey Updyke and Toomer’s Corner, the school knows exactly how to make things right at Howard’s Rock. All Auburn asks in return is a jolt to jumpstart its program under new coach Gus Malzahn. Who better to inject a little energy than the Clemson tiger, known affectionately to EDSBS readers as “8-Ball”? This is a win-win for both teams if you ask me. – MR

Clearly, some writers are ready for them to tee up the football.

Clemson vs. Georgia: A look back at a classic rivalry

Clemson University

SB Nation has a long retrospective on the Clemson-Georgia football rivalry that is well worth your time. A taste:

More than just geography dictated from the beginning that the two teams would be rivals, though the spirit of animosity between them certainly was stoked by the fact that scarcely 70 miles separate the Athens and Clemson campuses. The history of the series stretches back to the earliest days of both football programs, which sprang from a common fountainhead: Walter Riggs, who founded Clemson football, learned the sport as a student at Auburn, where he played for George Petrie, who learned the sport as a student at Johns Hopkins, where he acquired his passion for the game with classmate Charles Herty, who founded Georgia football.

Read the whole thing.

Clemson: The best stadium in America?

Photo courtesy Clemson Athletic Department.

Everybody using the hashtag #clemson on Twitter today is linking to this year-old 125-slide click-bait photo gallery that "power-ranks" the best college football stadiums. The reason? Clemson is No. 1:

Known nationwide as "Death Valley," this venue is the best place in the country to enjoy a college football game.It seats 80,301 and was built in 1942. The stadium will be filled with orange, as the crowd loves to support their Tigers. There are not many fans in the country that are more passionate about their team than this group. When Clemson is playing well and the game is going good, the noise in here is as loud as it gets in college football.

Is it me, or is that a pretty generic description? I guess it's cool that Bleacher Report loves Death Valley, but even I don't believe it's the country's greatest football venue. Top 20? Definitely. Better than LSU, Notre Dame or Ohio State? I'm not sure. Then again, this is coming from a writer who ranks Kenan Stadium at North Carolina, one of the most beautiful on-campus settings in the country, far below the crappy stadiums at N.C. State, Wake Forest and Maryland.

Twitter smack talk

I like it:

Ranked SEC teams have only lost seven games outside the league in the last two years, and three of them have been to #Clemson.
— Steven Bradley (@stevenbradley3) July 30, 2013

Clemson has two more chances to beat SEC teams this year. Will they do it?

The ACC coaching trap door

Frank Howard: I met him when I was a kid. Never heard 

anyone curse more in my life.

Caulton Tudor has an interesting column examining how the ACC has been unfriendly to football coaches through the years. He mentions Clemson's Frank Howard, Charley Pell and Ken Hatfield.

Along the way, Tudor also makes it clear that football drove the birth of the league:

It may seem illogical these days, but the ACC was formed in 1953 explicitly for the purpose of improving its member schools' football fortunes. Basketball had nothing to do with it. Only two founding schools – Duke and N.C. State – even put any sort of unusual emphasis on basketball. Eight schools broke away from other leagues in order to create a regional football operation that was intended to match similarly sized leagues in wins, national attention and ticket sales. Basketball quickly took control ...

I don't think many people are aware of that.

Clemson fans are among the country's most engaged

We laugh at your mockery, ESPN. Why? Because Clemson fans are the 20th most engaged supporters in the country -- and the No. 1 group in the ACC, according to a study by TicketCity. (Florida State ranked 22nd and Virginia Tech was 25th.) How did they determine that?

Fan engagement is evaluated in terms of the following metrics. The data is based on the 2012 season, excluding bowl games. Each metric was given a corresponding weight, listed in bold, which was determined based on how indicative the metric is of fan activity. For example, home attendance and ticket price are both weighted higher because they are a better direct reflection of home team behavior. Similarly, online metrics are not weighted as high as offline metrics because they reflect only the university-sanctioned social channel and do not account for other fan communities.

A famous coach from that other football sums up how Clemson fans feel: "Football is not a matter of life or death. It's much more important than that."

Who'll win the ACC: Media says Tigers, Vegas says Seminoles

Interesting dichotomy:

ACC media picked Clemson to win the conference by a wide margin, giving the Tigers 95 of 120 votes. It’s a different story in Las Vegas where the LVH SuperBook opened Florida State as the 5-to-4 favorite and Clemson at 2-to-1.

The Vegas oddsmakers think Florida State's defense will be the difference. We'll find out on Oct. 19, won't we?

Clemson's unis: Among the worst of the BCS era?

Streeter Lecka, Getty Images

That's according to Bleacher Report:

If you could take any two colors on the color wheel, combine any two letters from ROY G BIV's name, orange and violet would probably be the least palatable option.The Tigers' jerseys in this combo aren't violet, but actually a darker, uglier, less complimentary shade. It looks more like blue mixed with purple mixed with black. ...

I don't expect the creators of click-bait photo galleries to do much research, but if they had, they'd have learned that this color scheme is part of Clemson's long football history:

The orange and purple began when Walter Merritt Riggs formed Clemson’s first football team in 1896. Because Riggs had come from Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama (later renamed Auburn), he borrowed ideas from their team colors, orange and purple, and their mascot, the Tiger. 

I'll admit that I'm not crazy about this pairing, but it looks better than the purple jersey/purple pants combo.

Back-in-the-day Clemson photos

Clemson Girl is highlighting a post from the Tiger Pregame Show blog that features old photos of downtown Clemson and environs.

There are even some from the 1920s. Pretty neat.

PHOTOS: Former Tigers in the NFL

Orange and White has a nifty photo gallery of all the former Clemson players who are currently on NFL rosters. Check it out.

Dabo Swinney is intriguing, Yahoo says

Pat Forde at Yahoo Sports ranks the 25 most intriguing college football coaches, and Clemson's Dabo Swinney comes in at No. 20, just behind South Carolina's Steve Spurrier and just ahead of Georgia's Mark Richt. Writes Forde:

He's matured from excitable young boy to proven winner, with 21 victories the last two years and a validating Peach Bowl triumph over LSU. But with quarterback Tajh Boyd back and experience on both lines, the Clemson faithful would like a victory over hated rival South Carolina (he's 0-4) and a run at a national title. There is no dress rehearsal with Georgia as the season opener.

Good stuff.

ESPN GameDay at Clemson on Aug. 31?

Possibly...From Tigernet:

A host on ESPN’s College Football Live Show on Friday said that GameDay will be in Clemson for the Clemson-Georgia game on August 31st. It appears he may have slipped up and "let the cat out of the bag." 

I can't imagine why ESPN wouldn't come to Tigertown for that matchup. It'll be one of the biggest games of the year in college football.

Speaking of tailgating, this looks fun

From College Spun comes this -- Clemson-themed cornhole boards, one with Tajh Boyd throwing the ball, the other with Sammy Watkins catching the ball.

It's not cheap to keep S.C. tailgaters happy

AP: "South Carolina taxpayers spend about $635,400 yearly on traffic control provided by highway troopers, with three college football teams accounting for three-quarters of that."

UGGA the mascot kidnapped!

Clemson Tom kicks off the smack talk ahead of the big game against Georgia on Aug. 31.

Tiger paw designer John Antonio dies

Clemson Sports Information

I'm very late catching up to this. John Antonio, the ad man who created Clemson's distinctive paw logo, died in May. From the press release:

Antonio then wrote the Museum of National History in Chicago and asked for a plaster-of-paris cast of the imprint of a Bengal Tiger's paw.  This was sent to Henderson and a picture was made, slightly tilted about 10 degrees to the right.
Antonio had a meeting with Clemson coaches and administrators in early summer of 1970 and showed the use of the Tiger paw on stationary, athletic fields and uniforms.  Howard, then the director of athletics, was not impressed until Antonio pulled out an orange Clemson helmet from under the desk.  He had affixed a white tiger paw to the helmet.  It was unusual in those times to have any logo on a college helmet.
"That helmet made a big impact on Coach Howard," Sports Information Director Bob Bradley recalled years later.  "He was so impressed he wanted to bring that helmet back to Clemson and show everyone."

Rest in peace, John, and thanks for creating the modern Clemson image.

From Twitter: CJ Spiller reps the Tigers

The former Clemson standout showed up for a Buffalo Bills press conference decked out in purple and orange:

.@CJSPILLER up next at the podium ... in a Clemson hoody pic.twitter.com/gHT4t3WmeB
— Buffalo Bills (@buffalobills) July 27, 2013

Accused Howard's Rock defiler waives probable-cause hearing

AP Photo/Anderson Independent-Mail, Mark Crammer

Micah Rogers has been charged with one felony (malicious injury to personal property) and one misdemeanor (trespassing, unlawful entry into enclosed places) related to the vandalism of Howard's Rock at Clemson's football stadium. The incident occurred in June.

The question remains: Why would a so-called Clemson fan do such a thing?

The rebirth of Tigerpundit

I have been the worst blogger in the history of blogging, but I'm going to try to make up for it.

Especially with the Tigers looking like they might actually do something this year.

I'm going to try to make the focus more on fan-friendly news as opposed to hard-core coverage of stats, key matchups and the like. There are plenty of people out there who do that stuff much better than I can.

Stay tuned.