Students waiting for UGA tickets break out the 'C-L-E-M' chant

That's school spirit, baby.

GameDay promo ads released for Clemson-Georgia game

Getting psyched already:

Man charged in Howard's Rock case won't leave school board

Michael Rodgers, who is a member of the Transylvania (N.C.) County School Board, says he's a victim of injustice in the Howard's Rock vandalism case against his son, Micah:

“My determination to find the truth has resulted in me being charged with a crime that I absolutely did not commit,” Michael Rogers wrote. “Unfortunately my role in trying to find the truth has led to these allegations.”

Michael Rodgers, who is also a Baptist pastor, is charged with obstructing justice by advising his son and others involved in the case "to be untruthful about their actions when questioned by law enforcement."

The NCAA decides whether you can call a sandwich 'Tajh'

Good Lord:

In an attempt to stay neutral in the uber-divisive Clemson vs. South Carolina football rivalry, one SC restaurant might have actually gone and upset both schools. Daniel Island Grille has been serving dishes named after three current NCAA football players – the Tigers’ Tajh Boyd and Sammy Watkins and the Gamecocks’ Jadeveon Clowney. The move is clearly an NCAA violation, as schools must give permission to use their athletes’ names in any commercial activities.

Sigh. (H/T College Spun)

More arrests in Howard's Rock vandalization

This case just gets weirder and weirder. In addition to Micah Rogers, 18, who was charged in June, Clemson police charged 17-year-old Alden James Gainey and this seemingly upstanding member of the community:

Michael Rogers, who did not respond to repeated requests for comment, owns a masonry business in Pisgah Forest and has served as pastor of Dunn’s Creek Baptist Church in Brevard since 2008, according to the Transylvania (N.C.) County School Board website. His school board tenure ran from 2002 to 2009, and he was reappointed to the board in January of this year.

Very strange.

Clemson No. 8 in AP poll

The Tigers are in the top 10. Congrats, guys.

If this is trolling, it's pretty sad

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier was "talking smack" about Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, apparently, according to College Spun. They captured the tweets that shook the world of Southern football:

"Last year at this time Dabo's favorite USC, Southern Cal was preseason #1 in the country. I call them Dabo's favorite USC."-Steve Spurrier
— SportsTalk (@sportstalksc) August 16, 2013

"Last year at this time Dabo's favorite USC, Southern Cal was preseason #1 in the country. I call them Dabo's favorite USC."-Steve Spurrier
— SportsTalk (@sportstalksc) August 16, 2013

What a devastating wit.

Clemson: National champs in 2013?

That's the best-case scenario, according to Bleacher Report:

This Clemson squad represents the ACC's best chance at a national title in over 10 years.  Tajh Boyd is one of the top signal-callers in the country, and when healthy, Sammy Watkins is among the country's most dynamic playmakers.  The two are surrounded by enough offensive talent to make this a special year.

The worst-case scenario? 8-4 and a middling bowl game. I'm not sure that will cut it this year.

Fantastic Clemson schedule poster

Dylan Buell, a college football fan and fellow journalist, created these for every college football team, College Spun reports. Here's Clemson's:

That's really cool.

Musburger, Herbstreit psyched to come to Tigertown, pardner

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the ABC broadcast veterans are ready to be looking live at Death Valley on Aug. 31:

Musburger:  "It’s a terrific matchup on paper. You never know how it’s going to play out on the field. Obviously they’re neighborhood rivals. I was amused a few weeks ago to get a text from somebody who said if Clemson was in the SEC this would be the closest two teams. I think they’ve since decided it’s Mississippi State and Ole Miss that is the closest. But it’s a good neighborhood rivalry and I’m sure a lot of these youngsters competed against each other at the high school level.

I am so ready for some football.

'The Fridge' is still running....

Bizarre. A report surfaced on Tigernet earlier today that Clemson defensive line legend William "Refrigerator" Perry had died. It turned out to be false. In fact, the big guy himself tweeted out that he's OK:

I heard about the rumors that I passed away online. #SMH. Just wanted to let everyone that they are not true and Im doing fine. Thanks guys!
— William Perry (@FridgePerry72) August 14, 2013

Stupid Internet.

Clemson ranked 10th by 'Sports Illustrated'

The bible of American sports journalism released the information in a tweet:

We will start with the top 10 in the CFB #SITop25. No. 10 - Clemson Tigers
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) August 14, 2013

Tigernet gathered the rest of the top 10.

10 things to know about Clemson this season

SB Nation breaks down the good, bad and ugly for the 2013 season. A bit of a long read, but well worth it.

Who'll win the ACC? USA TODAY says Clemson

The folks who give me my paycheck preview the ACC football season:

Clemson is one of the early favorites to bring home the crystal ball at the end of the 2013 season and has by far the best collection of returning talent in the conference. Although the schedule will present difficult challenges, including the opener against Georgia, the Tigers are better equipped to handle a daunting campaign. Until we're given reason to think otherwise, the Tigers are the team to beat.

Sounds good to me.

USA TODAY says Clemson among top 10 stadium scenes

Pretty heady company:

Memorial Stadium, Clemson: Dubbed the 25 most exciting seconds in college football, the Tigers gather at the top of a hill and each player touches Howard's Rock as he sprints down to the field.

Check out the whole gallery here, courtesy of my employer.

People like their Clemson gear

Tigernet is reporting that Clemson ranks 24th in royalties for merchandise sales of things such as T-shirts, hats and so on. Keep buying that orange stuff, folks.

Twitter talk: Clemson in BCS title game?

Just saw this on Twitter:

On CBS College football preview one of the 4 pickers has Clemson in the BCS title game.
— Not Danny Ford (@1981tigers1981) August 11, 2013

Gary Danielson picking Alabama and Clemson to meet in the BCS Title Game.
— Mike Giordano (@_MikeGiordano) August 11, 2013

Let's hope we don't get Clemsoned out there.

Homer Jordan, David Treadwell return for Georgia game

The Clemson legends will be on the field as honorary captains before the game on Aug. 31. Very cool.

Sammy Watkins says he turned down cash-for-autograph offers

Good for Clemson's ace receiver:

“We get the same guys coming up to us. We know all those guys. We see them every week. They come from Tennessee, Michigan, offering money. You have to realize you don’t want to risk your future for a couple dollars.”

If the NCAA would get its head out of its ass and allow players to receive at least a stipend for playing college football, this wouldn't be a big deal.

Tiger fan, Gamecock fan hype rivalry on national TV

York County? No, New York. A funny thing happened on the Today show on Thursday:

During a segment with host Savannah Guthrie taking questions from the crowd outside the studio for psychologist Dr. Gail Saltz, two men let their collegiate affiliations known behind a woman who is prepared to ask a question. One of the men holds up his iPhone, which shows a photo of the iconic Clemson Tiger paw. A few feet away, another man, who is wearing a South Carolina Gamecocks polo shirt, holds up four fingers to indicate the number of times the Gamecocks have beaten the Tigers in the past few years.

You can take the boys out of the Palmetto State...

'Tajh Boyd has been a revelation'

That's one of many great lines in this profile of Clemson's all-star quarterback by Matt Brown of Sports On Earth (part of the USA TODAY family of media coverage). Along the way, he gently massages the psyches of us long-suffering Clemson fans. A sample:

...if any quarterback can shoulder the weight of expectations at Clemson, the Tigers appear to have found him, finally. In fact, for once, betting on Tajh Boyd and Clemson to succeed almost seems safe.

Read the whole thing.

GameDay promo video featuring Howard's Rock

It's from a couple of years ago, but it's still pretty funny:

Clemson, USC's rankings help state rake in the money

Interesting story and video on the economic impact to the state of South Carolina on having two college football teams ranked in the Top 10.

Clemson: The top 'jock' school and best town-gown relationships

What does that even mean?

The rankings, based on student surveys, also put Clemson at the top of the list in the categories, “everyone plays intramural sports,” and “town-gown relations are great.” The jock schools ranking is based on the popularity of intercollegiate and intramural sports and the Greek system....The campus’ location adjoining the city of Clemson also fosters a great relationship with the city, she said.

OK then.

Clemson fan live-tweets his trip to the hospital

UPDATED BELOW: Clemson Tom, a huge Tiger fan who talks a lot of smack on Twitter and does some hilarious videos, had a little health problem today while in Las Vegas, and he tweeted about it:

It started with some food poisoning. And got worse:

I feel like Spencer Shuey just "Goldburg style" tackled me in the stomach. I've never felt this bad. The flight home could get interesting
— Clemson Tom (@ClemsonTom) August 6, 2013

He alerted his hotel:

@Cosmopolitan_LV might wanna check some of the fish at Blue Ribbon. I've got food poisoning
— Clemson Tom (@ClemsonTom) August 6, 2013

And then called a doctor:

And now I'm going to the doctor...
— Clemson Tom (@ClemsonTom) August 6, 2013

And then:

I need an ambulance
— Clemson Tom (@ClemsonTom) August 6, 2013

And then:

Dehydrated laying in the sidewalk. My hotel wouldn't pay for a cab. The Hilton man picked me up, walked me to the hospital.
— Clemson Tom (@ClemsonTom) August 6, 2013

And then:

Cant express my anger. I can't walk, drink water, and y'all wouldn't pay for a cab to drive me .5 miles, when its you're fault I'm sick?
— Clemson Tom (@ClemsonTom) August 6, 2013

And then:

They got me on 2 IVs. I'm better now. Thanks for all your tweets. I've never felt that bad in my life
— Clemson Tom (@ClemsonTom) August 6, 2013

And finally, the Foursquare check-in:

I'm at Harmon Medical Center (Las Vegas, NV) http://t.co/J0dZB8uxhT
— Clemson Tom (@ClemsonTom) August 6, 2013

UPDATE: All's well that ends well:

Haha The hotel sent a limo to pick me up from the hospital to take me back to the hotel
— Clemson Tom (@ClemsonTom) August 6, 2013

Clemson Tom, I hope you feel better soon.

The Esso Club: Where there's always a tailgate party

UpstateToday.com has a nice feature about everyone's favorite Clemson bar, the legendary Esso Club:

Esso started out as a gas station and a bar before it ever became a restaurant. Before 1933, the only known building on the property was a fruit stand. That year a gas station was built, with the gas pumps sitting alongside Highway 93 where there is now a stop sign. Sometime between 1940 and 1952 a bar was installed, and between 1956 and 1958 Esso was the only place in Clemson customers could go in, sit down and have a beer. In the 1980s, Esso stopped selling gas (a full history is available at www.theessoclub.com).

I've enjoyed many a cold beer there through the years.

Football's worst-kept secret revealed: GameDay to Clemson

They tweeted it out in a photo, so it's got to be true, right?

And via TigerNet, here's the official confirmation.

Clemson prediction for 2013: 10-2 or 11-1 (it's science)

That's from College Football Matrix, which crunches numbers in some kind of complex formula involving math and such.

Bottom line (if I'm reading it right): Games against Georgia and Florida State are tossups, and South Carolina will be a loss.

Clemson-Georgia among 2013's most intriguing games

The Aug. 31 matchup in Death Valley comes in at No. 4 on this list by Yahoo Sports:

4. Georgia at Clemson, Aug. 31. When quarterbacks Aaron Murray and Tajh Boyd both came back for their senior years, this became a marquee season opener between neighbors with national title aspirations. The Tigers took a big step forward in respectability by beating LSU in the Chik-Fil-A Bowl last year, and a second straight win over an SEC power would be huge. For the Bulldogs, this begins an incredible opening month of the season, with South Carolina and LSU both to come in September. 

Also intriguing -- Clemson vs. Florida State (No. 13).

A successful Clemson helps the new-look ACC

That's the thrust of this AP story previewing the upcoming season:

But there's still work to do as the ACC once again tries to make itself nationally relevant on the field — and the league's preseason favorite, Clemson, has the best chance to raise the profile of the conference.

Read the whole thing.

Clemson's tiger paw is nation's second-best logo

Just second best? Pshaw. The rankings are by Athlon. Here's what they wrote:

There are tons of Tigers, Wildcats and Bulldogs in college sports but none use their mascot quite like Clemson. The Tiger Paw print is synonymous with Clemson athletics and is utterly simple but still edgy and creative.  

Yep.

The team that prays together...

The Clemson football team got right with the Lord on Sunday:

The Clemson football team attended church service together at Redemption World Outreach Center in Greenville on Sunday. More than a dozen players went to the front of the church to be saved during the service.

If God be with us, who can be against us?

Clemson's offensive goal: 90 plays a game

Wow. Just, wow. Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris:

“We feel like we can get it as high as 92,” he said. “We think we can very easily improve 10-12 snaps a game. We may not be able to get there early on, but we’re going to get there. Some games we had 100 snaps and some 102."

I remember when Clemson was known as team founded on defense.

Another pretty good Clemson vs. Georgia trailer

Is it a rule now that everything must use that "DOOOOM" music from Prometheus? Just a minor quibble, though. This is very well done.

Twitter talk: 'How many UGA students' edition

16 University of Georgia students indicted in fake ID ring. Giveaway that it was UGA students was when they spelled "ID" wrong.
— Richard Chinnis (@rchinnis) August 3, 2013

Photos: Gallery from the first day of practice

The official Clemson site has some pictures from the first day of practice on Friday. Everybody on message boards is talking about the ugly helmets ("designed by a soccer mom," said one wag on the Tigernet message boards), but the Guardian Caps are only for use in practice. I hope that's true. They are hideous.

Five pitfalls to Clemson's national title hopes -- click for slideshow!

Just kidding about the slideshow. Shakin' the Southland lays out five things that could derail the Tigers' national title hopes. Check it out.

Twitter talk: Serious Clemson fandom

Seen on Twitter:

There’s a group of guys tailgating in Lot 4 for the 1st practice. Looks like those guys are all in. Where’s everyone else? #Clemson #BeatUGA
— Sons of Clemson (@SonsOfClemson) August 2, 2013

Wow.

Clemson makes front page of USA TODAY!

Well, kinda. The word "Clemson," anyway:

Desmond Howard confirms: GameDay at Clemson for UGA game

Tigernet, which seems to watch a lot more ESPN than I do, has a report confirming that GameDay will be in Tigertown on Aug. 31 for the Clemson-Georgia game:

Yesterday (Thursday) on ESPN's College Football Live today, ESPN Analyst Desmond Howard confirmed that ESPN's College Gameday will be in Clemson on August 31. 

All righty then!

Clemson's story lines as fall practice begins

The State highlights five story lines to watch as Clemson preps for football season.

Practice for the 2013 college football season at Clemson begins Friday, though it may be argued that preparation began 56 months ago when Dabo Swinney was named coach.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/08/01/2895254/five-story-lines-for-clemson-football.html#storylink=cpy

Here's a story line for you -- don't let anybody get hurt during these training sessions.

RELATED: Five key questions as fall practice begins. See what The Greenville News did there?

Video: Clemson weigh-in day

If you want to watch a 12-minute video of young football players stepping on scales, have at it. (H/T Tigernet.)

Clemson's players are OK with Twitter ban

Chris Fuhrmeister of SB Nation rounds up some reactions from Clemson players to coach Dabo Swinney's season-long ban on Twitter. The summation:

The Tigers appear to be much more concerned with their results than with their Twitter ban. That is most definitely a good thing for Clemson.

Sounds good to me. #focus

Tajh Boyd talks to 'Sporting News'

Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd gives a wide-ranging, in-depth interview to The Sporting News that touches on football, life in Hampton Roads, Va., playing for Dabo Swinney and much more:

“Nobody ever gave me anything,” says Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd. “When you’re not spoon fed, you don’t get stuck on little things.”

And you don’t get lost into the deep and dangerous sea of today’s me-first world. Instead, you see big picture and embrace the enormity of it all. 

Everything else is just background noise.

Some might argue that the writer misused enormity there, but still, read the whole thing.

Dabo Swinney's Twitter ban: The right call?

Brandon Leigh of Bleacher Report seems to think it is a good idea to keep Clemson's players off Twitter during football season:

It's a simple calculation of pros versus cons. For every Teddy Bridgewater visiting a sick student in the hospital, there are 10 Johnny Manziels sending combative tweets to trolls. The platform is useful as a way to aggregate news, but Swinney knows that's not what his players are doing. 

They're using it as a way to become the news.

I'm a little worried about the free-speech implications of this, but if it keeps the players focused, it can't be all bad.

Clemson ranked No. 8 in season's first USA TODAY poll

The Tigers are eighth in the season's first USA TODAY Sports Coaches poll. It's Clemson's highest-ever ranking in the preseason poll. Their opponent on Aug. 31, Georgia, is ranked fifth.

The South Carolina Gamecocks will open the season ranked seventh.

Florida State is ranked 12th. Miami, Virginia Tech and North Carolina were among the other teams receiving votes.

Full disclosure: I work at USA TODAY, but not in Sports. I have nothing to do with how the poll is conducted.

Clemson players forced to log off Twitter

Orange & White is reporting that Clemson coach Dabo Swinney will enforce a tough new rule as training camp starts -- no tweeting by Clemson players until the season's over:

"I'm just a believer that these are young people, and all of a sudden you have a guy with 20,000 people following him," Swinney said. "It's just one more thing that you have to check every morning - brush your teeth, comb your hair, shower, eat breakfast, and year, I've got to send my tweet out. In my opinion it's just one more thing." 

And then there's the question of content: the possibility that a spur of the moment, digitalized thought can turn into a national headline. 

"If they say just one little thing just a little wrong - and these are young people - and in the world we live in, it's a firestorm and a I'm having to deal with it," Swinney said. "I don't like distractions - I hate distractions."

Will the coaching staff be able to enforce this? Stay tuned.

Video: All 68 touchdowns scored by Clemson in 2012

Beyond the impressive editing and assembling by clemson2311, this is proof that every single football game involving a big-time school is televised in some form or another.