Clemson 24, Texas A&M 10: Solid Win in Crucial Game

Photo by Tigernet


The Tigers weren't dominant in the 24-10 win over Texas A&M on Saturday, but they also weren't seriously challenged in a game that was supposed to be the most challenging on the schedule.

Clemson's defense held the Aggies to just 289 yards of offense. Meanwhile, quarterback Trevor Lawrence was 24-for-35 for 268 yards and a touchdown.

Next up for the Tigers is Syracuse. The Orangemen were supposed to be a challenge for Clemson, but they looked awful in a shocking 63-20 loss to Maryland on Saturday.

GAME COVERAGE: Anderson Independent Mail, Shakin' the Southland.

OWNING THE SEC: The Tigers are 9-1 against the nation's top conference since 2016.

STILL NO. 1: Clemson holds on to the No. 1 position in all major polls, including AP.

Clemson vs. Texas A&M: This Is a Test

The No. 1-ranked Tigers tangle with the No. 12-ranked Aggies today at 3:30 p.m. in Death Valley. The game will be broadcast on ABC. This looks to be Clemson's biggest test of the season amid a relatively weak schedule.

GAME PREVIEWS: Saturday Blitz, Sports Illustrated, The State, TigerNet.

SERIES HIGHLIGHTS: It's 1-1 between the schools.

LATEST LINE: The Tigers are favored by 17.5? Seems high.

Clemson 52, Georgia Tech 14: Impressive Opener

Photo by Tigernet

America's First-to-Worst Football Blogger (me) is just now catching up on coverage from Clemson's season-opening thrashing of ACC foe Georgia Tech on Thursday night. The Tigers weren't perfect in the 52-14 win, but they didn't have to be. Superstar quarterback Trevor Lawrence was just 13 of 23 with two interceptions, but he did throw a sweet TD strike to Tee Higgins. The story of the game, though, was the huge performance by running back Travis Etienne, who rushed for 205 yards and three TDs on just 12 carries.

GAME STORIES: The State, Tigernet.

LOOKING AHEAD: The Tigers face probably their biggest test of the season on Saturday -- No. 12 Texas A&M. Thank god it's a home game.

The Atlantic Tackles Trevor Lawrence

MATTHEW EMMONS / USA TODAY SPORTS / REUTERS
High-brow web/print hybrid The Atlantic focuses on Clemson's young superstar quarterback Trevor Lawrence and how NFL rules prohibit him from playing on Sundays.

The plain facts of his talent and his inability to make money off of it, though, fit neatly into an era of growing skepticism about the ethics of nominally amateur college sports. 

It's a good piece and it's not too long; read the whole thing.

Clemson vs. Georgia Tech: It's Finally Gameday!

Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

The day we've all been waiting for is here — the opening of Clemson's football season.

The No. 1-ranked and defending national champion Tigers kick off tonight at home against ACC foe Georgia Tech. Gametime is 8 p.m. on the new ACC Network, which Sling TV doesn't offer (yet), so I don't know how I'll be able to watch. I'm hoping it gets out of hand early so it doesn't matter.

GAME PREVIEWS: Shakin' the Southland, Tigernet, Clemson 247.

SERIES HIGHLIGHTS: NCAA.com has a nice look at the Clemson-Georgia Tech series, including that heartbreaking 2004 Tiger loss in Death Valley that was probably the most apt example of the now-defunct phrase "Clemsoning."

WHERE IS CLEMSON? A great story from the Washington Post. Sample:

Evidence suggests that the proper noun “Clemson,” for so long limited to mostly regional usage, has expanded its reach in recent years. It has done so through that most American of methods: having a football team that routinely goes on television and beats the pure living hell out of other people’s football teams.

Read the whole thing.

LATEST LINE: Clemson is a 36-point favorite, which seems a bit high to me.

Predictions are Hard, Especially About the Future

What would college football in mid-August be without predictions? Here are a few.

Shakin' the Southland sees Clemson winning the ACC Atlantic Division (no surprise there).

The Tigers return a ton of key pieces on offense including QB Trevor Lawrence, RB Travis Etienne, WRs Tee Higgins and Justyn Ross, and three offensive linemen. It could be the best offense in Clemson history.

Looking further down the road, Shakin' the Southland also predicts that the Tigers will top Virginia in the ACC championship game.

Tiger Enter Season Ranked No. 1

It's official: Clemson is the team to beat in 2019.

The Tigers are ranked No. 1 in both the AP and coaches preseason polls.

As Shakin' the Southland wrote in its analysis of the coaches poll:

"We’ve arrived and now people are realizing it is 'We want Clemson,' not 'We want Bama.' ”

Here's a link to the full AP poll. Here's a link to the full coaches poll.

The Tigers open the season on August 29 with home night game against ACC rival Georgia Tech. Kickoff is at 8 p.m., and the game will be televised on the new ACC Network.

Clemson is Already Winning Big ...

... And it's only July. Tigernet's David Hood looks at how the Tigers were the all-encompassing focus of both the ACC AND the SEC media days:

It’s easy to understand why Clemson would be the main topic with ACC teams, but the SEC teams also had to answer questions about how this upstart from South Carolina could, gulp, be the favorite again this season.

Read the whole thing.

Sad News: Former Tiger Dies

Former Clemson running back Tyshon Dye drowned during a family get-together during the July Fourth holiday.

Tigernet has posted a lovely tribute to a player who was "a sweet soul."

My son Koty was born nine weeks early and spent most of the first two months of his young life in NICU at Greenville Memorial Hospital, fighting for survival. He is mostly deaf and there are other issues that make it hard for him to make friends or socialize with other people. ... Four or five years ago, Dye was rehabbing from injury but Swinney’s high school camp moved him out of the indoor practice facility. For some reason, we were allowed to interview Swinney that day and I took Koty with me to hold the mic. When the interview was over, I still had camp to cover and Koty wandered off. When it was time to leave, I looked everywhere but didn’t see him anywhere. I finally heard the sound of laughter and found him sitting upstairs at the indoor practice facility with Tyshon. The two were having all kinds of fun – they aren’t far off in age – and I almost hated to break it up. 

Read the whole thing.

'Hold Me Closer, Woodrow Dantzler'

Tigernet catches up with Clemson great Woodrow Dantzler, a run-pass quarterback with the Tigers from 1999-2001:

In 2001 as a senior, Dantzler became the first quarterback in NCAA history to throw for at least 2,000 yards and rush for another 1,000 yards. He was 188 for 311 (60.5 percent) passing for 2,360 yards and 17 touchdowns. He added 1,004 rushing yards and another 10 touchdowns. 

Today, Dantzler is doing vital work as a mentor and role model.

Death Valley Will Look a Little Different in 2019

Tigernet details some changes to the physical plant at Memorial Stadium. This includes removing the small ticket office at Gate 1 to create more access points, finishing the IPTAY building in the WestZone, and adding some national championship signage.

Sounds like positive changes.

I'm All Ready for 'All In'

Clemson 24-7 has some news today: The ACC Network, which will launch on August 22, will present a four-part documentary on Clemson football entitled All In: The Clemson Football Family. The episodes will run in prime time, August 25-28.

From the post:

“We knew early on that we wanted to do something special with Clemson,” said Stacie McCollum, senior director of programming and acquisitions. “We wanted to showcase the people and culture behind the program’s success as they prepare to defend their national title. Access programming and storytelling will be hallmarks of this network, and the opportunity to feature the Tigers in our first series is a testament to that commitment. Anyone who loves college football will enjoy this series.”

Check out the trailer:
All In The Clemson Football Family Trailer from ACC Network on Vimeo.

"Let Ole Arri-Arri Kick the Hell Out of It"

The headline refers to comments that Charlie Pell allegedly made about Clemson kicker Obed Arriri, a Nigerian-born soccer player at Clemson who switched to football from 1977 to 1980 and became a star.

He's the focus of the Tiger Pregame Show's Letterman Photo of the Day.

 From the post:

Obed Ariri was enrolled at Clemson in 1977 when Charlie Pell was in dire need for a kicker. Dr. Ibrahim offered Obed only if he would still continue to play soccer. Pell agreed, and Obed went on to nail every attempt thus securing his place as the kicker for the Tigers. Obed's scholarship was shifted to Football and Pell insisted that Obed forget about soccer. 

The last we heard, Arriri was driving a cab in the Tampa area. And like everyone else, he's on Facebook. 

The Unprecedented Trevor Lawrence

Clemson 247 crunched some numbers, and it turns out that quarterback Trevor Lawrence's performance in his freshman year was even better than we thought:

Using Sports Reference data, which circles back to 2000, 247Sports looked for any true freshman season that even slightly resembled Lawrence's. There aren’t any. For those wondering, pre-2000 stat lines wouldn’t encompass the same sort of passing numbers Lawrence and modern offenses produce.

Wow.

Shakin' the Southland's "Farewell" tour continues today with a biggie -- receiver Hunter Renfro, the hero of the 2017 national championship game against Alabama.

 

Renfro was recently drafted in the fifth round by the NFL's Oakland Raiders, so hopefully we'll see him playing on Sundays this fall.

Trevor Lawrence is the Man ...

You knew that already, of course, but USA TODAY (my old employer) just made it official by ranking Clemson's Trevor Lawrence as the No. 1 quarterback for the 2019 season:

Lawrence tossed just four interceptions against 30 touchdowns during his first year on campus, capped by his 347-yard, near-perfect performance against the Crimson Tide. That's just a taste of what's to come for a sophomore already compared to some of the great prospects at his position in recent history — including Peyton Manning.

I am so ready for this season to begin.

Sold-Out Games Aren't Common Anymore

A good article from the Greenville News notes that Clemson hasn't sold out many home games in recent years, despite having a traditionally rabid fan base that's in the midst of the program's greatest period of success.

This bit surprised me:

The conventional culprits of expensive ticket costs, low demand and enhanced television viewing experiences are not the only reasons for the empty seats.

Turns out that one of the biggest factors affecting ticket sales is how many fans the visiting team brings.

Misty Water-Colored Memories ...

The Tiger Pregame Show has a running feature saluting past Clemson lettermen, and today, the subject is Bubba Brown. My dad and I saw many games featuring this great linebacker, and many newer fans might be surprised to learn that he is the leading tackler in Clemson history.

TPS mentions two games that stand out in Brown's career, both in 1978 -- the 17-tackle effort in a victory against N.C. State, and the dazzling 22 tackles he racked up in the legendary Gator Bowl win over Ohio State.

Clemson vs. Alabama for Title AGAIN? Early Odds Favor Tigers

Well, this sounds promising:

The Golden Nugget in Las Vegas released a hypothetical betting line last week for a potential Alabama-Clemson Part V showdown in the College Football Playoff, installing the Tigers as a 2-point favorite in the rubber match everyone expects to see during the 2019 season.

Thanks to Clemson 247 for the link.

Fond Farewells and More

Shakin' the Southland has been using the offseason to say farewell to some Tigers who made vital contributions during the past few years.

Consider kicker Greg Huegel:

He finished up 54-71 on FG attempts (76.1%) and 217-227 on PATs. He leaves Clemson ranked first in PATs, second in career points (379), and sixth in made field goals (54). He also holds a school record of hitting 5 FG in 5 different bowl games.

Check out this video of some of his career highlights:


STS also says goodbye to backup DT Chris Register:

Chris is the type of player that has become somewhat common at Clemson: talented enough to start for many teams across the country, yet stuck behind elite talents at Clemson.

Thanks, guys.

LET'S GO CAMPING: There's never a bad time to assess future football talent, and Clemson's coaching staff is doing just that this week as Dabo Swinney's summer camp gets underway in Tigertown. Tigernet has the details.

Tigerpundit: America's Slackest Sports Blogger

Hi. Remember me? Yes, I've been away for a while, but I'm going to try again to re-activate this blog.

Apologies again for being AWOL during the greatest era in Clemson football history. I will try to do better.