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.

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.

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.

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.

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.