Its ClemPson dammit, not Clemzzzun: Clemson Sports Blog

We're Moving!

2009-10-21T14:23:00.004-04:00

We've been invited to write and run a new Clemson blog on SBNation called Shakin The Southland.

This site will no longer be used or updated, we'll live the archives up through the season. Please join SBNation (no they dont hound you with emails) and comment on our new digs.

Clemson Baseball for a moment

2009-10-20T17:29:00.005-04:00

Clemson's baseball schedule was released today by the AD. Its highlights are games against Michigan State, Elon (played in the Tourney), Georgia, and a 3-game set with Carolina starting in Clemson, then Fluor Field in Greenville, then finally in Columbia on the first weekend of March. In total, 27 of 56 games will be against teams that played in the NCAAs last year.

Baseball America rated the incoming Tiger Freshman class 20th, after losing the star pitching signee Madison Younginer to the Red Sox. Clemson was ranked 9th by signing class before the draft.

I'm sure this team can and will make the NCAAs, even after losing so much from the team, and the pitching coach from last season.

Wake Forest postgame review

2009-10-18T17:43:00.006-04:00

ESPN highlights.

FF:Clemson came out and played the way that everyone expected the Tigers to play all season long. The offense was able to string together plays that built off of one another the defense bottled up Skinner and played particularly well. While this is a nice win for the team, we all should be cautious what we take from this game due to the questionable overall football aptitude of this week's opponent.

Overall, the team came out with a high enthusiasm level, which is understandable after the embarrassment in College Park and the criticism from all angles over the past two weeks. As previously stated, there were a lot of good things and some bad things that happened against Wake. Check out the action and commentary below.

**Note to Mike Hogewood, Clemson's current defensive end is RICKY Sapp. Patrick Sapp is a former Clemson QB/LB who played for the Chargers and is currently attempting to do some sideline reporting for Clemson Sports Network and usually sounding like a drunk idiot. (BRING BACK RODNEY!)

**Rick "Doc" Walker did not disappoint us by saying something ridiculously out of control in the first half, suggesting that (paraphrase) he would "pull a pint of his (Kyle Parker's) blood and freeze it for next week". Raycom Vampire? Fantastic.

First Half

Wake started the game with an on-sides kick attempt. Why you give up this kind of field position when you know that your opponent's offense has struggled all season makes no sense to me, but Clemson will take this gift to open the contest.

After the game Jim Grobe confirmed it was intended to be a skyed kickoff, and he got under it.

Offensive Drive #1 at WF 46
Clemson unsuccessfully ran the ball a couple of times on first down here. It was obvious that Wake was going to make Clemson beat them through the air, keying on early run plays. Clemson countered very well with a nice catch by Ashe, a couple of nice grabs by Palmer, a toss to Spiller, and a lot of play action. The use of play action on this drive obviously froze the Wake defense and allowed some nice gains through the air, culminating with a great pitch and catch to Palmer in the end zone. The offensive staff did a great job of running initial plays and building off of these plays into a rhythmic and fluid drive.

Run, P, R, PA P, PA P, PA P to Palmer for the TD. Watch Palmer turn around the safety by jumping inside too soon on him, then he runs right by him.

Defensive Series #1
Jarvis Jenkins played really well here, Ricky Sapp as well. He was quick and destructive against the Wake offense. Skinner has some time to throw, but the Tiger secondary ensured that Wake only got 3 offensive plays this series.

Offensive Drive #2
Kyle Parker made a great play on this drive by looking, scrambling, then tucking the ball for a nice 7 yard gain. This is what we have been looking for out of KP all year. After a short gain, the OL gets a huge negative. Wake's DT put a simple inside move on McClain and ran past Freeman to sack Parker.

R (cuz Austin got beat on speed rush), R, Pass/Sacked. It was a Gun Trips Field with a TE and Spiller on a wheel/flat route, and only 5 protecting.

Defensive Series #2
Bowers did a good job getting up field. I will probably say this a few times, but Bowers is nothing short of a beast...big, fast, strong, and agile. He got his clock cleaned by a 185lb WR on the boundary though, tell us why our WR cant make blocks like that? I was a little disappointed with the tackling (and overpursuit) here, but was impressed by the int by McDaniel. He made a nice break on the ball from the center field position and picked it clean.

Offensive Drive #3
Finally, some sort of draw play! I absolutely love the QB draw play here. KP showed off his wheels and picked up a nice gain. This play call was fantastic and really threw off Wake's defense. The Spiller run was a good example of what can happen with zone blocking. Clemson's zone blocking produces strike outs or big gains. Spiller made an excellent inside out cut and picked up a chunk of yards. These plays work well with a back by Spiller because of his excellent ability to cut against the grain and pick up 15-20 on his own. I really liked the play action to Palmer and hitting Allen out of the left TE position. Two things bothered me with this drive. First, at the goal line, Clemson got zero push up front (as usual). Second, we line up in a 5 wide formation here. Dye has to MAKE himself get OPEN there. He got zero separation. I hate the lack of execution (no push) and strategy (5 wide) when you have a chance to punch it in. Jackson hammers home the short FG and the Tigers go up 10-0.
R,R, PA P, P, R, R, P, FG. 8 plays 58 yards 2:59.

Defensive Series #3
Wake was able to move the ball here, too well. WF got some push up front on early in this possession. I noticed Ricky Sapp getting around pretty easily here. Sapp showed his speed and agility all day. Clemson for most of the day played the corners pretty close to the line. Riley Skinner was able to scramble for a huge 3rd down gain during this drive. This is one of the few times all day the defense lost him. Tigers hunker down and force a (badly) missed FG from the Preachers.

We might chart the defenses we show and the number of blitzes we run in the coming weeks.

Offensive Drive #4 starts at the CU 34
Jamie Harper finally appeared to get going on this drive. He had a big run to start the series and was not brought down with an finger-tackle. J. Ford had a nice, long grab off of a 51 yd play action pass on the next play to the 3yd line. I like the design of this play, as Clemson motioned Palmer and kept him in to block. Harper also threw a block to give KP a chance to heave the ball up. Ford came back to the ball and made the catch on what looked like a Post. Clemson then runs option, with Parker making an acrobatic leap to score. Good execution for all four plays by all aspects of the team (play design, play call, hard running, good throw, good receiver play, max protection).

R, PA Pass, R, R for TD. 17-0 4 plays 66 yards.

Defensive Series #4
The defensive front (led by Bowers) had a great series. Three and out for the D.

Punt hits Wade's foot, live ball recovered by Wake. This is ridiculous, and has happened two games in a row now. There is no excuse for not getting as far away from the ball when the return man will not field the punt. BC punt is pretty crappy, with no chance for a return. With little sound on the field, I could not hear what was going on, but am sure there was a "Clear" or "Peter" call (these are the code words on punt return that mean "get the hell out of the way, the punt will not be fielded"). This should never happen and is nothing short of poor execution/field awareness. Here is where we lost it for the only time of the day.

Defensive series #5
Goodman gets great push here and tosses Skinner down for a sack. Bowers shows off all of his skills and why he was the #1 recruit in the nation a few years ago. Bowers looks like a man amongst boys out there. Three plays for Wake and another punt. Almost a huge pick by Cumbie, Jenkins eats them alive.

Doc Walker on our DL: "they musta had pepah in dey grits"

Offensive Drive #5
KP takes off on a zone read for a short gain, then a screen fails because of a tipped ball by a blitzer off the corner. Clemson had a nice play set up for a huge gain, but KP made his lone poor throw (high) of the day, overshooting an open Jacoby Ford. Clemson is forced to punt.
R, P-i, P-i

Defensive Series #6
Maye was turned around on an early play that could have really hurt the defense. Instead, Wake confuses the Tigers zone turning a short drag route into a huge gain. This was the biggest miscue of the day for the pass defense. There appeared to be some crossing to confuse Maye. The TE released to pull Maye one way, and the slot WR he should've picked up was going the other way, both in front of his face. A helmet to helmet call gives Wake 15 more. Clemson had a few issues wrapping up the ball carrier on this drive. A nice reverse pass back to Skinner put the ball inside the Clemson 10. Seven more yards on a rush took Wake to the 2. Clemson looked a little sloppy until this point in the drive. A quick stop at the 1 and an incomplete pass after a penalty held Wake to a field goal. I was particularly impressed with the speed of Conner at the goal line (play negated after the Tigers accepted a 10 yard penalty on the play). Conner was exceptionally quick, chasing down the running back who bounced outside and seemed destined for the pylon. During the game, I questioned accepting the 10 yard penalty, but I figure the coaching staff was concerned the Wake would go for the TD and punch it in from the 1 on 4th down if given the opportunity.

17-3

Offensive Drive #6
CJ does what CJ does, 66 yards on a (33/35) zone run with a fake sweep to Ford. Both TE's were in the game and Walker made a good effort to seal and allow Spiller to make the cut inside, and another by Cloy (playing RG) to seal off the backside of the cutback lane. Once he was to the second level, you all know what happened.

CJ goes over 6000 all-purpose yards.

Defensive Series #7
Riley Skinner really got knocked around here. Clemson brought a few extra guys all series, with Branch and Conner getting sacks here. The latter sack came even as Wake kept extra players in to provide more protection. Clemson uses timeouts well here to get the offense the ball back.

Offensive Drive #7 starts at the WF 41.
Clemson starts with a pair of nice catches by Ashe (he caught the ball!) and Palmer. Palmer's grab was particularly impressive because he did everything correctly. He runs a quick out route (watch how he pushes the defender by selling the fly), plants, and makes a crisp turn, catches the ball with his hands, tucks the ball, turns and gets up field. Fundamentally, Palmer may be the best pass receiver on this football team. After a quick run by Ford (same play run by Spiller before, but on the end-around), Parker appears to have Allen open, but the pass is dropped. While one could argue it wasn't a perfect pass, I was a little heartbroken by this drop. We have been pimping Allen and getting two TE's in the game because they are better receivers and blockers than the WR's, and what does Allen do? He drops the freaking football! This was the sole dropped pass that I can recall on the day. I still like getting both TE's in the game as much as possible. Fortunately for Allen, his teammates picked up for his drop, with KP taking a designed run for 14 yards to the 3. Downfield blocking has improved by the receivers. Harper then punched it in with the help of a nice block by Chad Diehl. Wake's defense looks deflated here.
PA P-i, P, P, R, P-i, R, R. 31-3

Defensive Series #8
WF runs the clock down here. I did notice Jamie Cumbie still had his motor running wide open. It is particularly nice to have a guy like Cumbie to spell the guys up front. He played particularly well throughout the game.

HALF
271 yds of offense to 99 for WF, most of which was on 2 drives.

Defensive Series #1
Clemson forces an incompletion, then Ricky Sapp runs right around WF's tackle. Clemson continues to blitz, allows a 9-10 yrd pass completion, and forces another 3 and out for the Demon Deacons.

Offensive Drive #1
Parker, off play action, has a ball batted down and Clemson gets a few yards off of an inside hand off from the gun to Spiller. KP then telegraphs a pass to Taylor that easily could have been picked off. Parker has issues of not looking off defenders and staring at his intended target. Three and out for the Tigers.
PA P-i, R, P-i

Clemson still is not lighting it up on 3rd downs today.

Defensive Series #2
Wake attains consecutive 1st downs to start this drive. Skinner connects for 9 or so to get the initial first, then Wake runs for 15 or so for the second. Clemson had pretty good coverage on the 9 yard pass. The 15 yard run was set up by Brandon Maye being out of position and getting sealed away from the play. Maye plays particularly hard, but often takes bad angles to the ball. Often times, he is too anxious to do too much, becoming his own biggest obstacle. Clemson then forces an interception on a nice play by Butler. His tip ended up in R. Hall's hands coming over from his two-deep position.

Offensive Drive #2
Willy Korn comes into the game at this point. Clemson opens with a pair of runs (5 yrds by Spiller and 6 yrds by Korn). Incomplete pass to Clear. Korn is shifty and can move well (as we all knew), but has had issues throwing the ball. His incomplete pass to Clear was terribly thrown. Ellington then makes a fine run off of a toss out of the shotgun formation. Clemson was able to kick out and seal necessary defenders (David Smith was in and made a big seal) around the LOS to create this space for Ellington to operate. Unfortunately, after quite a few moves and a 30 or so yard gain, Ellington puts the ball on the ground AGAIN. We have been dogging on Harper and begging for more snaps for Ellington, but this fumble does not help that cause.
R, R, P-i, R-Turnover

Korn just has no luck.

Defensive Series #3
After a quick 9 yard completion, Wake commits a penalty and completely stalls, turning the ball over on downs. McDaniel made an excellent tackle, and Brandon Thompson gets it going up the gut, helping keep Wake at bay on both 3rd and 4th and short situations. Their RB missed the correct hole, because they had a surge over there on the right side.

Offensive Drive #3
Jacoby Ford completes a nice one to Xavier Dye off of the option pass. Not only was the ball well thrown, but Dye also made an exceptional catch down the sideline. Out of a 2 TE look, Spiller is able to bust another one on an inside zone for 14 yards and the day's final scoring. Good blocks by D. Allen and C. Lambert to spring him on the left side.
P, P, R-TD. 38-3

Defensive Series #4
Byron Maxwell made an exceptional break on the football and drops an interception (and possibly a touchdown, as he was in open space). Clemson's secondary did a good job here, as Skinner just could not find an open receiver on this drive. Skinner was able to break containment, tuck the ball, and 15 yards. After allowing Wake to convert on a 3rd down attempt, CU holds and Wake is forced to punt.

Offensive Series #4
Will Korn is back in the football game. Harper gets a tossout here in Gun, which he is not suited to. Not a good call. After running for a few yards, Korn connects with Harper on a quick stop route from an empty set. Korn again shows off his rushing ability, and Chad Diehl get a 5 yard carry on the FB Dive. HELL YES! Korn attempted a dangerous pass while on the run here. There was really no reason for him to throw the ball up. Korn gets sacked (had time to throw) and completes another pass to Harper on a bubble screen from an empty set. Punt.
R, R, P, R, R, P-i, Sack, P.
End of 3rd Qtr.

Defensive Series #5
Gilchrist made a pretty good tackle early on. Clemson continues to blitz, and Riley Skinner is taken down with another sack in his last play of the day.

I will not take the time to discuss drive by drive the rest of the 4th quarter, as both starting QB's had already been pulled and this was mop up time. I will elaborate on an item that was particularly displeasing, particularly Cory Lambert getting smoked once again and Will Korn bearing the brunt of this mistake.

Overall, the play calling was night and day from the past few weeks. The play progression made sense. Clemson simplified things. Clemson found a weak point (play action paralyzed the Demon Deacons) and continued to exploit this. CJ Spiller had a nice day. Clemson's O-Line (for the most part) gave Parker time to throw. Clemson's receivers did not drop a pass, and Michael Palmer had another good outing. On the defensive side, there was a small lapse in the second quarter, but otherwise CU did well. Riley Skinner was bottled up all day and Clemson was able to put pressure on him all day.

I really would like to have seen Clemson line up and run the ball down Wake's throat at the end of the game yesterday. However, it is apparent that CU's offensive line does not have that capacity. Clemson's rushing offense is based on zone blocking (because the Tigers can't line up, put a hat on a hat, and push the defense around) and is spotty at best. What you will see out of this strategy is a couple of rushes for 1-3 yards, then a 15 yard gain (with Spiller). This style will not allow the Tigers to methodically move the ball down the field...it's either feast or famine.

Parker did a nice job of using his feet to make plays. He still has a few issues of not looking off defenders (and a mechanical issue), but KP has a cannon. The velocity difference when Parker was substituted out of the game was obvious. We all were impressed with the read and effort on the goal line option play. Kyle (after what appeared to be a 3 week slide) showed improvement since the Maryland game.

Formations and personnel choices were vastly improved this week. The offense committed to getting back to basics with balanced formations and play action. Particularly pleasing was having two TE's in the game either for blocking or receiving purposes. The only complaints arise from the 5 wide, empty backfield formations. Clemson needs help up front with a TE and/or back chipping or blocking oncoming rushers. I have not looked at the film, but will be eager to see the performance (and amount of play) of Cloy at guard and D. Smith at tackle. Cloy has played pretty well at center, so it would be disappointing to move him around for no reason. I have seen enough of Cory Lambert already this season...

Now the reality of this whole thing. This is probably what CU needed, a good outing. Wake is the best passing team Clemson has faced so far, and the Tigers did a good job of neutralizing their senior signal caller. The offensive play calling and execution was much better than the previous 5 games. Clemson looks like it is moving forward. The real test will come next week. Miami is not Wake Forest. Clemson will have to defeat a much better team in South Florida next week. Miami has an offensive line, a dynamic quarterback, and a talented group of receivers. Defensively, Miami will be a lot quicker and the game will need to be played a lot faster agaist the 'Canes. Overall, Clemson will need to execute well in a fascets of the game to keep up with the "U".

Doc: I put in a few comments above but I don't have much to add, except that I would've either grounded the offense in the 4th and worked on the power running, or actually went for the jugular more. I want to beat wake by 80 every time, but we let up on them. Kickoff coverage was suspect and they got to the 2nd level quite a bit on returns. I havent decided whether to clip anything out of the film on this one because there were some good plays to look at, and I might edit this post later to add them.

Impressions before looking at the film...38-3 Victory

2009-10-17T19:42:00.002-04:00

Not much to complain about without looking at the film of this one. FF is doing a game review post and I'll add my thoughts to it tomorrow.

-Very balanced offense today, looked like they tried to simplify things. Good changeup with the amount of playaction passes and usage of the Tight Ends. I noticed a few calls I didn't agree with, particularly one where we went empty-set in the red zone, and I would've preferred to run the ball more inside and establish it. Another was a pitchout to Harper, he should get the ball inside, not on the perimeter. WF is susceptible to the zone blocking scheme because of their slanting fronts, but I was not impressed at how we couldnt take full advantage.

-Although we had 195 yards rushing, if you look at the stats and take out the long runs, we dont have much. I wanted to see us churn out a sustained drive on the ground, and we didnt do that even at the end, when it was clear we were no longer going to press for a TD. One zone play gets 2, the next 30. That kind of thing doesnt happen as much against a fast Defense like Miami's.

-I was not happy with the overal push up front, but the first string did well in pass blocking I thought...except for Cory Lambert's lazy ass giving up that sack at the end. 4 sacks, 3 on Korn with the (partly) backup line.

-If Ellington wants more carries, he needs to learn to hold onto the damn football. Harper might've just taken back some of what he lost to Andre today.

-I could tell Parker had been told forcefully to scramble on his first one in the first half. You could see him look to throw it away, then looked at the coaches on the sideline and ran towards them. We had 13 QB carries (-4 sacks) today, the option keeper and a few of the draws were called, but the rest were them making plays with their feet.

-You know we scream for Allen to get the ball and then when he gets a chance to get a 1st and Goal or a TD, he fails to catch it. Only drop I believe.

-Defensive line and Palmer deserve the game balls here. We played Cover 2 Man for a good bit of this game, and our DB's were all over them like glue. Bowers totally ate Skinner for lunch today:

"We basically had everything broken down to a tip of looking at their heels to tell if they were going to pass or run," said Bowers, who had three tackles for loss. "We were actually calling the plays that (Skinner) was going to run, so he had no choice but to check down.

"We could tell exactly what they were running by the way the line was lined up and the things that he was doing. He was getting frustrated. I could tell in his eyes. I kind of said something to him, and he just looked at me and shook his head. So I knew something was wrong with him."

Deacons center Russell Nenon walked away impressed with Clemson's defensive front."You take a week off against a team like Clemson and you see the athletes like Da'Quan Bowers and Ricky Sapp -- they're freaks out there."

-Rumph and Dan Brooks are earning their paychecks, the entire front was just on fire today. There were some plays where Maye again gets himself blocked out with bad angles and trying to hard, and another where he got crossed up in his coverage assignment, but otherwise there's not much I can say without looking at the film tomorrow.

****Clemson had a large contingent of recruits in town today, a dozen committed and several uncommitted for this year and 2011. Among them were the #6-rated LB Justin Parker and 2011 commit Martin Lane (RB) with his teammate Cortez Davis, who committed tonight (for 2011). He has garnered an offer from Miami, LSU, FSU and Oregon, and plays Safety. He was recruited by Rumph.

Roll Tide.

Around the Southeast

2009-10-17T09:19:00.005-04:00

Here is a look at games going on in the ACC today:

Wake Forest at Clemson (Raycom 12:00 PM ET)
Riley Skinner and the Wake Forest offense will come to Memorial Stadium to play the Tigers. Skinner, who it seems has been at Wake for about 10 years, handled Clemson in a sloppy, low scoring affair last season. Skinner is on quite a roll to this point, playing particularly well the past few weeks. Interestingly Jim Grobe has never won at Clemson. How the Tigers offense responds to a week off should give college football fans an idea of what to expect in the race for the Atlantic Division championship this season. Clemson finds a way to score at least two offensive touchdowns and holds off Wake.

FF Prediction: Wake 17 CU 24

North Carolina State at Boston College (ABC 3:30 PM ET)
Both of these teams desperately need a win and some momentum heading into the second half of the season, as Tom O'Brien faces his former team. BC is coming off of a thrashing to Virginia Tech, yet sits second in the ACC Atlantic race. BC has ACC wins over Florida State and Wake. NCST (0-2 in ACC Play) has played particularly poorly all season, emphasized by last week's tank job against Duke. While neither team is dominant, you know you are in trouble when you give up 49 to Duke. I look for BC to win big.

FF Prediction: NCST 17 BC 35

Virginia at Maryland (ESPNU 4:00 PM ET)
In what originally appeared to be the Al Groh farewell tour, Virginia has come to life after a horrid start to this season. Virginia is currently 1-0 in league play, sporting an upset win over UNC a few weeks ago. This team has, however, lost to William and Mary, Southern Miss, and a pretty good TCU team. Maryland is coming off of a loss to Wake and currently sits at 1-1 in the ACC. There is no other way to describe this matchup than two bad teams fighting it out. Maryland out-bads Virginia, and Al Groh lives another day.

FF Prediction: UVa 17 UMd 14

No. 4 Virginia Tech at No. 19 Georgia Tech (ESPN 2 6:00 PM ET)
This is the only ACC top 20 matchup of the week, and is a crucial game for the Yellow Jackets. GT is 3-1 in ACC play and is frantically chasing Miami and VT for a spot in Jacksonville. After getting beaten badly by the U earlier this season, this game is a must win for GT. Virginia Tech (3-0 in the ACC) is in the driver's seat for the conference championship and could back door it's way into the MNC game by running the table and getting some outside help. Needless to say, this is the biggest remaining regular season game for both clubs. Georgia Tech catches a break by having the Hokies travel to Atlanta for this contest. I see a hungry Virginia Tech team that is dynamic in all three phases of the game. While Virginia Tech's defense may not be as revered as in years past, it is fast enough to shut down GT's flex attack. On the flip side, the Yellow Jacket's defense (which has given up a ton of points all year) is no match for Tyrod Taylor and crew.

FF Prediction: VT 28 GT 17

No. 9 Miami (FL) at UCF (7:30 PM ET)
The U travels to Central Florida for a non-conference matchup. Miami (4-1 in conference) appears to be getting close to the championship form we all remember. Jacory Harris is a fantastic player who really has played well all season. UCF (1-2 in Conf. USA play, 3-2 overall) should not be a match for the 'Canes. The U rolls and eagerly watches the outcome in Atlanta.

FF Prediction: U 38 Golden Knights 10

Dalton Freeman to start against Wake, and what it means

2009-10-16T08:29:00.005-04:00

Preliminary reports indicate that redshirt Freshman Dalton Freeman will start over Mason Cloy at the center position against Wake. This is encouraging news from this offensive line and overall depth for this unit. Along with depth, the move allows Clemson to try to shore up the tackle spot by moving David Smith from guard to tackle and possibly getting Cloy some snaps at the guard spot.

Freeman, a Pelion native, is said to have great footwork and pass protection skills. Going into fall camp, those in the know expected Freeman to push for a starting role all fall. He has received significant playing time to this point in the season. Greenville News has been following this all week, and has a pretty good outline of Brad's opinion on things here and Anderson Independent here.

Let's be clear what this actually means. Freeman currently sees significant playing time on a weekly basis, so the coaches have confidence in him. The important aspect here is trying to fix the glaring eyesore that is the right tackle position. Cloy has enough size to immediately take effective reps at the guard position, freeing up David Smith to add depth to the Cory Lambert Landon Walker revolving door, especially after losing Chris Hairston for a couple games earlier this season.

This issue has been discussed almost daily here, with most agreeing that we are in this situation because of good ole' Heinz ketchup-man himself. If you missed the problems up front, Dr. B gives you a pretty good idea of our overall problems here and here, so it is something that we all have been aware of for some time now.

In other news, the CU AD has slated the Halloween day contest against Coastal will begin at 1:30 and available only on ESPN360.

A few links

2009-10-15T13:28:00.006-04:00

-Bart Wright's response to the AOC stuff.

I can only take a few issues with what he says.

Another assistant had to separate them, said the anonymous writer who didn't bother to name a source or quote anyone on the record.

I'm sure Bart, or any other writer of record would NEVER give information out without quoting a source in the Athletic Department, revealing their identity and causing them to be disciplined and lose their job, then drying up the source of any new information?

No way, that would NEVER happen would it?

Its a blog, you can write whatever the fuck you want to write. I try to look at both sides of things before I post, or do some research to get things correct, but not everybody will do that. I still make mistakes sometimes, but go back and correct them when I see it. That doesnt mean you can't post heresay. If no one posted their 'inside' info, which is all heresay, then all you'd ever have to go on would be Bart's reporting prowess, ever.

What was the "stay near your computer!" stuff last year about? Heresay. Right.

All I pointed out, after writing what I have heard, was that the reporters should question the coaches on this issue. They did, so I'm satisfied.

But he is right to tell people to take what they read with a grain of salt.

On the last play where Parker was sacked.

That was Parker's fault. It was a quick 3-step drop and get rid of the ball play, and Parker did everything but get rid of the ball. H ehung onto it and got sacked from the blindside, which is why he's not supposed to hold the ball.

Actually Lambert could've also made an effort to block the man who came RIGHT AT him, instead of standing there looking at the guy on Austin. The blitzer came totally free. Yes Parker held it too long, but Lambert could've blocked.

-Strelow goes into the rumor of the argument, then the troubles on offense making yardage.

-Jarvis Jenkins has quietly had a good season so far, being at some times unblockable.

-Greg Wallace talks about the OL production. There hasnt been that much improvement Greg.

-EDSBS talks about the clusterfuck that is the ACC regular season.

Wake in the Valley

2009-10-14T08:00:00.002-04:00

The Tigers will hit the field after what (hopefully) has been an evaluation break for the coaches as well as the team.

What do we know?

Well, we do know that there is some sort of disconnect on offense that is not allowing Clemson to play with continuity and fluidity. We also know that there are issues with the wide receivers, offensive line, and quarter back play through the first portion of the season. We know that Clemson's defense has played pretty well to this point and that the guys up front and in the secondary are capable of helping this football team win some games. We know that kick returning is probably CU's best offense to the is point, that Richard Jackson has a tremendous leg but needs more accuracy, and punting miscues have hurt the Tigers. Finally, we know that there are inexperienced members of this program right now that will need to improve over time.

What can we do?

Continuity and fluidity start from the top and start with play calling. I will not expand on the possibility of a rift between head coach and offensive coordinator except to say that a boat with two captains sinks fastest. Arguably, the most complete drive Clemson has had all season was the opening drive of the game against TCU. One possible explanation of this that most football coaches like to script the first series (or at least the first few plays) to open ball games. This generally is used to set the tone and see what kind of looked you are getting from your opponent out of certain formations and scenarios. Clemson was balanced and utilized everyone on this drive, with the only disappointment being CU had to settle for a field goal. I am by no means advocating a fully scripted game, but wondering if this scripting concept can be expanded upon to keep the staff moving and thinking in the same direction. The other item that Clemson can address is to try to attain manageable 3rd down attempts. I know this sounds like an obvious statement, but 3rd down success is a function of 1st and 2nd down decisions. We would like to see the Tigers keep the ball on the ground more on 1st & 2nd downs (3-4 yards on 1st down, 3-4 yards on second down would make me extremely happy) to set up 3rd and 3, 3rd and 4. This is extremely critical for the Tigers, as it is tough to be successful with a freshman QB in such situations.

I am really not sure what Clemson can do personnel wise at this point in the season. CU obviously cannot pick up players off the side of the road, so we have who we have. What Clemson can start doing offensively to help with the struggles up front and drops by the receivers is utilize the TE's in a more efficient manner. Initially, we would agree that another TE would be a lot of help for either Lambert or Walker. These guys have looked like matadors at times this season, and a TE would help either a lot. We have discussed better use of the TE here on numerous occasions, as Palmer and Allen can both catch the football. Apparently Billy Napier has gotten more positive about using Allen, stating in a recent P&C article that Allen has nice upside potential and that the Tigers will have to find a way put the ball in his hands. (Note, P&C may be driving this bandwagon, with another article emphasizing TE play being run today). I am also a big advocate of a double TE set. Other than being utilized for spacing, the WR's have been more of a liability than an asset this year. If you have to, flex Allen out with Palmer in a 3-pt stance. He is a big target and would make a pretty good match up for CU in many cases.

Clemson's defense is the least of my worries. Steele has done a pretty good job to this point. If there is one spot I would like to see more consistency (and depth), it would be the LB spot. However, this unit has given the offense plenty of opportunities and has played pretty well all year. Overall, this is about what I expected out of this group--overall performance--with a lot more intensity than the past few seasons.

I would be surprised to see many opponents kick the ball to CJ for the rest of the season. His ability to take one to the house is incredible. There is no need for me to continue to state the obvious. With Spiller/Ford returning the football, Clemson is in good shape.

On the other side of the return coin, Clemson has done a better job of kick coverage this season. Most of the problems in this department have been poor luck/somebody not paying attention to what is going on. The big ones include the Georgia Tech and Maryland returns for big gains (GT went to the end zone, Maryland to the 1) that both ended up giving the opposition 6 points. We have beaten the GT bonehead call to death. What we can do is assure that the ball is kicked well and realize that there is no need to get froggy on kick team. Just kick the ball and make tackles...no other bs.

I think we may have given Richard Jackson a little too much hype early. While you cannot deny that someone who banks home 50 yarders at will is impressive, Richard has to become more dependable on short- to mid-range kicks. This is particularly true when the game is still in balance. Regardless, Clemson should not need Jackson to kick 5 field goals a game. Overall, with all of the questions coming into the year, I have more confidence in the kicking unit than I thought I would...but we still have a ways to go.

Inexperience is pretty obvious, particularly on the offensive side of the football. Let's go ahead and get the QB spot out of the way. Early on, Parker looked like he was well on his way to Death Valley glory. He was making all the right decisions and throwing the ball with authority. Even against GT, he stepped in and was able to make decent decisions and deliver the ball when necessary. Since, he has looked more and more like a freshman. Parker is rushing to get rid of the ball and has gotten into a bad habit of not stepping up and stepping into where he needs to throw the ball. Couple that with dropped passes, and you have a young QB who seems to be reeling.

What can happen to improve this play is for Parker to stop getting excited and quit trying to guide the ball. I would also like to see Parker run with the ball more when given the chance, particularly when he can pick up a first down without putting the ball in the air. The GT int throwing across his body to an open Ford is a prime example of this. While Ford was open, this was a difficult 3rd down pass to complete The freshman could have easily tucked the ball and gotten the short first down to keep the drive going.

Finally, we can slim down the playbook even further to ensure that Clemson is only running base plays. Pros to this idea is that we can actually execute a handful of plays, our players are not overloaded with extra information, and we get more reps in practice. Minus is you become more predictable. See the preseason post re Spence's complex offense to get more insight here. I am all for executing fewer plays properly as opposed to having more plays that look like crap.

WR's doing a better job of bringing in more passes would (OBVIOUSLY) help this position also. If we still cannot get things going, then you have to think about really shaking up playing time between Parker and Korn. Will Korn looked determined and ready to go in his lone series against the Terps.

The other inexperience lies in a first-year coach/first-year OC combination. We have all heard a lot about this situation, and I will not get into any hearsay or speculation, only look at the facts of the situation. First off, the decision to allow the program's two best recruiters to take over the football program was a big risk on TDP's part. In short, he gave up little in guaranteed cash to retain an unproven, yet popular coach in Swinney. This is a real risk for the former OSU front-man, especially coupled with the debacle known as extending Tom Bowden's contract several times over the past few years/not letting Arkansas overpay for his services. Long and short, TDP put Clemson in a situation where they will be paying TB a lot of money for quite a while (all during the worst economic period in 80 years). Thus, you don't need crystal ball to figure out what happens should Swinney fail...TDP catches it also. Phillips realizes that it will take time for Swinney to win...he is just hoping that Swinney's coaching abilities will catch up sooner rather than later.

I don't need to remind anyone that it is difficult to move from being a position coach to running the whole program. The second portion of the equation is Billy Napier as offensive coordinator. While I don't have a problem with younger guys being coordinators, it is tough to have a young coordinator with a young head coach (mainly because both really need time to mature in the current roles and more of a mentor). If you are going to have a young offensive coordinator, it is always nice to have an experienced coach to allow the OC to be creative, yet reel him in and keep him moving in the correct direction (as dictated by the HC). Since Swinney has no head coaching experience (nor assistant head coaching experience, for that matter) it is tough for his team to have an identity and vision this early in the game. This may trickle down to less experienced assistants going through similar growing pains...

The long and the short of it is what we have all known for the past year...Swinney is a rookie coach and is going to make rookie mistakes. All we expect here is realistic improvement from week to week, and understand that becoming a good football coach is build on experience. Swinney's decision to bring in an experienced defensive coordinator has worked out well. The inexperience in offensive game planning and play calling is showing itself in the early-going. The best we can all hope for is that these two gain valuable experience and move forward as the season progresses and get over the early rookie woes. These guys have largely been given a pass so far this season, but will need to steadily improve to escape some criticism here.

With a slew of less than impressive opponents (minus Miami) left on Clemson's ACC slate, there are quite a few winnable games on the table. However, this team must improve drastically to turn these opportunities into W's.

Inside the Clemson Offense: 34/35 Zone

2009-10-13T18:25:00.008-04:00

The bread and butter run play of the Spence, as well as most one-back, system is the zone rushing play. There are several to pick from but here we'll describe a brief introduction to zone blocking itself, then the specific play.

Why do teams run a zone scheme?
-Adapts to defenses that like to stunt and stem quite a bit. Essentially no defense in major college football runs a basic front without some stunting. If they didnt stunt, you could call base blocking (just take the man in front of you head-on) schemes all the time. Since they don't do that, you have to have a scheme that can adjsut to everything the defensive front shows you.
-You create combo blocks on the LOS (double-teams) and outnumber the defense at the point-of-attack, and that should open up more holes and get the back to the 2nd level.
-Combo blocking generally means you dont need as many of those 6'6 330lb linemen, and you can make do with a little less talent.

What is zone blocking?

I don't intend to do a step-by-step description of it, but it does not necessarily mean that guys block a "zone" or "area", although that is one technique that can be taught (an inside gap usually) and is in the video above. If there is a man over the Guard or Tackle head-up, then nearly every time he will just base block him. Zone schemes apply to uncovered linemen. If I am facing an ODD defense (Nose tackle over the Center) then one of the Guards will not be covered by the other DT (assuming a 4-man front, usually the LG with the RG facing a 3-Tech), and that uncovered Guard will be asked to help the Center block most of the time. If its an EVEN front (nobody over the Center), then the Center will combo block with one of the Guards.

What the combo Olineman will do is block the DL for a specified count, then release to hit a LB. Thats it. Hopefully you can push that DL back far enough so that he interfere's with the LB trying to get to the play, then the combo lineman will not have far to go to make his block.

Covered linemen take a step to the playside, then the 2nd between the defender's feet, keeping their shoulders as square as possible to the line. Uncovered linemen take a big scoop step playside, then a 2nd step trails and pushes upfield. Imagine it as them trying to ram into the defender's shoulder. Generally the entire line will look as if they are shifting to one direction.

If you want to go further into zone blocking itself, I recommend these links:
Rocky Top Talk on Inside zones, and Tomahawk Nation's post on understanding zone blocking.

My biggest complaint with the zone scheme is that it must be repped endlessly, and teaching it to young linemen can therefore be quite difficult. They have to be taught how long to hold their block at the POA and then how to get upfield. All of them must handle their assignment exactly, and the usage of their hands and their first two steps is of utmost importance.

As for the 34/35 Zone rush play itself, you might want to watch this description by Brian Billick of the Denver Broncos stretch zone blocking scheme.

I've discussed play numbering before, but again the "3" refers to the Back (QB is 1, H-back may be #2, RB is #3) and the "4" or "5" refers to the hole he's supposed to run through. 34 Zone is designed for the RB to take the ball up behind the RG and into the B-gap, but being a zone play, a cutback lane may open behind the Center (because of the combo block) and the RB has the option of taking it there.

Clemson runs the play from multiple formations, generally Ace Spread or Ace Pro Wing sets. In addressing the 34 specifically, you can run it on any down but should be most effective in short yardage situations. The fact that the QB's action is a bootleg keeps the sometimes-unblocked backside DE occupied long enough to get the Aceback through the LOS.

Depending on the defensive front, the Line (Center usually) makes 2 or 3 calls to control the LOS, designating who blocks whom.

Specifics:
RT: Depending on the call he will either step to the outside gap and work up to the LB, or combo block with the TE on the DE before releasing.
RG: If covered, nearly always base block. A "solid" call means he'll block to the outside gap, and a "Combo" call means he'll base block with help from the RT.
C: "Base" call=blocks the Shade/Nose Tackle. "Ram" call, if he's uncovered, would indicate he blocks to the playside gap. Other calls may indicate he could go straight to the 2nd level (e.g., "City") or to the left (Lion). He will make those calls pre-snap.
LG/LT: Either block base or "solid" meaning they'll block towards the playside gap. If the LG is covered, usually the LT will combo on the DT. The backside DE over the outside shoulder of the LT is meant to be unblocked by the LT, but this can change depending on the front they showcase (or a blitz).

H-back: Steps to the inside/playside to cut off the first man to the outside shoulder of the LT. He stays on the backside DE long enough to keep him from making the play in the backfield, then proceeds to the 2nd level to try to hit the scraping OLB.

TE/Y: Blocks base, but can adjust this based on the call between himself and the RT to help pick up any outside defender (like a blitzing OLB or SS). He aims to keep his shoulders parallel to the line, pushing towards the outside, but be aware of a pinch stunt (DE slanting inwards towards the Tackle).

X/Y: Both release upfield, then stalk block their Cornerback. The term "stalk" implies there is a technique to this block, based on the defender's alignment pre-snap. If the defender is further than 5 yards off, his aiming point is the outside jersey number. If the defender is loose, he is likely the secondary run support man, meaning his primary job is not to turn the perimeter run inside, but is the second man trying to make the play turn inside. If he's playing press/bump coverage, the WR's aiming point is the inside number, because he is probably playing primary run support. If the H-back is set out in the slot, he will also stalk block his cover man instead of the DE, but this adjustment is made in tandem with the LT.

Aceback: Runs a belly action, aiming at the outside hip of the RG, then receives the handoff. Either the hole will be there or to the inside behind the Center. He must sprint to the backside of the RG and then decide on his cut and hit the hole very hard.

QB: Opens to 5:30 position with the belly action, then runs a fake bootleg to help the H-back keep the DE occupied. If the same play is run to the opposite side, he opens to 4-4:30.

The 35 Zone is essentially the same, to the opposite side. It is shown against an ODD front in the picture with 3 wide receivers. Its very useful in setting up the countertrey, the countergap, and a bootleg/waggle pass. With the same blocking scheme you can also have the back run a Counter.

The same calls are made on the Line, but the X and Slot receivers sight adjust the OLB. If the OLB is lined up on the line opposite the slot, the slot man blocks solid on him, but if he's back showing his pass coverage the X receiver runs over on a slant route to crack him. In this case, with the OLB playing off, the slotman would run a wheel route into the CB towards the boundary. If necessary, the two receivers can make a pre-snap "Check with me" call to each other to determine who to block.

Z goes vertical to attempt to stalk the SS or man on the CB, while the TE runs a crossing route to block into the FS.

The TB has the choice of hitting the outside slice, or taking his cutback behind the LG.

This video is a good description of the 35 (first play) and a 2nd play appears to be a 31 or 33 inside zone.

Swinney Press Conference: WF

2009-10-13T12:52:00.004-04:00

Notes from Today's press conference:

On Wake Forest:

Offensively they are definitely the best offense we've play. They are very balanced. Riley Skinner has 37 starts. He has a lot of experience and he really understands what he's doing... He's an excellent scrambler. The biggest thing he does such a good job of is scrambling around and finding a guy [downfield]. When he scrambles, he delivers the ball [downfield]....He dinks it out to a running back in the flat and you are out of position and he runs for 20 yards. He's what makes them go.

They also run a significant amount of misdirection with their offense. They are extremely athletic group up front. They are all redshirt guys and they all have a bunch of starts under their belt. They do a good job executing...They have good running backs- they are both veteran guys. Their wide outs are new guys but they have done a good job spreading the ball around.

They are definitely the best group we have played.

Defensively, they move and stem as well as anybody we play. They have a lot of movement right before the ball is snapped and as it is snapped. We have to be poised in our snap count and using that as a tool for us. They understand gap control. They do have a lot of first-year starters defensively but all of those guys have significant playing time and they've developed in their system. They do a great job of execution and that's what we have to do- execute. We have to eliminate the things that beat ourselves. I think this is going to be a big game for Kyle Parker. He's got to do what he's coached to do. We can't beat ourselves.

When he refers to "stemming" he means stunting and exchanging gap controls on the defensive line, generally on one side. It works off calls on the defensive line, and the offense can sometimes adjust to a stunting defense by going off the first sound, to try to catch them in a stunt and out of position. It also confuses OL in their blocking assignments.

In this terminology, a stem is usually the gap exchange of the linemen done before the snap, whereas a stunt is a gap exchange with a lineman and a linebacker or two linemen after the snap. For most intents and purposes they are the same things but if you want to be technical its a last-second shift on the DL (like everyone shifts over to the weakside at the last second, or everyone waits til the snap to put their hands down, etc.).

Brad Scott was asked about the OL and how they deal with this type of thing:

“Fifteen or 20 years ago, defenses played one, maybe two defenses. That was it. So you could really tee up and come off the ball. Nowadays -- y’all watch college football. I saw somebody made the quote that the day of the 200-yard offensive rushing day is probably more like 150 these days. …

“With the way the safeties are down, everybody is playing man coverage to get that eighth guy down in the box. You’ve got to run it up in there to keep them honest and to help you with your passing game. But I think there probably is a little bit of a trend where it’s a little more challenging to cover guys up. A lineman would love to just line up and come off the ball. That’s what all people want to see, and that’s what we want them to do.
But that guy that’s right there who you’re coming off on, he might just go two gaps over and be there, and that linebacker might be right there.
I don’t want to use the term slow step, but you have to play more under control. So it’s still an aggressive personality and attitude, but you better play under control, or you’re liable to completely miss guys.”

On the question of the playcalling and the argument in practice, that we brought up earlier last week:

The internet is blowing up with rumors of differences between you and Billy Napier. Is that true and have you overridden him on a bunch of calls this season?
Swinney: There's no truth to that. I hired Billy to be the offensive coordinator. I probably have over written three calls in five ball games. It's no different on the defensive side. I got a great relationship with Billy. I probably picked a bad day to invite people to practice. I don't know if y'all pay attention but we lost to Maryland. Everybody wants to write about me and Billy ... well what about Coach Pearman, and Coach Scott and Coach Steele. I have all the respect in the world for all my coaches. One of the things I like about Billy is he's got some fire to him. I had the band out at practice. It was one of those spring practice days where nobody was in good humor. And I'm glad about that. I don't know where that comes from. I don't override play calls or anything like that. I manage the game. I may say hey let's take a shot or hey let's run it. We aren't just randomly calling plays on game day. I don't know how else to answer that other than it's just way far from accurate. That's just part of this job.

Are you surprised that you've only overridden three calls?
Swinney: I hire people to do their jobs. I say three it may have been one or may have been five. I like to say I make all of the bad calls because it's my responsibility on both sides of the ball to make sure it's right. I've looked at all the film during this open date- sure there were times when you say well dad-gum that's a bad call. Most of the time, where we've had success it's been because of our crisp play and execution. When it's not going well, it's been a combination of us not executing properly or a missed assignment or a dropped ball instead of a bad call. That goes back to us coaching them better - bottom line. That's the attention to detail that we've focused on the last two weeks because if we execute we have a chance to be successful.

As I said in the Raycom blog over the weekend, I'll take his word for it even if I think he is exerting more control than that over the offense. Its Napier's head now for these silly play calls.

As for the argument, it is being overplayed. Coaches do argue on the field, but like he said, it looks bad because it happened on the field with the Band and others watching and our problems have been mostly on offense. Austin said he chewed everyone out on the team, as he should.

On execution:

What have you changed during the off-week? Anything?
Swinney: Yeah. We don't go to the next play unless it's right. It's got to be right. Got to do it right as opposed to get our reps in. I'd rather get less reps and get it right. Last Wednesday and Thursday were two of the best practices we've had. Yesterday was excellent. We will have a chance to have a much more successful start of the season.

Well what did you guys do this offseason? You said you simplified the playbook and pared things down. If its too complicated still, then you shouldve figured that out in MTSU-game week.

Is it enough to get better execution on offense or do you make personnel changes as well?
Swinney: We've got a good system. We have to execute better on both sides of the ball in critical situations. Certainly there is always the opportunity to make changes personnel-wise and we'll make tweaks here and there. We have to gain that confidence from practice to make that critical play that is required.

This week Dalton Freeman is getting alot of the reps at Center, partly because he can do it well, and partly because they want Cloy over at RG to light a fire under McClain's ass.

How would you assess the offensive line at this point in the season?
Swinney: Far from dominant but we are better. We aren't the same group without Chris Hairston. Glad to get him back at 100 percent but we are nowhere near where I want us to be. We are better- there's no denying that. You watch our game against Wake Forest last year and I can hardly watch it. We've done a better job of not getting sacked. Last year we had a bunch of sacks. We are one of the top teams in the conference as far as not getting sacked. We have to be able to run the football- but just one thing is first down. We have to be better on first down. That would fix a lot of our other issues. First down efficiency- that's a big focus for me. That's run, pass, play-action on first down. we don't need second and 12 or second and 10.

The debacle at Wake last year was the worst offensive performance I've ever seen, far worse to me than Maryland last week. I disagree with him that we are much better up front. Through 5 games I see hardly any improvement in run blocking except for a few less missed assignments. They hit the right guys, but they still dont do anything when they hit them.

How much of the offense 's lack of success is due to a first-year quarterback starting?
Swinney: He has certainly made mistakes but he's not the reason we are 2-3. He's given us the opportunity to win. He's going to make mistakes. He's a freshman. We have to do the best job of minimizing mistakes. He's made some really really good plays. He's made some big plays and had some little things like a third-and-five and he could have easily scrambled for it but he's looking for the big one or maybe missing a protection.

And having to simplify the offense means what? Either the QB isnt getting everything, or the whole team. I'll have to lean to the latter, but Napier coaches both of 'em. I expected Parker to have a few freshmen-like games, and I still expect Korn to play more this year than he has because of it. What Parker does well is throwing it away in trouble, too well lately. If he would step up in the pocket and become a run threat, it would create opportunities for receivers behind the LBs in the underneath zones, he has to be coached to do that...not just run to the sideline and throw it just out of bounds.

Strelow's blog mentions the tussle between Napier and Dabo as well, when asked about it today Napier said this:

"I heard that too. I also heard that I didn't go to the press conference after the Maryland game. A lot of things, when you've got a situation where you lose a couple of tight games and you've got a little of that looking for answers, and you've got people at practice who maybe aren't used to being at a college football practice, it's probably a little surprising, some of the things they see.

"It was no big deal. It's a competitive sport, it's an intense sport. We've got to do our job as coaches, and that's to motivate our players. Coach Swinney obviously has to do his job as a head coach and motivate not only the players, but the staff. It was a very intense open date, Wednesday practice. Very typical of some that we've had around here in the preseason and in spring practice. You've got to do some things to catch their attention as players. I think it's really helped our guys, and they've fed off the intensity. And we've had better practices the last couple of days.

"I didn't think it was that big a deal. Obviously when you've got the band at practice, rumors are going to fly. Just a normal, intense practice with intense, competitive guys. Hopefully we'll have more like that."

What exactly did happen that triggered it?

NAPIER: "I think they were caught off by the vocal, just the loudness and really getting after the kids and the staff, getting the little things right. You guys have been in practice before, and it's a little violent. It's no different than it has been. I don't know if those guys have ever been to one....I think our players actually fed off of it. So it's been a good thing."

Napier goes further to say that the staff collaborates on the scripting of the first drive, and says they have looked at expanding that, as well as something to start the 2nd half. I wonder what took them so long to figure that out?

The rest of Napier's presser comes off the way he usually does: excuses and "we need to get the ball to _______ more often" and "we need to coach them better". I'm getting sick of hearing what he has to say honestly.

EDIT: Strelow gives the Steele and Napier interviews here.

The AOC and TDP

2009-10-12T13:23:00.002-04:00

I'm sure nearly everyone has seen the Avenue of Champions blogs by now. Its a collection of guys who are respected on TigerIllustrated, that are totally disgusted with Terry Don Phillips' leadership of the Athletic Department. They get alot of press because they spam the various boards with their posts, which are intentionally controversially written to stir up disgust in other Tiger fans.

I have the same information to go on that they do, and could we could write the same posts, I just don't write them because I don't have information to present an alternate point-of-view to check the argument. I also don't have the strong feelings of hatred against TDP that I had for Robinson, so I have not subscribed to the vitriolic posts about him. Alot of what they say is slanted, but I have commented on their posts and agreed to an extent.

Like most of you, I want the Golf team to do well, the soccer team, rowing, etc....but I really don't give a shit if the volleyball team loses, I'm not losing sleep over it. Ever seen us make a major post here on any minor sport besides track? I evaluate an AD on the facilities upgrades he makes, the hires, and whether he can keep good people in the Big 3 sports. In that regard I give TDP a B-/C+ borderline grade.

There are facts in the posts the AOC has made, none of which I can flat out tell you are totally false. But, it does depend on your POV and what you have to go on. LW and Ard give information out on their boards, and their opinion influences others. They dont have the whole story either most of the time. If those people are looking for a reason to fire somebody, it just stirs up more hate.

Recently during practice, Dabo and Napier got into a very heated argument in front of the players. I heard this from a friend who works at Clemson, so it is heresay. That is corroborated by LW, as far as he knows (press is not allowed at practice) and I generally trust what LW has to say. So I'll take it on faith, you can make your mind up for yourself. The gist of the argument seems to be about the performance of the offense on the field in practice and in games so far, and there was some insubordination in front of the players and other coaches, and yes Andre Powell did have to split them up. It was also mentioned that Pearman did go to Dabo and tell him to stop changing the plays after the Maryland game, despite reports to the contrary this week that there was no changing of the plays. My post over on the Raycom blogs gives my opinion and views on that, so for whatever reason, neither of them is confirming it, and that means one or both might hang for it later.

Recently TDP was interviewed about his decisions and the overall performance of the program. I think this information should be shared since the AOC is presenting their side.

On the loss of Kyle Bunn, Clemson pitching coach, I'll paraphrase his quotes:
"We include outside compensation (youth camps, New ERA contracts) in the coaches compensation, we also pay their insurance when most schools do not. If you add that in, we're atop the conference. He did not leave because his pay was unfair compared to the rest of the ACC. We compare what we can do to the ACC."

Kyle did not have a paid car for his recruiting trips, and he did leave for more money at Alabama. What disturbs me most of all is comparing us to the ACC in baseball, even if we're in a very strong baseball conference. We have to keep good people when our baseball program has been rocky of late.

There was far too much comparison of Clemson's economical situation to the ACC in this entire interview, over all the big sports.

He went on to say that Bunn's replacement DOES get a car allowance, and is bumped up in salary. My question is why can't we make baseball generate more revenue? We've had good marketing people at Clemson before havent we? I think we should take a Minor League approach here, get some people in to try to build up the revenue stream. Its always going to be true that football and basketball bring home the bacon, but baseball can be a revenue-generator too, at least enough to keep itself afloat.

On the Tony Eubanks situation:
"Coming to Clemson was the first time I'd seen a Chaplain housed with the football office. There are legal issues there. Others had come in from other religious faiths and protested, and I told them to file a complaint, but I did nothing to interfere. I did not try to eliminate his position altogether.

Tony was under the FCA, and FCA is recognized by CU. The CU policy is that only recognized ministries can use University facilities. He has since been retained and kept a room where he can minister and advise as much as he wants.

There was an issue with NCAA Compliance in this respect, because he could do something in mentoring that he would be breaking a rule for, especially when not recognized by the University. That has been cleared up."

There was a contentious period there between him and Dabo on Eubanks, and he takes responsibility for not communicating these issues clearly to him. Even with Katie Hill around as the budget taskmaster and Becky Bowman as the NCAAnalretentiverules bitch, I would accept this explanation.

On facilities upgrades:
"I met with President Barker on the day i was hired and we started planning the WEZ from scratch. We needed upgrades and we got it done. At the time the baseball stadium had not been changed significantly, and the Indoor Track facility had just been graded.

OP wants a new basketball facility, and we're looking at 10-15 million for that. I met with Robert Ricketts about this a few days ago, and we've got to contact the architects and start forming plans...A new gym, weight rooms, and room for offices to be moved. Its an investment we probably need to make."

I honestly have to give TDP a pass on any facilities argument. Some people apparently want everything done right now, and TDP got more done in the last few years than Robinson ever did. He might not be a "Dollar" Bill McLellan as an AD when it comes to money raising, but he has done things for the Big 3 and that keep me satisfied (note i did not say 'happy'). Clemson was hit by the SEP fallout as well as a couple million in lost sponsorships, along with the economical downturn. If not for those conditions, the nickel-and-diming of the AD would get more flak from both of us.

Is Tiger Field better than SC's or LSU's brand new baseball stadiums? Well no, but its considerably better now than it was and is comparable when you look at what is around the southeast....and yes I have seen several. Our's is still nicer than most of the SEC and ACC. There are a couple things they could do to it, and given what has been done, I'm sure they will be done.

On basketball, Littlejohn was a dump when I started at Clemson, and by the time I left it had been refurbished and the Annex built. Now I would call it nice. I don't know where they want to PUT a new stadium, but if thats the next thing on their list to fix, then go for it. Make the commitment to OP and keep that man here.

As far as an indoor practice facility for football, its not really needed other than recruiting. I parked beside LSU's every day for years, and they probably don't use it more than 3-4 days a year. You have to practice in the August heat (conditioning), and you have to practice in some rain, because you might play in both. I don't think its a big deal, but I personally believe Jervey and McFadden should be replaced altogether.

-On the point of him not appearing at IPTAY functions, he talked about his poor health (back surgery and ER visits), but admitted that he does need to rethink sending Billy D to every single event instead of himself. He does point out, rightly, that we want to hear Purnell/Swinney/Leggett instead of himself though.

-Alot of the interview rested on the football program, and TDP comes across as weak in most of his arguments, and he's obviously spinning things the positive way (as any AD would after a 2-3 start). He points out that we expanded the support staff per Swinney's request and the assistant's salaries by $600,000.

He did say that he thought Bowden was underpaid.
"So if you look over the period of time up until he got that last year and got that good bump, he was about half-a-million less per year than were some of his counterparts in the league who weren't performing as well as we were performing.

"So there's a margin there over a four- or five-year period where it was probably two or two-and-a-half million dollars of savings in salary, simply because he was making substantially less than probably where he should've been."

He knows that he sinks or swims with Dabo Swinney, however. He admitted that much.

So now I've tried to look at both sides of everything, you can make your own mind up.

This will crack you up

2009-10-12T02:46:00.001-04:00

Napier's fate is sealed

2009-10-10T13:15:00.005-04:00

With the suggestions of Swinney overruling playcalling, my post as well as others have forced some of the beatwriters to ask Napier and Swinney about who is really calling the plays. David Hood talked with Swinney and he said this:

Swinney has come under fire for taking too much of a hand in the play-calling, and that the efforts of Swinney trying to co-coordinate with offensive coordinator Billy Napier are hurting the effort, but Swinney says he has very little input in the actual play calls.

“I am not calling plays,” Swinney said. “Occasionally, I might get asked to make a suggestion, but I am more in trying to manage the game. It might be a situation where I am asked, in a certain spot, do we want to be more aggressive or more conservative, that kind of thing. But I am not calling plays."

Coach Napier, when questioned by Larry Williams, said Swinney was calling "a couple a game." The questions Napier faced at his news conference from the other writers were total softballs. Not one of them questioned it. He also said "Maryland has just gotten better" when asked about our 81 rushing yards against a porous defense, and they had committed to stopping the run like BC did.

That seals Napier's fate to me, even if I think Swinney is exerting more control over the gameplan, and that is affecting these calls. Swinney has been up front about enough things that I'll take him at his word on this for the time being. If the offense does not improve, we will be calling for some changes on this staff come December.

Also, with the suggestion that we arent doing enough to improve our WR corps by giving them chances to catch the ball in space, and attacking the seams over the middle with the TE:

One reason for the lack of points on offense is the lack of production from a young wide receiving corps, and it has been suggested that the effort to get the ball into the hands of playmakers C.J. Spiller and Jacoby Ford, and as a result a lack of touches by the group, has halted their growth.

“Some of it is that,” Swinney said. “A lot of it is just poor execution more than anything. At Maryland, we had a young wideout who had practiced great all week, and then he dropped two balls and had a holding call. That is frustrating. You have to go back to the little things, and focus on the execution. Yeah, we have a lot of young guys, and we have to do a better job of giving them more opportunities.”

He also went on to say that the offense would be simplified considerably, which shouldve been done ALREADY with a young QB and WRs. I thought they did that this offseason? 25% of our possessions have netted 2 yards or less for Christ's sake. I would not give this team a single play that they don't execute in practice 20 times in a row perfectly. We should pare it down to about 30 plays altogether and tinker with formations more than anything...not until they prove they can get the job done. Its bad enough to watch without hearing yet another reference to how DABO is like DANNY.

I will only say one thing, if we lose to Wake Forest with two weeks to prepare, then Dabo will never get another comparison to Ford this year.

What "else" is going on around the country

2009-10-09T12:31:00.009-04:00

The off week (and my extreme disgust with the level of play lately) gives us the chance to review this young football season outside of the Clemson spectrum. This will give us a chance to evaluate how some legitimate football teams play, overall takes on the season, what to look for down the stretch, and whatever other ramblings are felt necessary. I will look primarily at ACC and SEC teams, as that is all anyone around frequenting this blog really cares about anyway.

Let's begin at the top, the Florida Gators: The gators have been steady early in this football season. I was a little disappointed with their effort in the Tennessee game, as my disdain for all things Kiffin and UT begged for Urban to throw up half a C-Note on the Vols. After the Myer job done on UGa last season, this was nothing more than a let down.
I think everyone understands the ramifications of "As Tim Tebow Turns". We all get constant updates on him from ESPN errrrrr Tebow-TV. It will be interesting to see how these guys respond with or without Tebow. Either way they are talented enough to run the table. The other positive UF has going for it is Corrine Brown's sparkling endorsement. What more could you want on Capital Hill?

Alabama may very well be the best overall team in all the land. After battling early mistakes to beat a good VTech team, Bammer has looked nothing less than fantastic this season. In the Tide's victories over Arkansas and Kentucky, UA did whatever it pleased. Rushing the football, Ingram and and freshman T. Richardson have blown it up. The real surprise has been the Greg McElroy. A 9:1 TD/INT ration coupled with over 1000 yards passing allows the Tide to Roll seamlessly even with the loss of JPW. The biggest concern for Bammer will be the loss for the season of LB Dont'a Hightower during the Arkansas win. Hightower is a dynamic player and was a key to the Tide's defensive success last season.
Bama's schedule lays out nicely for a return trip to Atlanta: Ole Miss (in the Grove), the Cocks in Denny-Bryant, LSU at home, and a trip to the Plains rounds out this year's key opponents. This is a program that will be fighting for a MNC each and every year under Saban. Nobody is more excited about this than Bamafan:

Staying in the SEC West, we get to discuss a program that no one can understand--the Bengal Tigers of LSU. No doubt LSU has talent. No doubt LSU has tradition. The only doubt is when the luck will run out. Yes, Les Miles is the freaking wild card who, by some unexplainable and mysterious turn of events, will end up winning in spite of some of the stupidest decisions in the history of college football (see Dr. B's previous assessment here). LSU has looked less than impressive to this point of the season (sloppy game at Washington, somehow holding of Mississippi State at the goal line, and screwing around with a mediocre Gerogia team last week). The Tigers host #1 Florida and #17 Auburn over the next two weeks then a trip to Tuscaloosa the first week of November. Judging by the play to this point, it is very likely that LSU will lose two of these three games...particularly with Joker Les steering the ship.

Virginia Tech will win the ACC again this year. Their victory over a good Miami team (in the rain, though) a few weeks ago and ability to overcome and obvious letdown last week against Duke indicates this is the ACC cream of the crop. While Tech has looked sluggish at times this season, I have been impressed with their play against quality opponents, particularly playing tough in the season opener. VT continues to do what has made it successful in the past...play good defense, don't let your offense fuck it up, and score a couple TD's on special teams.

Miami has been a pleasant surprise this season. After an entertaining start to the season against Florida State, the Canes have impressive victories over Ga Tech and Oklahoma. The loss to Va Tech was extremely sloppy, and weather conditions seemed to adversely effect the high flying offense all day. Miami should be able to cruise home, as the only currently ranked foe left on the schedule is South Florida, with other opponents including reeling Clemson and North Carolina teams. Miami's qb, Jacory Harris has been extremely impressive in his sophomore campaign. In early ACC play, he showed great mobility, arm strength, accuracy, and awareness in carving up both FSU and GT's defenses. Props to Randy Shannon for straighting the U's train wreck out. Is the swagger back?

Auburn has been impressive this season (at least in comparison to the previous season's Tony Franklin experiment). While I am not sold on Gene Chizik over Tubberville, Auburn has played well against their (weak) opponents to date. I am not sold on Auburn, as their only achievement this season was a close win over an average Tennessee team. The final evaluation on this squad will definitely need to wait until they get a little deeper into their SEC schedule.

Ole Miss has been what I expected them to be all along--overrated in the preseason. Miss looked extremely sloppy in the season opening win over Tommy West's Memphis Tigers and looked absolutely pitiful in their trip to Williams-Brice. I will be eager to see if Jevan Snead can overcome the woes experienced against Carolina and Memphis and live up to the preseason hype. There is no doubt that he is talented enough, as Snead would more than likely be starting at Texas now if it weren't for Colt McCoy. Dexter McCluster was really impressive against South Carolina, and Ole Miss probably wins that game if they get him involved earlier. We will get to see what the Rebels have this week against the Tide...I expect a huge letdown from the boys from Oxford.

South Carolina...this one is difficult because I really don't know what to expect from the Cocks. Steve Garcia is much improved from a year ago. Getting rid of John Hunt and getting an offensive line coach seems to be paying dividends for USC to this point. Currently, though, I am not sold on S. Carolina. Georgia is not that good of a football team this season. SC could not put away Ole Miss and almost gave that one away. To date, I think that Steve Spurrier (or whomever is calling plays) tries to get a little too cute with the playcalling. For instance, why they would attempt to throw the ball up 16-3 in the 4th qtr against Mississippi? I really like their big TE, and everyone knows how good Norwood is. After UK this weekend, the schedule toughens to include a trip to Tuscaloosa on the 17th, @ Tenn, @ Arkansas, the gators, then CU. SC lacks defensive depth, and constant power rushing turns the area between the tackles into I-95. I don't expect too much from this team down the stretch.

I will give a shout out to Texas. After getting over TT the other week, it is an obvious statement that Texas should be the in the National Championship game this season. Oklahoma should not be the constant thorn in UT's side this year. With OU's problems (mainly injuries to Bradford and Jermaine Gresham and an inexperienced offensive line), the rest of the schedule sets up fairly nicely for Mack Brown. No surprises here.

Georgia is one team that everyone loves to hate. Consequently, no one outside of Athens is crying over the fact that Willie Martinez is getting his ass handed to him on a weekly basis. I don't think that Richt can cover for this guy again, especially with the uproar by the UGa faithful. I don't have time to get into all the problems with Georgia defensively and philosophically, but the guys over at dawgsports.com have put together a comprehensive look at Martinez after last season's loss to Ga Tech here. The gist of the defensive failure of Georgia in my opinion lies in the lack of aggressiveness by the defense. Too often you will see the Georgia football team sitting back and waiting for things to happen to them. Their DB's play 9 yards off the freaking football and really don't make plays. When UGa has the ball, I really have not been impressed with anyone but AJ Green. You have to give credit where is is due, the Summerville native is one hell of a football player and will be playing (a lot) on Sundays.

Inside the Clemson Offense: Reasons to go No-Huddle

2009-10-07T12:06:00.003-04:00

Over the spring and August camp, all we heard was that the offense was running mostly no-huddle, yet we have seen fairly little of it so far this year. This is because of execution problems: you dont want to go no-huddle and go 3&out, and put your defense back out there without a rest. The best drives of the year thus far still have been up-tempo drives, so I thought it instructive to look into the reasons why teams go no-huddle.

First, it should be said that teams that go no-huddle are not always doing it because it puts pressure on the defense by showing coverages and not being able to adjust to formations. Offensive players get positive effects from it as well, but there are a few important reasons to go no-huddle. Since the huddle has nothing to do with winning the game, coaches spend more time teaching fundamentals and the actual plays.

1. How it affects your QB. By always being at the line, he has extra time to watch the defense set themselves, and gives him the time to make proper checks.

2. How it affects practice time. This is the one most overlooked. By not using a huddle, you can run about 30% more plays in practice. You might run 20 plays in 15 minutes, and in no-huddle you can run about 30. More reps generally means better execution.

3. How it affects linemen. If a lineman jogs 7 yards from the ball back to the huddle, and back again before a play, they jog 14 yards. There are roughly 60-70 plays in a game, so they may run up to 900 yards just from huddling. Therefore they should be fresher in the 4th Quarter.

4. Game tempo. The only two things that hte offense knows are "when" and "where". By lining up on the LOS, you push the defense into a tempo they are not accustomed to. An offense has 3 gears: normal, a no-huddle, and a hurry-up. The normal pace is what almost everyone uses. In a no-huddle the offense goes to the LOS and the play is called there, with the WRs getting signals from the sideline. As long as the offensive personnel doesnt change, the defense has to line up immediately. The last gear is hurry-up, and as long as you run no-huddle you can go into this tempo at any time. You can speed up or slow down the game as needed, keeping the defense off-balance.

5. How it pressures the defense. If you can make a defense prepare differently for an offense by spending an extra 10 minutes of practice each day developing better communication, it translates to 40 a week they arent preparing for your plays. Since defense is played with emotion, the inability to huddle up means they arent able to pump each other up before plays, taking away their time to regroup.

6. The offense sees things better. In a huddle the coach directs players on what to do on a play. In no-huddle, the coach can correct things visually by having the team line up and the players see exactly what the coaches want them to do, the D is right there in front of them.

7. Conditioning for your offense and defense. If your offense runs up-tempo in practice, then your defense does as well, and you can cut back on sprints as the season continues. Concentration can also improve when the team gets tired if they are used to the tempo. Your whole team will be stronger in the 4th quarter.

8. Execution and communication improves in two-minute situations. If plays are always called from the sideline and LOS, theres nothing to adjust to in two-minute drill. Linemen become used to hearing the QB make calls and start paying attention to every word.

But what if the defense can pick up your signals? Well this is unlikely, particularly for high school and college ball. First, you would hope they devote precious practice time to trying to decipher the calls a QB makes at the line, because it means they aren't practicing your plays.

The last and one of the most important tricks is the snap count. How do you communicate the count to the linemen without the other team knowing? Well one trick is to have all plays to the right be on 2, left on 1, and pass on 3. Another is to go by the play number: I Right 32 Iso could go on 3 or 2, 36 Power on 3 or 6, etc. Yet another would be to go off the down marker. Its unlikely that the defense will figure it out.

So who really is at fault?

2009-10-06T20:26:00.003-04:00

Who is at fault for all of our offensive issues? Like most of you, my first reaction is that the Offensive Coordinator is the primary reason that an offense doesnt "go". But after Bartow's comment that jogged my memory, I'm starting to rethink the situation.

The gist of the comment, which was originally made in the offseason in Spring (i recall it from that time) and resurfaced this week, is that Billy Napier's preference is for a Pro-I style attack, while Swinney prefers more spread formations with multiple WRs.

If you look at the Maryland 1st and 2nd half reviews, you'll see that a majority of our plays are Gun 1B/Ace and Gun 2B sets with at least 3 WRs on the field, with the H-back Ace set coming in 3rd place for formation we run. If you recall, however, a large portion of our offense was run out of the I-formation for MTSU. It has steadily declined through the following 4 games. This much is fact.

What I am hearing from those I know, and yes it is technically heresay so you can make up your own mind, is that Coach Swinney is changing 1 or 2 plays a series from what is called in the booth by Napier. Also, some of the personnel groupings that are sent on the field are not what Napier intends, and don't match the plays called even when Swinney changes them, as well as the entirely wrong play being signaled in, which Swinney takes a part in.

I wanted to put their tendencies into context, given the Bartow comment. Napier was a QB at Furman, two-time All SoCon (2001-2002), and Furman played in the National Title game in 2001 and finishd 12-3. He was a finalist for the Payton award, the Heisman of 1-AA in 2002. Those Furman teams under Bobby Johnson/Bobby Lamb ran a pro-style I-formation attack.

Of course everyone knows Swinney played WR for Gene Stallings and won a national title in 1992. His position coach was Woody McCorvey. Stallings made him a graduate assistant and he stayed on with Mike Dubose in 1997 as a WR/TE coach until Dubose was fired in 2001. Stallings won his title with a pro-style I-formation attack, and Dubose continued it with Woody McCorvey as his OC his first year, but Woody was fired after an awful play call against Auburn in '97. Former Tide QB Tyler Watts comments on Dubose having pisspoor assistants during his tenure here. All of those teams ran a Pro-I formation attack. So both guys we have here come from a pro-style I-formation background, all could throw when needed, usually play-action, but were not pass-happy systems.

What else do we know? Its clear that Swinney believes the Spence system can work. If he didnt think that, he'd have let the entire offensive staff go and hired another outside guy to install a new one. The Spence system is neither entirely spread or I-form running. Its based on high-percentage/constraint passes and zone running games, not the I-formation. Swinney and Napier shared playcalling duties last year, and during the offseason Napier was officially named OC.

The playcalling at the end of last season was ok, and seemed to be coming together as we progressed. Thats my opinion of it, which I think most people shared. I was not enthusiastic about retaining Brad Scott or putting Jeff over receivers.

But now we're in a situation where theres the possibility that the OC and HC dont agree on calls. Now it is 100% within Dabo's power to change a call. I'm glad he will change a play that he thinks is bad. Tommy never changed Spence's stupid calls, even after he took liberties with O'Cain's. Maybe Dabo thinks he must interfere. But if Clemson has a game where we look like garbage on offense, ALL the fans look at the OC, not the head man. People think Swinney has no direct input and has poor people under him, so they want Napier and others fired to placate them. However, if the HC is changing the plays, and those plays make no sense, the fans won't ever know it.

Either way, if the offense fails to perform, Napier gets run out of town. It doesnt matter to the fans whether Dabo is changing the plays and he's the one that doesnt have a clue, they won't hear about it from anyone in the press, so they continue on thinking that Napier is the real culprit and all will be fixed if he's fired.

I'm not saying one or the other should be fired, yet. I do wonder which of them I should blame for playcalls that make little sense whatsoever. If it is Napier, then take his calls away. I dont want them given to Scott, but he's the only one with with OC experience we can use without firing someone. If its Swinney, then he needs to stay out of the playcalling. Three or four plays in a game are fine, but 20% is too much.

I think one of Clemson's beatwriters should step up and press Swinney on this question before we all scream for someone's head on this issue.

"F"--That is the grade

2009-10-05T22:10:00.001-04:00

I could not believe it. Saturday afternoon with Maryland, and Clemson got their ass beaten. After chatting with Dr. B (with both myself and the Dr. dropping about 20 WTF's), the only thing that is clear is that neither of us understand what any of our offensive coaches could be thinking. After wasting 3 hours of my life Saturday, everyone but CJ Spiller gets an F. From Swinney all the way down to the equipment managers, "F" is the grade.

There were not many bright spots, so I will go ahead and get the two I saw out of the way. Spiller is a fantastic athlete. He played to win. I just feel bad that he is wasting his talent with this clusterfuck of a program. Palmer also showed that he can catch the ball. Since our receivers can't catch a cold ass-naked in Alaska, I sincerely hope that Allen and Palmer get more chances throughout this year.

On to the rest of the story...Clemson did not play defense in the first half. On the two touchdowns, Clemson's defensive backs were out of position and UMd's receivers wanted the ball more. It did not help that Clemson could not pressure Maryland (specifically since MTSU and Rutgers whipped them up front). Clemson did get its act together defensively in the second half, but their play early on was unacceptable. Poor tackling and lackadaisical play ended up haunting the Tigers Saturday.

Offensively, I don't know what the hell went on Saturday. The WR play was crap. Clemson's WR's can't catch and sure as hell can't block. With this piss poor play, the play selection is even worse. If you cannot throw the ball, don't try to do it. PERIOD. Why Clemson doesn't just line up in the I and run the ball on first and second downs perplexes me. Clemson has a freshman QB, bad receivers, and a poor offensive line. The combination of these aspects indicates that CU does not nee to throw the ball 35 times a game.

Play calling looked like a video game. Did Napier just put all the plays he had in a bag and randomly draw plays out to run? After chatting with Dr. B, neither of us can figure out what kind of logic was used in this category. We do not utilize our speed with a vertical pass game. We do not stick to strong points when calling plays. Clemson goes from the I formation to a four wide receiver set. Clemson lined up and ran the ball pretty well early in the year only to abandon this since. CU must learn to get into third and short situations if the Tigers want to win any games this season.

In previous posts, I generated a simple checklist of attainable items that should be focused on. This list was apparently way too short and incomplete. There MUST be improvement this season. While we all knew this would be a learning event and would take some patience, I think the Maryland game was more trying than anyone expected all year, especially after the Bowden/Spence disaster over the past few years.

What Clemson must work on over the next two weeks.

QB play. While originally I wasn't too pissed at the play of our freshman QB, analysis of the game shows that he is clearly a freshman and is making too many mistakes. While part of this problem is the poor play up front and drops by his receivers, the coaches don't help him a bit with the poor play calling either. Parker is having difficulties anticipating where his receivers will be and focusing solely on one player. The sack at the end of the game was unacceptable, with the fumble only making this worse. Parker will need to make more plays either by becoming more precise with the football or by tucking the ball and getting up field for a few yards. After mulling over the idea of having two QB's, maybe it is a decent idea to give Korn more playing time. He looked really determined Saturday. I must admit that I shot this idea down earlier--and am still not sure that the timing was proper for the QB substitution--but now think that a shakeup under center would definitely be good for Korn and may allow KP to see the game from the outside and understand what he will need to do to be successful. At this point, I will try anything.

Receiver play. Please refer to the previous 4 weeks worth of posts on this position. This group is a definite weakness, with no one stepping up and making big catches. This, coupled with CU's inability to get the speedsters in more vertical routes, is really limiting this offense.

Offensive line. The right tackle position will be a weakness for this team all year. I am afraid that either Walker or Lambert will be a liability here. Both of these players have been beaten badly over the first 5 games, and many of these deriving from the lineman's inability to move his feet. The speed rush by CU's opponents has killed Clemson all year. Clemson must rely on more TE's and having the backs chip the ends. There is no way around helping whomever is in on the right side.

Running backs. I could care less if I see any more of Harper for a while. He does not run hard, and appears timid as he is trying to get to the line. Spiller and Ellington have both run well over the year, but Ellington has made a few mistakes leading to turnovers this season. I would still rather see Ellington spelling Spiller than Harper, and even have more confidence in Ellington getting a tough yard or two. It should be noted that the play calling coupled with some poor blocking makes these guys jobs a lot harder. Swinney/Napier could do these guys a favor with more power sets, running more iso and offtackle plays on FIRST AND SECOND DOWN (and on third down after success on the first two downs).

Defense. I really do not have to break down all positions on defense, but can give some general overviews. Clemson's defense (outside of 2nd quarter woes) played well enough for victory Saturday. Up front, Bowers had a nice game, recording a career high 2 sacks. McDaniel and the boys forced fumbles in critical portions of the football game. Clemson stopped Maryland in important 3rd and 4th down situations all day. Poor tackling really pissed me off halfway through the game. Fundamentals win football games, so you can never be too good of a tackling team.

Special teams. Obviously CJ Spiller kept CU in the game this past week with a fantastic kick return overcoming turf toe and losing a shoe while tossing some poor Maryland tacklers to the ground. This may be one of the last times this season someone takes the chance on kicking deep to Spiller. It should be noted that CJ is the national return man of the week after this performance. Otherwise, a miscue by the punt return team (Ellington unintentionally touching a punt after a clear "PETER" call) and a punt return given up for an (eventual) TD were not impressive. Since the defense played well after the fumble and CU only lost a little field position. The TD turned out to be the difference on the scoreboard. Richard Jackson, after drilling a long field goal of 50+, missed two critical attempts. This is the second week that Jackson has missed at critical portions in the contest. It should be noted that these field goals were fairly long, but I expected at least one of them to split the uprights.

Coaching. This is where there is a definite split between the experienced portion of the staff and the rookies. The experience gradient is obvious (to the defense of the offense staff, the defense is much more talented than the O. The defense is also much more fundamentally sound with their coaches giving offenses fits so far this year). On defense, once the players started getting after it (i.e., not in the 2nd quarter) Clemson played pretty well on defense. I was impressed with the play of Bowers Saturday. He is a big guy who can really move and get up the field when he wants to. The defense surrendered under 300 yards on Saturday. We must do a better job tackling and taking angles to the ballcarrier. Otherwise, the defense had a poor 2nd quarter, but surrendered very little after half. These fundamental mistakes can be fixed.

Offensively, the coaching was atrocious. Play calling was pathetic. Fundamentally, Clemson dropped a lot of passes and really could not get too much going. The use of formations sucked. The run/pass combination (especially late in the game when CU needed a field goal) was terrible. Clemson showed some success in the I formation running the ball. However, just as quickly as this success came, it was pissed away with pass attempts out of the gun. Clemson had better learn how to sustain drives in conservative formations by running the ball. Please, give your freshman QB some help by getting some yards on the ground on 1st and 2nd down. Please throw the ball vertically and utilize your speed. Please utilize the TE's more (to neutralize the opposition's ends as well as catch the ball. I think Palmer may be the only dependable choice outside of Spiller/Ford). Napier/Swinney have to create some sort of fluidity and rhythm offensively. So far, this offense can be described as choppy at best. Clemson has not shown a true offensive identity. Clemson has not shown that it can line up and do anything consistently. When Clemson is successful at something, the play callers immediately move away from what gained the success. I don't know why our staff is scared of getting in the I formation and running the ball plays. This team is a frustrating group to watch, especially with CU's inability to take care of business against a bad Maryland team.

Clemson falls to Maryland 24-21, 2nd half drive summaries

2009-10-05T12:55:00.005-04:00

Defense forced a punt on the first MD drive. Really started wratcheting up the pressure with the front 4 in the 2nd half, starting with this drive.

Clemson gets the ball on our 27
1&10-Ace Pro Wing strong/Twins-inside zone handoff to spiller for 2
2&8-Gun 2B motion to Trips Field-Pass thrown over Harper's head incomplete, penalty for illegal motion (Harper started out of the backfield too soon) declined.
3&8-Gun 1B Spread-MD calls a zone blitz, Dye catches a hitch for 6.
Punt.
Run, Pass-I, Pass.

Defense gives up one 1st, then 3&out. Punted for a touchback.

From CU 20
1&10-Ace Pro Wing Strong/twins-PA pass called, L. Walker beaten on a SS blitz up the B-gap. Loss of 13.
2&23-Gun 1B Spread-Hitch to Palmer incomplete, low snap.
3&23-Ace Pro Wing Twins/motion to strong-Toss Sweep to Spiller gets 3.
Punt.
PA pass/sack, Pass-I, Run.
I can see being conservative here after the sack, we were inside our 10. The goal after the sack is to get half the loss back, and they tried. I would rather they show a different formation besides Ace Pro Wing variations and Gun spreads. I'm not seeing a halftime adjustment.

Punt returned inside the 1 yard line. Defense stuffs inside runs. On the TD, a pitch out to the RB on a Toss Sweep, and McDaniel is cut out of position to make his tackle, then Meggett makes him miss.

Spiller returns the kickoff, courtesy ShoelessCU

2pt Conversion
Gun 1B Trips-a fade is interfered with, retry.
Gun 1B Trips-Good play call here, hits Palmer at the post behind the FS.

Defense gives up a 1st, then 3&out. Good plays by McDaniel and a sack by Bowers. Punt snap is dropped, then he gets it off anyway. Ball taps off Ellington's kneepad, turned over on the CU 32. Butler eats up a Double Pass play because his blocker never squared up on him. Bowers gets another sack, and they punt to our 8.

From the 8
1&10-I Right H weak-HB Power to Spiller for 4, after a cutback lane opens, and if he'd made him miss it would've been a TD. RUN IT AGAIN.
Start of 4th Qtr.
2&6-Double Wing set-False start by Allen
2&11-Gun 1B Spread-hits Ford on a drag/crossing route for 7 in the face of a blitz.
3&6-Gun 1B Spread-ALL DAY TO THROW the ball, and it falls incomplete to Ford on a hitch because it was thrown behind him.
Punt.
Run, Pass, Pass-I. 2nd play was probably a zone handoff or another damn "hit the TE in the flats" play, but the false start took a convertible down into 2&long. The goal on 2&11 is to get at least half the distance and we do, then when the line does manage to protect with 5 men, we cant make a throw. Someone isnt getting open.

D forces 3&out.

Again from the 8.
1&10-Gun 2B Twins-motioned to I-Far, handoff to strongside to Spiller for a 1st down.
1&10-Gun 2B Twins-motion-off-tackle run by Spiller for 2, face mask for 15.
1&10-Gun 2B Twins-motion-Ellington takes an inside Dive for 1.
2&9-Gun 1B Trips Field-Flanker screen to Ford for 7.
3&2-Gun 1B Trips Field-hitch to Dye for 10, great catch.
1&10-Ace Pro Wing strong/Twins-End-around to ford for 2.
2&8-Gun 1B Trips Field-Flanker screen to Ford-incomplete because he decided to run without the ball.
3&8-Gun 1B Trips Field-ALL DAY TO THROW the ball, and finally pressure comes and he throws it away.
Punt.
Run, Run, Run, Pass, Pass, Run, Pass-i, Pass-i

Where is the mixup in formations here? Why jump right into Gun when we have success in the I-formation with Spiller? Two flanker screens are used as run plays, but no need to run it twice. We need a score here and no thought of going downfield to put pressure on the defense. They show straight Cover 2 and Cover 1 and can drop men back because we're no run threat in Gun.

D forces Turnover on Downs, really a dumb call by Fridge if you ask me from your 38.
At least he coaches to win.

At the MD 38 with 6min to go.
1&10-I Right Wing weakside-HB Power to Spiller for 3.
2&7-Gun 1B Twins-Spiller misses a chip on a blitzer then falls down on his reception in the flat, loss of 5. A DRAW WOULD BE NICE.
3&11-Ace Pro Wing strong/Twins-HB Toss to the BOUNDARY? 1 yard. Walker did not get over to make his block.
Missed the FG.

Defense forces turnover on the very next play, McDaniel blows up the run on a blitz and forces the fumble.

From MD 31
1&10-I Near Twins-inside lead handoff to Spiller, gains nothing because McClain didnt block.
2&10-I Right motion to Twins-QB Rollout, again, TE covered in the flat falls incomplete.
3&10-Gun 1B Spread-they blitz right side, McClain didnt pick up anybody it appears, Parker throws it away.
Missed FG.
Run, Pass-I, Pass-I. I hate this stupid Rollout play, an End is almost always left unblocked (intentionally, counter trap blocking assignment probably) and Parker hurries. WHEN does he ever hit the WR crossing the field? He always looks to the TE and/or throws it away. Where is the HB Power we beat GT so badly with? This drive bothers me the most of all. I'd have run the ball on 2nd and 3rd down with Spiller and if stopped, kicked. Put the ball in the best player's hand with the game on the line. Don't even think of throwing on 3rd down when your offense hasn't done shit the entire half.

D forces 3&out AGAIN. Punt to CU 30 with 1:30 left.

1&10-Gun 1B Spread-Palmer on an Out-7yds
2&3-Gun 1B Spread-Palmer curl/out to the 50.
1&10-Gun 1B Spread-Palmer on an In to the 31.
1&10-Gun 1B Spread-hit Ford on a stop route, short gain
2&6-Gun 1B Spread-Corner jumps a hitch to Marquan, when Parker had time to throw deeper.
3&6-Gun 1B Spread-Lambert missed a blitzer outside, and decided to double team the man on Austin. I dont see how Lambert did not see this guy coming. Spiller cuts the outside-most blitzer. Fumble, ballgame.
Well with 1:30 we have to throw, and I'm glad we run the TE over the middle, but WHY do we not attack with the WRs downfield when we reach MD territory? Take ONE shot in the endzone on a post to Palmer or Ford here, then set up the FG at midfield. We go hurry-up and it works OK, why not earlier? It worked against TCU.

So now I've looked at the whole game's calls. I dont see what the hell Dabo is thinking about.

The plays go through Dabo, he's signaling them in and is involved. What we showed against MTSU and GT, we aren't seeing more of. In those first few games we ran gap scheme run plays (like HB Power or Iso) and we ran more zone sprint run plays against BC because they slanted/stunted their linemen to attack the gap schemes we had run earlier. I didnt see much against TCU either. I don't see Parker step up and throw when a blitzer comes, he scrambles and throws it away. He doesnt scramble out of the pocket upfield anymore either. He must be being coached to stay in.

Adjusting to what your opponents show is one thing, but abandoning what had worked is another. If you are good at I-formation running, then you RUN IT ANYWAY. You dont change everything based on them, you run what youre good at. This is a weak defense, and even with Hairston out the 2nd half (that I noticed) we should be able to run the damn football. Clemson never tried to establish the run game.

Also, look at the formations we are running with. Gun helps pass protection but are we a dedicated passing team or not? Will you establish the run first so we can make them respect it from shotgun? We flood the Field side with multiple routes, and yet no one is open? Why do so many routes overlap? Attack the Cover 2 in levels! Cover 2 is designed to stop the underneath passing game with 5 defenders, yet you have to make those Backers move somewhere in the underneath 5 zones. We dont stretch them. When they show Man, we dont attack it vertically.

Clemson finds more ways NOT to utilize their speed advantage than any team I've ever seen. I see no imagination on offense. It is perfectly fine to run the same formations, IF you attack intelligently with them. I don't think any DC in the country worries about our scheme though, because we dont attack. I see basically 3 or 4 formations. Teaching someone a new place to stand is not a big deal, but it puts pressure on a defense in gameplanning and adjustments. As far as the attacking; Deep, Intermediate, short, Deep again...is something you dont see from us. Its all short/short/short/run/short/short/fuckingrollout/fuckingrollout with at least 3 balls thrown away. Notice how many pass plays gained more than 10 yards.

Dabo Swinney picked Napier as OC so HE could have a firm hand in this offense, but what is happening is atrocious. I don't see rhyme or reason to the plays in this game. We run sweeps to the boundary, dont attack vertically, and some of these plays just dont make sense with the overlapping routes. I know the Spence Clemson offense is based on quick timing patterns and flooding underneath zones with receivers, but we have to go vertical. We cannot execute 10-15 play drives that we have to to make the defense change their coverage. They do not respect us as a true run threat from spread formations either.

Clemson either has to script more plays for Wake, or we're going to have to give it to Brad....who I felt was the most predictable OC in the Universe. Thats the only chance I see this getting fixed before the end of the year.

According to Ryan Bartow: Swinney wants the spread 4-wide plays, Napier wants more I-formation (he ran that at Furman).

Clemson loses to Maryland 24-21, 1st half drive summaries

2009-10-04T18:33:00.006-04:00

Since its mostly our offense that shit the bed this week, I decided to look at play-by-play for the game on offense. Its time consuming but enlightening, and since we have two weeks to stew over it, I might as well.

I'm taking liberties in describing the formation, because I cant give a primer on offensive football here. I am also not going into all the motion we use, just a quick description of what we're doing.

Some terminology I'm using:
Twins-2 WR to one side, 1 TE or 1 TE + 1 WR to the other.
Trips-3 WR to one side, 1 TE or 1 WR to the other usually.
Spread-2 WR to each side.
Ace Pro Wing-Ace=1-back, Pro Wing is a 1TE+1H-Back set, and usually the H is off the weak side and goes in motion to strong or weak.
Gun-Shotgun, with One back or twin backs.
Field-Wide side
Boundary-short side
Zone plays-Inside runs where the line clearly performs zone blocking, which is normal for many ace-back formation run plays. They can be Draws, Sprints, etc.
I Far/Near-I formation with the FB set to the weak/strong side.

Down & distance, formation, play.

1st Qtr Drive breakdown
CU 32yd line
1st&10-Ace Pro Wing-Hit CJ in the flats for 10yd gain on boundary side.
1st&10-Ace Pro Wing Strong-Inside Zone handoff-5 yds
2&5-Gun 2-back Twins-Roll Playaction weakside after TE motion to twins, hit Jacoby falling out of bounds Incomplete.
3&5-Gun 1-back Spread-R. Taylor is open on a 10-15 yard crossing route, but slips and falls after Parker throws. Incomplete pass. Adequate protection.
Punt
Pass, Run, PA pass-I, Pass-I. Why not establish the running game here and now? This drive is scripted.

D forces 3&out. 1 missed tackle, and a great play by Maye on 3rd & 1.

2nd drive starts at CU 4
1st&10-Near I Twins weak-HB Power play to J.Harper for no gain
2&10-Gun 2B Twins TE motion-Off-tackle handoff to Spiller for 6 yds.
3&4-Gun 1B Trips Field-Jaron Brown has a pass hit him square on the numbers on a quick slant for a 1st down, but drops it.
Punt.
Run, Run, Pass-I. Had to run here in the hole, but why Harper when he doesnt ever go anywhere? I would've run a Power with Spiller again on 3rd down. Perhaps a Power PA Pass.

Maryland muffs the punt, CU ball at the CU 41.

3rd drive
1st&10-Ace Pro Wing/H-motion strongside-QB rollout weakside, hits RT in the flats for 3yds. This is a play we run too much, RT goes in motion then runs a little flare route to the sideline.
2&7-Gun 1B Trips Field-Flanker Screen to Jones for 7yds. Called back because of holding by Jaron Brown. Thank God one of them tried to block for once though.
2&12-Ace Jumbo (2TE) Twins H-motion-zone sprint w/ fake end-around to Ellington for 3 yds. Backside not properly sealed, but looks like McClain didnt hold his man.
3&9-Gun 1B Spread-Hit Jacoby for 1st down on a short post/slant. Parker never took his eyes off Ford. Totally telegraphed it.
1st&10 MD 41-Pro Wing Strong-Power toss with to Spiller for 4/5.
2nd&6-Gun 2B H-motion-Handoff to spiller offtackle for 9.
1&10-Gun 2B Spread, motion to trips boundary-handoff to Harper to R, 1 yd. Right side of OL got no push.
2&9-Gun 1B Trips Field-Parker overthrows Ford out-of-bounds on a Corner route/Smash combination. Incomplete. It was good coverage.
3&9-Gun 1B motion to Spread-pitch to Spiller for 1 yd. Walker unable to get outside and make a proper cut block, WRs didnt do "bad" on their blocks.
Jackson hits a 41 yd FG.
Pass, Pass (penalty), Run, Pass, Run, Run, Run, Pass-I, Run.

D forces 3&out, they dropped a 1st down pass on 3rd down.

4th drive begins on CU 20
1&10-Double Wing Flexbone-Off-R. tackle handoff to Spiller-8yds
2&2-Gun 2B twins L-Flanker Screen to Ford for 3. Wouldve had more if Austin had properly cut blocked.
1&10-Gun 1B spread-Flanker screen to Ford for 7, and Austin gets flagged on holding. I don't think that was right, I didnt see him hold anyone, he released from the DT and went out to cut a Cornerback.
1&14-I strong-pitch to Spiller to the boundary/strong side-2 yards.
2&12-Gun 1B Trips Field-Jacoby runs a post against Tampa 2 coverage, matched on a LB, and Parker underthrows it. Ball is behind Ford, but Pass Interference gets 15 and a 1st down.
1&10 at CU 40-Gun 2B Twins Field-PA pass to Palmer on a curl gets a 1st into MD territory.
1&10-Gun 2B Trips Field-Parker hits Ashe on a Fly route down the sideline to the MD 18.
1&10-Gun 1B H motion to twins-Parker locks on Ford and has him open on a post/in-route (can't tell), but pass is tipped at the LOS. Incomplete.
2&10-Ace Pro Wing motion strong-reverse-motion by Taylor on an end-around to Ford for 17 yard TD. Would've been nice if Lambert hustled down to block for Ford, but he made it in himself.
9 plays 79 yards in 3:05.
Run, Pass, Pass(penalty on us), R, P(PI penalty), P, P, P-Inc, Run for TD. Despite success running the ball with Spiller, never took advantage of it. Otherwise a good mix of run & pass.

Defense takes a few plays off when it comes to coverage on 3rd downs. Looks to be Man Press Cover 2 and regular Cover 2. They hit Smith on a corner route (it appears) for 27 when we zone blitz (cover 3) on a 3rd & 7. Butler misses an easy INT when he jumps an out route and they kick the FG. 10 plays 46 yards.

5th drive starts on CU 43. Korn comes in. I do not agree with this decision here. The offense has started some rhythm on two drives with Parker, and even though I believe Korn showed here that he can move the offense, I would've waited until Parker had gone a drive without scoring before putting Korn in.

1&10-Gun 1B Twins/motion-inside handoff to Ellington for 1. Lambert unable at LT to pin his End off the play.
2&9-Gun 2B Trips Field-HB Screen to Ellington on the boundary loses 2. Walker unable to get out and make a cut block on the guy who made the tackle.
3&11-Gun 2B Twins motion to 1B Trips Field-Korn has to scramble and gets a 1st down. I wish Kyle Parker would try that every once in a while.
1&10-Gun 1B H/Twins Field-Checked into Ace Pro Wing by Korn, inside zone handoff to Spiller for 3. Probably shouldve cut the ball back.
2&7-Gun 1B Spread-Korn throws high to Allen (looks like a curl/out) and he tips it up, but Jones is right behind him and catches it for the 1st.
Why would you have two routes that run right on top of one another? This happens too often in our pass patterns.
1&10-Ace Pro Wing-motion to strong-Korn on another rollout with Taylor in the flats, throws it away. Incomplete. Taylor is covered.
2&10-Gun 2B Trips Boundary-off tackle play to Spiller to the boundary for 3.
3&7-Gun 2B spread motion to Trips-Korn sacked on a OLB/SS blitz. They overload the right side and both Cloy and McClain were beaten. Korn has a receiver underneath as a safety valve and doesnt see him.
51 yard FG by jackson.

Now the drive where the Defense stayed on the sidelines. Maryland is using the outer WR to crackback the safeties, and on two plays we were late picking up backs/TE in the flat in man/man coverage. On the TD play to Smith, Chancellor gives up the inside, which you never do, and Chambers was late getting over in Cover 1.

CU gets the ball on the 20.
1&10-Ace Pro Wing strong-PA rollout hits Palmer in the flat on a drag for a 1st.
1&10-Gun 2B Trips Field-motion to empty set-hit Ellington in flat for 4. With 5 wide we can only hit Ellington for 4 yards? There was pressure from Lambert's side.
2&6-Ace Pro Wing Strong motion, Twins Field-FB motion-left side zone play to Ellington for 3
3&3-I Right motion to Twins-Counter pitch to Spiller for 5yds to the left side.
1&10-Pro Wing motion to Strong- PA pass to RT on a vertical route is thrown badly behind him....as if Parker didnt know he was running a vertical route. VERY lucky it wasnt picked off.
2&10-Gun 1B Spread-Flanker Screen incomplete to Brown, dropped.
3&10-Gun 1B Spread-T. Austin false start
3&15-Gun 1B Spread-C. Lambert false start
3&20-Gun 1B Trips Field-Parker overthrows Clear on a Deep Post route between the safeties. I like the play call. Incomplete.
Punt.
Pass, Pass, Run, Run, Pass-I, Pass-I, Pass-I.
Still don't ESTABLISH THE RUN.

Defense spends another series on the sidelines. 3 big missed tackles all lead to 1st downs. McDaniel runs himself out of plays and ends up at a bad angle or position to make a tackle. Turner is able to run and we get no pressure. Not enough blitzes called. They get 7 fucking yards on a QB Sneak in the red zone? On the TD play, we had a blitz called on the backside of a QB sprint option play, man coverage, and a quick out called complete on the field for the 6. The film must've been inconclusive to the referees, but it looked trapped to me.

CU gets it on our 40 with :35 left.
1&10-Gun 1B Trips Field-Hits Brown for 13 yard gain on a slant. The ball hit Brown square in the numbers, bounced off his pads, and he catches it. This guy does not extend his hands to catch the football.
1&10-Gun 1B Spread-False start Walker
1&15-Gun 1B Spread-Ford runs a Fly route against cover 2 and the safety gets over to pick the pass off. End of Half.

What adjustments would you make after the 1st Half from this?
We're not a run threat in Gun. This has to change. They stack the box area when we go with an Ace Wing formation. If Spiller can run it off-tackle from the Gun, then run it more.
We ran alot of I-formation earlier this season, so where did it go? All I see here is Gun 1/2-back Twins/Trips and the Ace pro set really.
Enough of the QB Rollout to hit the TE in the flat on a flare or drag! Take a 3/5 step from shotgun max protect and try to hit somebody downfield.
Throw the ball vertically, attack the middle of the field, not the boundaries.
Less Flanker Screens.

Notice some 1st half trends? I may edit as needed to clarify things.
(2nd half will be up tomorrow with more analysis)

More of the same shit

2009-10-03T16:40:00.002-04:00

I dont have anything good or constructive to say today.

Damn I thought we fired Spence and Tammy's bitchasses last year? What I saw today was a loss in true Bowden fashion. Complete ineptitude, lost in all 3 phases. Totally unprepared to play. Defense came out a little flat and played one half of football, offense was inept at basically everything, ST cost us a punt then 2 FGs. I'm surprised this team knows how to wipe their own ass at times. Spiller is the only man on the field who has a clue.

I'm "all out" with Billy Napier after today; I've given him a free pass as best as I can, but he's 12 games into it now. No identity. What kind of offense are we? Power I or Gun spread? This was a weak defense (last in the ACC) and a team that lost to Rutgers and MTSU, and nearly lost to a I-AA team. They gave this offense every possible gift we could get, and we pissed it away. Whether you have a weak OL or QB, or young WRs, there are ways to get them into the game flow and establish rhythm, and its not being done. We're totally inept and if not for CJ Spiller being an NFL 1st rd pick, we'd not be able to do anything.

Playcalling-Shitty, I can't wrap my head around whatever the fuck Napier is trying to do. Its not rocket science to call plays that make sense. If Walker cant handle his man, dont call pass plays that require a 5-step or 7-step drop. If we get no push to the right, run left. WTF are Hairston and Austin rated so highly for? If you run only 3 or 4 formations over and over, you better be able to execute from them. If your QB doesnt play worth a damn and your WRs cant catch, line up in the I and run the goddamn football to the FIELD, not the damn BOUNDARY. Put CJ in space, not the short side of the field idiot. I'm charting the plays this week, this game was atrocious.

Offensive line-shitty, no fucking excuse for today, this is a weak defensive line. No push. Three false starts, two of which were critical from a down & distance standpoint. Too much pressure on Parker, even when in max protection.

QB and WR play-shitty, WRs still can't catch when theyre open. J. Brown dropped TWO passes when BOTH hit him in the NUMBERS. Parker throws behind them when they get open too often, his shoulder is still flying open. I wish he would run it himself a few times instead of hitting a man in the flats and having the throw cause him to fall down because Parker cant hit 'em in stride.

And we get two first downs inside their 40 at the end, and cant get anywhere close to a 1st down? Particularly the 2nd? RUN THE DAMN FOOTBALL and spot the ball at the middle of the field and then kick it, its obvious you havent done shit all day so dont expect a TD. At least tie the game when you get a gift 2nd chance when you fucked up the first.

Defese-bad for one half. Inability to tackle for one half. At least Steele can make adjustments at halftime. D. McDaniel runs himself out of plays for the 2nd week in a row, and has to tackle with his fingers. No consistent pressure against a line that gives up tons of sacks already. They did better in the 2nd but were nowhere to be seen earlier. Blitzes seemed to get no pressure at all. Ricky Sapp a total non-factor.

Clemson is a 5-7 team right now. I don't think it can be fixed to end up any better than that before the end of the year. 8-4 is out the window, 7-5 would be a blessing. We cannot expect to do any better than being an average team. There is no reason to bitch about us not being respected by ESPN or the rest of the media, because even though we have the 'talent', we dont have the team to get that respect back.

Maryland Preview

2009-10-02T10:31:00.003-04:00

Ralph's Dream Stadium

Clemson @ Maryland (1-3)
Lost to Cal 52-13
Beat James Madison 38-35 in OT.
Lost to MTSU 32-31
Lost to Rutgers 34-13
HC: Friedgen, at least til the end of this year.
ESPNU/360-12PM

As FF mentioned below, Fridge started 31-8 at MD and has since gone 34-31. Maryland fans, of course, don't go to the games anymore to help support the team, so I suspect this will be the last time we go to Maryland with the Doughboy as HC.

Maryland is good at...nothing. They can't stop anyone on defense and turn the ball over at the 4th worst rate in the country on offense. So, basically, if we dont obliterate this team, I'm gonna go screaming in the streets and begin my killin' spree sooner than I planned.

Offense-
Fridge has always run a very pro-style offense. He picks about 10 plays and runs them from 50 formations, and it has always given Clemson fits. His OC, James Franklin, is the HC-in-waiting...until they lose about 5 more games in which case they both might get tossed. Franklin now calls the plays and the offense's flavor has changed to a more West-Coast style of play, but for the most part has been very vanilla.

West Coast offenses have emphasis on balanced football from traditional pro-sets (2 WR-1TE-2RB usually). In general, passing in the 1st half for quick scores sets up the run in the 2nd to protect an early lead, but the run game is still important. Overall it's a very detail-oriented approach to the game that emphasizes technique, execution, planning, and strategy over raw talent. Instead of "take what the defense gives you," the overriding philosophy is closer to "make the defense give you what you want by outsmarting and outplaying them." Its a difficult and verbose offense to teach unless its very distilled down and simplified, which is why it doesnt always succeed in college.

According to Bill Walsh, the quick passing of the WCO was only a suppliment to the running game and 5-7 step drop passing game. It didn't "replace" the running game nor was it the base of the offense. It was there to take advantage of bad defensive adjustments and work as a "constraint" to spread the field horizontally, like how spread teams do a variety of things (like bubble screens) to make you respect their spread out WRs.

Maryland returns leading rusher Dorell Scott (209 car, 1,113 yards, 8 TDs) for what seems like his 15th year, WR Torrey Smith can put up big numbers, along the Chia Pet at QB. The biggest problem for Turner and Scott is the OL: they are bad bad (like worse than us). They lost 3 starters off last year's team and Turner has been sacked 14 times already. Ricky Sapp and Bowers will have a field day.

The offense has turned the ball over 13 times, and Clemson should force at least a couple, but if they can run the zone read or a QB Keep and control the clock, they have a shot.

Defense-Maryland has just changed defensive philosophy this year, and it has contributed to their inability to stop anybody so far. They've allowed on average 465 yards per and only forced 2 turnovers. With Chris Cosh (former DC at SC before Nix) they were an even-front 4-3 stack that ran 80% zone coverage, now under Don Brown (former HC at UMASS, best D in 1-AA the last few years) they are a more-attacking style like Clemson's that plays more of a 4-3 Under front with 80% man/man coverage and blitzes quite often.

Alot of their problems have been due to injuries and graduation. They lost 35 seniors last year. Their best Corner fell to a broken tibia, and best Safety only returned for a few plays against Rutgers. Two LBs are playing in the NFL, and 3 DL left for the pros, and their other best CB was drafted by the Redskins.

Clemson should push this defensive front around on the rush and put up good yardage in the air.

The only thing that worries me is Fridge's proven ability to give us fits, but this game should be a blowout and should not come into question at halftime like the shit we saw last year nor be anywhere near as close as in years past.

All is not lost...yet

2009-10-01T19:00:00.002-04:00

Heading to College Park this weekend, Clemson has a chance to get back on track with a win over UMd on the road. I guess you could say Ralph Friedgen and the boys from UMd are hungry, well, because Ralph is always hungry (in all fairness dude has trimmed up since the last time we saw him, he must be rolling with Boomer or Dan Marino and needs to be in a promo for the commercial).

But first, a few comments on Swinney's presser. I will not break down the Dabo press conference from earlier in the week (see Dr. B's blog below for this analysis) but will chime in on some of the high points.

Three plays or thirty plays, Clemson lost the football game. Yes, I agree that had Parker been able to complete a late pass, game over. If we don't miss a field goal early in the fourth quarter, the late-game trip to the red-zone requires only a chip shot field goal. And if your aunt had a unit, she would be your uncle. I get it, Clemson is close, but close doesn't matter. Let's shore up the core issues with this football team as discussed earlier (WR play, play selection, snapping the football).

Team Goals. This is the part that I would usually go ape-shit about. After UGa/Bammer/whoever else would beat our ass, Bowden would play the old "We Still Have a Shot at Achieving Goals" card. I guess the difference between Swinney's statement and Bowden's is that Swinney accepts responsibility for a loss and really believes that Clemson can play at a sustained level for the rest of the year. With our defense, Clemson will be in every game played this season. Clemson has to punch the ball in when placed in such a situation.

Will Korn. Obviously the staff feels that Parker is a better QB than Korn. Thus, the staff doesn't owe Willy Korn any playing time. I do believe that Korn will receive playing time if Swinney and Napier believe he will positively contribute when in the game (which is something that has not happened for Korn this season).

Tough Schedule. Swinney thinks that this test will help the Tigers over the long haul. TCU is a well coached football team. After losing to Tech, Clemson wasn't in the national championship chase. On that note, I think that playing a quality opponent was beneficial for the Tigers and gives this team more aspects to be critical about than a 36-3 win over Furman would have done.

What can we take out of this, you may ask. First, I think Clemson has the potential to win a bunch of football games this year. Being close simply means that you were in a position to be successful but failed to execute in critical situations. Clemson must learn from these situations to become a better team. (Please do not think that I am endorsing a loss. Losing sucks and is unacceptable. However, I am a realist and realize that CU is about where I expected them to be at this point in the season). The TCU loss will more than likely be the last free pass for Swinney.

Point #2 just shows the attitude of the program and fan base. It is particularly disappointing that this program has been stuck in neutral for so long that no one seems to care that the possibility of greatness has already been lost. At this point, any sort of championship would be cherished. We haven't won shit in 18 years! Losing sucks...wins and championships are the metrics that programs should be evaluated upon. A conference championship would at least give the program something to build upon and a feather for the cap.

Item 3 states the obvious. Clemson is not in a position to screw around with players and playing time. The 11 that give us the best chance of winning should be on the field. If the coaches believe that playing Korn will help us win, then by all means go ahead. This aint intermurals, it's division one football.

Additionally, T. Boyd will be in the mix next season. Unless something out of the ordinary happens to Parker (including a huge offer following the MLB draft), Korn will be in a dogfight to try to gain playing time with both KP and Boyd both being great athletes. He is talented enough to start at a lot of places and will leave before riding the pine his entire college career.

Tough out of conference opponents are great to play if they don't beat up on you too bad. Since Clemson as a whole (coaches included) lost in Atlanta, this game was really all upside for the Tigers (assuming they didn't get embarrassed, which did not happen) as it was out of conference and against a ranked opponent. The close loss gave the Tigers a good test against a well coached squad. It also exposed several areas of this team that will have to improve in order to complete item #2. Once again, losing sucks and a well coached TCU team came to Clemson and simply outplayed Swinney's group.

On to Maryland. This is a BAD Maryland team. After getting trashed by Cal, the Terps squeaked one out against James Madison, lost to MTSU, and got rolled up by Rutgers. Maryland has turned the ball over 13 times in these games, 5 int's and 8 fumbles. Anything less than a royal beat down by the Tigers would be considered a failure in my book against this young Terp team.

Coach Fridge is an interesting character and has enjoyed some success at UMd. Many of you will remember him from his days as offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech. Ralph Friedgen has been called an offensive genius in the past. Ralph historically likes to have a hand-full of plays that he is comfortable running, then execute these plays from a variety of formations. He tends to utilize a lot of formations to try to gain advantageous match-ups.

Since James Franklin (offensive coordinator) rejoined the staff, he has implemented a west-coast offense. SR QB Chris Turner will be leading this offense, with JR Da'Rel Scott leading the rushing attack. Scott is a pretty good back, averaging around 5.7 ypc and three rushing scores on the season. See team an individual stats here.

I look for Clemson to have big numbers on defense Saturday. Maryland has allowed 3.5 sacks per game this season and boasts a negative 10 turnover margin to this point in the season, with the other lines looking just as bad

(stats Courtesy of the ncaa.org). Clemson's defensive front should have a nice day against a fairly inexperienced offensive line.

As shown in the stats above, UMd's defense has been pathetic. They are giving up an average of 38.25 ppg...against Cal, James Madison, MTSU, and Rutgers. If Clemson is going to have a monster game on the offensive side, this date should have a star beside it.

Additionally, there are a few folks in the DC area who are not exactly excited about where the program is going. This is an interesting read about RF's future with the Terps and when James Franklin will take over this squad. As you can read, UMd opened the Friedgen era 31-8 and have since gone 34-31. This jolly giant seems to have lost his luster over the years.

What Clemson will need to do this week is simple. We want to see productivity on first and second downs. No Clemson fan wants KP to be in 3rd and 8 situations throwing to an unproductive group of receivers. The suggestion from this group is run the freaking ball on consecutive downs to get a manageable 3rd down attempt. We should expect improvement up front. Last week's offensive line play was pleasantly surprising. With the addition of Hairston, we should be able to get some movement against Maryland. I personally would love to see us run the ball up and down the field and incorporate Ellington into the flow of the game. Parker needs to show more accuracy slinging the ball, especially with the poor performances put in by the receivers (it would be specifically nice to get the TE up the field and catch some balls. I think Allen and Palmer have the potential to be some nice targets for KP this season). Defensively, keep on trucking. Force UMd to make mistakes and play good fundamental defense.

Here is what I am looking for this weekend (Please note Tracy Johnson almost decapitating someone on the reverse to Cooper).

Defensive breakdowns against TCU: inverted veer option

2009-09-30T14:41:00.003-04:00

Chris at Smartfootball got hold of the clip we uploaded for the TCU game review, and looked at the variation of the zone read that TCU ran against us last weekend here. Thankfully it saves me a couple hours of writing.

...Against TCU, however, in an otherwise solid defensive effort the Tigers allowed TCU’s quarterback Andy Dalton to rush 19 times for 86 yards, many of them on key conversions. After the game, Clemson defensive coordinator Kevin Steele appeared flummoxed — or at least very caught off guard — by one spread-option variant in particular that TCU used....

...I’m going to disagree with the description of the play as a variant of the zone-read, though all of these plays fall within the same spread option family. Indeed, this is a play I’ve seen Florida and Urban Meyer use before, though the pulling guard is a nice wrinkle. I call it an “inverted veer.”

In the typical veer play from a spread set, the line blocks down and double-teams the defensive linemen on up to the linebackers. They leave the defensive end unblocked (except when they run midline veer, in which case it is a defensive tackle) and read that man. If he steps down for the runningback, the QB just gives the ball and steps around him. It is just the old first-read of the triple option adapted for spread sets.

But TCU ran a variant, one I’ve seen other teams use. They just “inverted” the runningback and quarterback: The runningback runs a sweep or outside zone action laterally. If the defensive end takes him, then the quarterback shoots up inside the defensive end. If the defensive end sits for the QB, the runner should be able to hit the corner. Remember, the defensive end is often the hardest guy to block, and especially so when you want to “reach” him to seal the corner.

In that way I disagree with the characterization of the play as a fake-zone read where the QB then runs back to the other way. You can see the runner is taking a wide angle. That said, I don’t know what TCU’s read was, but this is a play I’ve seen at least for a few years. And again, Meyer uses it at Florida with his fast runners heading outside and Tebow, the better inside runner, going inside.

Finally, the one wrinkle TCU has is the pulling guard. I think that was just designed to get better blocking at the point of attack, though TCU had them so crossed up he didn’t even end up blocking anyone. This scheme has a lot of similarities with how teams block the shovel play.

I suppose the reason Steele and Clemson had so much trouble with this hinges on what his linebacker’s reads were. I take it they were reading the quarterback and thinking backside with the zone read. If they read the pulling guard, for example, there wouldn’t be an issue with where the play was going. (This is one reason the veer blocking works so well, because the line steps one way and the play hits the other. The pulling guard can give this away.) It is just like on the famous counter trey play: if the linebackers read the pullers there are no issues with stopping it (though they may be weak to some other play), but if they read the fullback blocking away they can get crossed up.

I would point out that TCU ran a traditional zone read much more than this play, about 12 times total by my count, while this play was obvious to me only 3 times. DaQuan Bowers made the correct moves on the traditional zone read, taking the RB and putting the emphasis on the LB's to scrape around and make the play. However Maye was blocked out or in bad position to make a tackle several times by the Guard to the playside, as well as Conner/Cooper or whomever was playing Money (2nd LB in Nickel) on the particular play. Notice in this play in the clip, both LBs are coming in, so we were caught totally out of position.

Korn, Allen, and this weeks Presser

2009-09-29T12:20:00.005-04:00

Quotes from the Presser:

We looked at eight plays ... if we win three of them we win the game. Those are critical.

While true, Bowdenesque. He was later asked about it:

We've heard a lot of the one play away menality over the years. It's probably tough for you to know how close you are. How close are you?
Swinney: How long was he here? Coach Bowden was here for 10 years. I've been here four games as a head coach. Three years from now if we are having the same problems get somebody else in here. Fair question. I hate to bring up Alabama but that's my alma mater. He (Saban) went 6-6 in his first year. That's a fair question based off of what you are seeing and you can think what you want and speculate all you want to. But this a different football team. There's a lot of ball left.

At least he will own up to things. Bowden would say something like "well we've got new facilities but they got 85 players too."

We really ran the ball well in the fourth quarter. This year in the fourth quarter we have 30+ carries for more than 200 yards. That's over five yards per carry.

Then where were those plays in the 3rd quarter with a lead on the scoreboard?

On Maryland:

Looking at their offense, they are very very balanced in what they do. They are multiple in what they do with their groupings which creates some serious game planning during the week. You have to have your coverages match that. They want to be able to run the ball but they will take homerun shots. They are tough, they are physical- they have always have been.

This kid Smith- is leading the league in all-purpose yardage, not C.J. Spiller. Their quarterback is a good player- a little better runner than what we'd like him to be. I'm sure they will test us as we prepare to handle their quarterback.

Defensively they are young. They have a new coordinator that is completely different scheme on that side of the ball. Night and day from what they have been. They are a four-man front but they seem to go more to an odd front with a lot of blitz packages. They are getting better. They did a good job against Rutgers- but there were a lot of turnovers in that game. Their defense held them really really good. It's a team that I see is really improving on that side of the ball. Impressive safeties and really really big guys inside.

An odd front basically means that they have a DT lined up over the center as a Nose Guard, as in a 3-4. It can be extended to mean that they run an over/undershift, so that one of the OLBs is playing on the LOS (so it looks like a 5-2), usually done in tandem with having a tilted/shade DT on the center. They used to play an even front stack: both DTs lined up across from the Guards, with the LBs directly behind the down linemen (called stacking). It makes offensive assignments change on the front in blocking schemes.

On the WR play:

"I don't think we've had four receivers get 40 or 50 snaps a game at all. We got four or five guys- that's what we are working with right now. That's all we've got. They have to step up and play better. It's not about potential- it's about performance and production. Starting on the practice field. We certainly need guys to emerge there...Marquan has shown some flashes. Jacoby is solid. Ashe is steady and plays with the most effort. He's the most consistent as far as doing his job right. He had one drop Saturday but has been consistent in everything else. Clear needs to get going. Xavier is just getting back. Jaron Brown is the guy I think that can emerge for us given the opportunity based on practice.

Ashe might run some routes well, but he cant catch a football Dabo. Xavier should be producing by now as a Jr. and Brown and Jones need to get open and then get the ball.

On Parker:

Can you assess your play at quarterback?
Swinney: Did a lot of good things Saturday. It wasn't ideal conditions. Y'all probably were somewhere dry (laughing). Here's a guy in a pouring down rain storm making big throws. He missed some plays. But same thing- he's a young player in a huge role that will continue to get better. Anybody that thinks he's going to be perfect hasn't played the game. He's not going to be perfect but he gives us a great chance to win. Took care of the ball- no turnovers. The biggest thing Saturday was there were plays there that weren't made that he needs to make.

All good points, its good that Parker didnt turn the ball over on his bad throws against a skilled D, but a couple of them could've been picked. If he keeps throwing behind WRs, that wont continue though.

-Since Deptula made mention of Korn possibly transferring to App. State, TardNet has been in a hissyfit. LW writes about Korn addressing these things after the TCU game here.

What I'm wondering is why anyone didnt expect this? Its painfully obvious that we have 3 highly-touted QBs, and all are winners in HS, and all will want the ball, and that one would eventually transfer. DUH people, did you not expect it?

I have said several times: at least one of these guys will not be here next year, and it would be either Korn or Parker.

If Korn has the job, we could keep Parker because of baseball until he gets drafted. Boyd would probably stick it out til he's a soph, and then if Parker stuck around, Boyd would transfer.

If Parker locks down this job by the end of the year, then its his next year, plain and simple. When I say "lock down" I mean simply continue to improve, he doesnt have to have 5 300yd/3TD games to lock it down. Korn will transfer. It doesnt matter how Boyd plays in Spring or August, he won't unseat Parker if KP improves for the rest of this year because even if TB shows out in practice, its still just practice.

Remember who else has shown out and been raved about in practice the last few years? McClain and Rendrick Taylor (several times). Boyd would take the #2 spot behind a guy who produces, and hope that Parker leaves early and that he'd get his chance. He might even try to use this year as a Medical, and take another RS so he has an extra year to play.

So wake up and think folks. The only way Korn sticks around is if Parker destroys people in baseball and becomes a high draft pick, so the best case for us is if Korn sticks with Clemson until the end of May. He can graduate from CU in May.
I can understand why Korn is upset. He went 30-something-3 at Byrnes. He believes that Dabo "guaranteed" he would play. Dabo said this after naming Parker as starter:

"In my opinion, if you have a backup that deserves to play he should get the opportunity to play. Now he's got to perform. You don't just play a guy to play a guy. He's got to want it in practice, and when he plays he's got to be productive. And if he's not, then he ain't going to play. He can't be harmful for the team. You don't just play a guy to play a guy. He's got to deserve to play, and that comes from practice. That comes from what you do in game situations. ... I think Willy right now, based on what he's done in practice, deserves the opportunity to play some. And he'll get that. But he's got to be productive to continue to warrant the opportunity to play."

But from Korn's comments after being named backup, it appears that Dabo did tell him that he would play every game. Perhaps he heard what he wanted to hear? Indeed, I thought from what I read at the time that Korn would play 1-2 series a game. So is Korn right to be pissed? Well, I would say no because Dabo is right in his quote above...you have to produce, and Korn knows he hasnt produced....but then Korn has been quite unlucky, and its not all his fault for what has happened when he goes in.

Dabo said this today in the presser:

What do you think about Korn saying he was promised PT?

"I hadnt seen that. My intention is to play Willy in every game, but sometimes plans change. At GT we were down 24-0. The last game was in a rainstorm. Again, it wasnt the right time to get him in there. But it is my intention to play him. When he gets his chances he's got to be productive. My intention is to get him in there saturday (against MD).

Then he was asked if the statement by Korn was semantics or open to interpretation:

"I would say that's probably a matter of semantics and interpretation. There's no guarantees for anything. The only guarantee is what you do on the practice field and how you perform with you opportunities, and that's it. There's no guarantees."

-Dwayne Allen has been a hot topic since the game ended because of his comments to reporters. Allen stared by saying that Dabo reminds them that the ones that produce get the ball the most, and that he knows that he has to make plays to get the ball more.

But its his comments about the use of the TEs that rile people up. I doubt most of the ones who are so riled actually read the LW article, but he did say he wanted the offense to utilize the TE more, like UGA or SC.

He said that he did not slip on his pump route at the end of the game, and that Kyle sailed it and he just couldnt adjust. That much I could see, since he does do a stutterstep on the route, but it looked to me like he had to catch his balance.

What he has to be commenting on is how we utilize the TE, because we don't throw to the TE less than Georgia if you look at statistics. Clemson uses them to attack the flats, whereas SC uses Saunders to attack the seam in Cover 2. I wish Napier would do that as well, as I said in my latest Raycom blog on the things Clemson must do to improve.

But honestly, this is at least three times, by my count, he has complained about balls not coming to him. Shut up and play kid.

Etc.
-Nick Saban on defending the fade route in man/man coverage. A good read on the technique.

-Dalton Freeman is getting snaps at Guard now, and expect Wilson Norris to also get much more PT at Guard, while Hairston believes himself to be 75-80%.

Flashback 1985: The Catch

2009-09-29T00:48:00.003-04:00

An article I dug up and saved.

"Clemson entered the 1985 season with high hopes, but the year ended up being a major rebuilding campaign that would fuel the 1986-1990 seasons. The Tigers had lost 3 games in a row to Georgia,Georgia Tech and Kentucky back in late September the Tigers had lost a heartbreaker in Chapel Hill the week before the Maryland game to slip to 5-4 on the year. After winning 37 games in the previous 4 seasons, the Tigers were stuck at mediocrity and the frustration was building.

Maryland, under head coach Bobby Ross, was in the midst of some of its most successful seasons. The 1985 Terrapin team would go on to finish 9-3 on the season and post a #18 national ranking. But on this day, the paths of these two programs were about to collide in an ugly affair for both sides.

The first hiccup to this game was the start time. CBS pushed this ACC match up back to 4:00 start time, which forced Clemson University to scramble around looking for more adequate lighting. While Clemson’s Death Valley had lighting suitable for night games, it was not enough for television. The late start time, this late in the football season, would mean most of the 2nd half would be played with the sun set. This did not make Danny Ford, or the Clemson faithful, happy. In this day and age a night game is accepted as common practice in Clemson, but in 1985 it was despised.

Up until late in the 4th quarter, the game was well played and exciting. Earlier in the 4th quarter, Bobby Ross had come onto the field to argue some questionable calls (presumably holding on Clemson) that the officials were not seeing. This got under Coach Ford’s skin, especially since he was at home and expected to be in control of everything…including the officials.

With the score knotted at 31 late in the 4th quarter, Clemson was flagged for a late hit that kept the Maryland drive alive. Furious with the call, Ford did just as Bobby Ross had done earlier in the game and walked onto Frank Howard Field to voice his displeasure with the call. To the dismay of millions of viewers watching nation wide, the head official had not turned off his microphone. What the 80,000 fans in Death Valley, along with the millions watching on television, got was an earful of classic Danny Ford. He verbally berated the official using plenty of words that would not be allowed on even some cable channels, much less a major network. When he was done, the nation was stunned and Clemson had an embarrassing situation on their hands. Little did anyone know at the time, but it was about to get worse.

After a Maryland field goal with less than 10 seconds basically sealed the win, the Terrapins lined up to kick off to the Tigers. The squib kick was eventually hauled in by the Tigers and run out of bounds on the Clemson side of the field directly in front of the student section. What started as a few pushes between the players turned into a near brawl as the Clemson bench converged on the scene. Maryland players ran across the field and also joined in the action, which took over 10 minutes to clear. And all of it was caught by television cameras (one perched on the sideline with a clear view to all the nasty action).

Clemson was obviously embarrassed considering the image problems of the NCAA probation earlier in the decade. The ACC, predictably, was also un-amused. In addition to several high level meetings, Coach Ford and Coach Ross were reprimanded by the league and forced to sit in the press box the following year in Baltimore.

It remains, to this day, one of the true black eyes on the Danny Ford on the field play by his teams. While many hail it as a man standing up for his team, that argument would have held up had the team not overreacted on the sideline. The frustration of losing the game coupled with the frustration of an average season had resulted in a moment most Clemson fans would like to forget"

I still think we got hosed.

What Clemson must do to improve

2009-09-28T19:47:00.003-04:00

So here we are at the first turn of the race, and we have seen that problems that we predicted in the preseason have developed into what we thought.

Everyone knew we would have issues at WR. Everyone knew we'd start a new QB, and that he would have teething problems, and a week before the season started, when Parker was announced starter, I predicted he would have some games where he looked like a freshman. Everyone also suspected the OL would be average at best; not one person told me that they believed it would be a strength this year. Many of us, including myself, did not expect Napier would turn this offense into a 50ppg juggernaut.

And what do we have after 4 games? A QB who looked like a freshman in 2 games, WRs that have not stepped up, an offense that cannot execute at times, and an OL that has been average.

I fail to see why any realistic Clemson fan would be surprised given what has happened around here the last few years....oops, 20 years.

But given that, there are things, that if improved soon, would really bring Clemson fans "All In."

1. WRs must catch the football. Its quite simple. There have been several key drops by all of our receivers this season that have killed drives. TCU's WRs caught passes that were high or wide, yet Clemson's cannot. Terrance Ashe cannot catch any throw on a slant or post route, that much is clear. Palmer has had drops, Allen has had drops, Dye, Jones, etc. etc.

2. WRs must learn to get open and run better routes. Making a cut on a hitch-n-go or a square-in is not rocket science. We do not run crisp, clean routes. Against man coverage the route continues at full-speed, against zone the WR stops in open grass, and our guys cannot grasp this. When in man coverage, we are not physical enough to force our way open. I'd rather see an offensive PI call and the ball be brought back than no one even try to get open by chucking a Cornerback.

3. Parker must improve his accuracy, and his mechanics. With our WR's drops, its clearly a two-fold problem. Parker throws high to the sidelines quite a bit, as well as wide. Many times he throws behind his receiver. He must improve his touch on short-to-intermediate throws. In addition, he has a tendency in pressure situations to throw across his body and does not set his feet to throw.

4. The offensive gameplan must create opportunities for the TE and WRs. On what was our best offensive drive of the season against TCU, Clemson used the TE to chip the DE and then run out into the flats on flare/wheel routes. Mike Palmer, D. Allen, and R. Taylor all caught short passes on the first drive.

However, where a TE is most handy is in taking on LB's in coverage over the middle. They are bigger and can muscle the 'backers out of their way in their route, and then take the hit from both safeties that will come their way. Clemson does not attack the middle of the field with the TE. Every team on the schedule will play Cover 2 defense at times, and the weak spot in a true Cover 2 is the middle of the field, at about 15 yards depth. How many of Palmer's catches have been in this area? We saw it work to Allen vs. GT and it nearly worked against TCU this week, so more plays MUST attack the seam.

Nearly every defensive scheme has a 'no-cover zone' from 1-5 yards off the line of scrimmage. If your TE can make a play, then attacking the flats with them like we do makes sense, but Allen and Palmer are neither fast nor elusive enough to do this, so I see no reason to expect big gains by continuously attacking the area when the middle of the field is open.

Additionally, plays must be designed to get our younger WRs involved. Nearly every play I see involves Parker locking onto Jacoby Ford and never looking off. That tells me that a) plays are designed with Ford as the primary progression, and b) that Parker has little confidence in their abilities. How can you expect Brown, Jones or Clear to step up, when so few plays are designed to go to them? (Ashe does have designed plays, but he drops them or doesnt get separation.)

We have 3 WRs at 6'4" or better, who can play. Just throw a fade or corner route and let them go get it. Who on our schedule has tall enough CBs to cover them? Tell Parker to look their way first and wait for the play to develop before immediately going to Jacoby.

A better way to use CJ and Jacoby would be to stretch the field vertically. ENOUGH of the short crossing routes and flanker screens. BOTH can outrun anyone the defense uses to cover. If the OL can protect for a 7-step drop play, then run one/both of them on a post/fly route to pull those safeties deep. Even if they end up double-covered, the TE will be sitting open in the seam underneath. With CJ as arguably the more elusive one, run Jacoby deep and use CJ on the screens or underneath routes, and have Ellington in the backfield.

5. The blocking must continue to improve. There is nothing I enjoy more about offensive football than well-executed blocking. I give credit to our line for stepping up against TCU's pass rush. Parker was not sacked once and even Lambert played ok. But in the redzone, scoring TDs is about TOUGHNESS up front and controlling the LOS. We still do not do that. On 3rd or 4th and short, we do not handle teams that stack up the box. They get penetration and blow up the play. All of our linemen are at fault. The OL play has improved overall this season, with certain exceptions by one player or two during a particular game, but if the interior line (which is supposed to be a strength) cannot blow people off the ball, you don't get first downs in short-yardage situations.

A secondary complaint is the WR blocking. If you want to run perimeter options and sweeps, not only do OLmen need to get around the corner, but WRs have to block people. Ours do not, and seem to take plays off when it comes to blocking. With 3 big receivers, we should be able to execute a crack block, and we still haven't learned how.

6. The playcalling must change, specifically the run/pass calls. In addition to attacking seams instead of the flat, we call some plays without reason or thought. On the first drive this week, we mixed up formations considerably, yet afterwards we fell into a pattern of I-formation and 1-back zone running and shotgun-passing. We threw 37 times in the rain this week, and 12 times in the 3rd quarter with a lead. Although I've discussed in the blog that only a handful of plays in the game were bonehead calls, we cannot throw the ball that much with a lead in a rainstorm.

The reason Clemson cannot convert on 3rd down is because we leave ourselves 3rd & 5+ because of poor calls on 1st and 2nd down. I did not see in this game, despite CJ's 100+ yards, any situation in the 2nd half where we ran on 1st and 2nd down. We led the whole 3rd quarter, and it only takes 3 plays of 3.3x to get a 1st down.

If a defense gives up the run, you always take it with a lead.

In the redzone, we run too many perimeter rushing plays, given that our WRs can't block. If we have success inside, then RUN AT THEM and establish that control of the LOS. Perimeter flanker screens should also go by the wayside.

7. LB play must improve. I realize this may surprise some people, but against GT our Backers got blocked out of plays quite easily. The Midline play that Nesbitt burned us on so many times has the Offensive Guards proceeding to the 2nd level and barely blocking the DTs. Maye got himself blocked out many times by poor technique. Conner failed to take the Wingback on the long GT touchdown. Scotty Cooper hasn't ever been mentioned. Alexander has but only because he seems to blitz so often.

Every team has had success with QB keepers and zone reads like this, because their Guards proceed to the 2nd level and block them out. If the DT can get to the play, great, and you can't tell him to "slow down" except in specific defensive adjustments, but we're getting beat by QBs because the LBs are no where to be seen.

If a few of these are fixed this season, Clemson could go a long way. If not, better get used to the idea of 7-5 again.

TCU beats Clemson 14-10, a closer look

2009-09-27T16:20:00.006-04:00

-Clemson should not be wearing the orange pants for this game, not yet. Not until we beat somebody.

-The first drive is scripted, and I really liked the playcalling variety in terms of plays and formations. It was well-executed for the most part with throws to Taylor, Allen, and Palmer. A low throw to Marquan was dropped in the flat. Parker took a zone read himself off tackle and made the correct decision to take it, but if Jacoby had decided to block, the play would've gained a first down. A screen to Ellington with Jacoby open in the endzone, then another throw to Ford on the next play where Parker never looked to the other side cost us the 6. Had the ball been caught it would've been a first however. FG 3-0. Still, I think this was the best drive of the whole season.

-TCU got out of a hole due to a facemask by Jenkins when we had them stopped. TCU actually ran their zone read variation on this drive and got good yardage, so we had ample time to adjust to this play. On 3rd & 12, Bowers was playing a DT position and got a hand on the football, then it sailed over everyone's head and #34 just happened to be sitting behind the safeties. Maxwell just missed it. The RB shouldn't be back there, but once the ball is tipped the safeties started to come in. Its a fluke play, and TCU got a lucky break. On the TD play, Clay ran in motion off the left side then ran a simple crossing route and made a good catch on a good throw between 3 Clemson defenders. 7-3.

-TCU forces a 3 & out. A screen falls incomplete because Parker was blitzed up the gut, a HB power play to Spiller nets about 2 yards, then a QB option pitch on 3rd & 8 to Spiller gets a couple. I don't like the option call here, and not with Jacoby (not) blocking on that side of the field. Punt of 48.

-Dalton hits his receivers on 3-step drop slants very quick and he's quite accurate. They get one 1st before the end of the quarter then hit another slant to start the 2nd. A Flanker screen gets big yardage because our guys were out of position and overpursued. Maye was right behind the WR and did not read the play, then the DB's got blocked out. We held Turner on a 3rd&2, then the DL collapsed their front and Conner came right around the corner and pulled the RB down from behind on 4th & 1. Turnover on downs.

-Clemson gets a roughing-the-passer call, and a good catch by Palmer got another 1st. A deep vertical route to Spiller 2 plays later that fell incomplete was not PI as I originally thought, but the matchup with Spiller on a LB was exploited later. The throw to Spiller was not to the inside as it should've been; he had to turn around and look to his opposite shoulder and that was the difference in the pass being caught. We get the ball to their 42 and no further. Punt.

-Clemson commited a PI (Chambers) on a 3rd&2 incompletion, which was really an AWFUL call. Chambers was playing the ball and was right with the receiver. A few high throws by Dalton and we force a punt.

-Jaron Brown drops a pass that was behind him on 2nd down PA. Jamie Harper finishes up just short of the first down on a 3rd down Toss Sweep, then on 4th and 1 QB Sneak we got zero push by Cloy/McClain/Austin. Playcalls themselves were good on this drive, we just didnt get it done up front.

-I see what Clemson is doing on the zone read here, Bowers is taking the RB as he should, but then no one behind him is making the tackles on the QB. They are there waiting but Dalton runs right around them, and here its Hall and McDaniel that overpursue themselves out of the play. The defense recognizes the same flanker screen that beat them earlier and we force a 19 yard punt. I am noticing good downfield blocking by their WRs and RBs, unlike us.

-We get the ball with 1:58 in the 2nd Q. Clemson goes back to the hurry-up. Spiller goes out of bounds on a reception, then they dont stop the clock. For the next 20 seconds our offense looks dazed and confused, and aren't getting set, and we take a snap infraction penalty. We run Spiller on a Fly route right down the hash, matched up on the LB as before, and net 60 yards down to the 3. Why don't we line Ford up as a HB in the shotgun set and do it with him? The first TD is called back and Spiller takes it in on lead play behind Austin/Lambert. We moved them off the ball. 10-7.

-TCU hits a few passes underneath but the half runs out.
Halftime
If we had just played in the 2nd half on offense the way we did in the first, I think we'd win this game. Only the option pitch to Spiller on 3rd & 8 is a playcall I don't think made sense.

-We force a 3 & out.

-Parker overthrows Allen on a corner route. Allen had trouble getting off the blocks and didnt get into his route til later than he should. A quick pass to Palmer was tipped and almost interecepted, Parker threw behind him again. On 3rd down we have to throw, and Parker throws it away on a rollout to the left side, with pressure coming to him, since Lambert decided not to touch the DE at all for some reason. I don't like the 2nd down call, run the football and try to give yourself a 3rd and shorter-than-10. A designed rollout left and your LT doesnt block his End at all....punted to their 25.

-TCU comes out and gets 18 on a keeper by Dalton, 18 again with a quick pass to Young that we barely missed tipping, then 10 more with a zone read give to the RB. Malliciah Goodman gets a sack outrunning their LT. Conner and Chambers stretch out a keeper to force 3rd & 16. We allow them to get into FG position with a great catch on another high throw by their WR Kerley. Why can't Clemson WRs make catches like that? Thankfully they missed the 42 yd FG.

-Rain really starts on this drive. Playcalling is mostly pass (R-P-P-R-Inc-Inc-punt), but Parker had Ford open on the sideline and missed him on 3rd down and we have to punt. We don't seem as in-sync and I wonder why we don't run no-huddle when it worked well earlier. 16 total yards on these two drives.

-Cumbie misses Dalton on another long keeper, overpursuit. On a 3rd & 5 Dalton makes a great throw to Bart Johnson for the first with McDaniel on his back. Again, why don't Clemson WRs make such a play? Palmer could, but Brown/Clear/Ashe? Johnson again pulls in a pass over the middle because we didnt matchup quick enough, Sensabaugh seemed to slip and someone should've picked him up. TCU is still forced to punt by good pass coverage and a key holding call, but managed to run off about 6 minutes from the clock.

-First handoff to CJ gets 3. Parker overthrows a touch pass a little to Spiller in the flat, which he should've caught. On 3rd & 7 at our 20 we call an inside Draw that gets nothing and punt. It makes no sense to run on 3rd down and 7, but at your 20 you can be conservative. I would not have run the football though. End of 3rd Qtr. 35 yard punt give it to them just shy of midfield.

-Wesley runs off-tackle and 4 orange jerseys dont make a play. McDaniel makes a shitty effort on a tackle and he rolls 3 yards before falling down. TCU switches backs on every play. Another couple of run plays also net first downs and then Antoine Hicks beats Maxwell for the TD. He fought for the ball, and had Maxwell taken one step away from him it would be incomplete. I'm not sure it would've been complete by the NFL rule (control and then make a football move), but it never touched the ground and he pins it against Byron and his own waist. TCU 14-10. Maxwell was right where he was supposed to be, it was just another fluke play. 9/10 times that goes incomplete.

-Cloy lets a DT come right up the middle on the first play of the next drive and Parker throws it away incomplete. CJ cuts inside on an OT play behind Rendrick for a 1st, then again on a zone play 34 yards into their territory. CJ takes it up the middle again, don't like the play call there. I'd have thrown and given CJ a breather, there. Harper takes the next one up the middle, and falls down at first touch. The next play we sent CJ back in, and went to an empty set on 3rd and 4. TCU obviously reads pass, and sends a blitz, and Parker's pass to Palmer falls just out of his reach. Another call I don't like. Jackson missed the FG.

Parker is just barely off in his throws, either theyre high or wide. He's also throwing off his back foot too much, most of it because of pressure. He has to set and throw and take the hit. Inside lanes for him to scramble through are not open.

-TCU has changed their zone read a little, using the backside guard as a lead blocker. We still force the punt and get the ball at our 25.

-CJ loses 5 on the first carry, then we try to get half of it back with a screen to Ford. Parker hits CJ in the flat on a crossing route for the 1st down. Parker throws wide again to Ford, who fell down on the play. We're going for a big play and I dont mind the call. CJ is again stopped for no gain on the next play, another 3rd&10. Cloy sends a snap over Parker's head and he throws deep to Ford, and we got a big break with the PI call. Parker hits Brown on a big play called back for an illegal formation, and then hits Jacoby wide open over the middle and we get a horse-collar on top of it. Parker threw off his back foot on this play as well. If they had not blitzed this would probably have been covered and picked off.

TCU crowds the box and Spiller is stopped on a sweep for nothing. I don't agree with that call. RUN AT THEM. Then the play to Allen that worked against GT, and Allen kinda slipped on his cut and was slow getting going again, and Parker sailed it. Parker made a poor decision and threw the ball up, when he had someone in the back of the endzone open a split-second earlier, and it fell incomplete.

Clemson calls a TO, 4th &13 from the 16. Parker sails another one over the middle into coverage. I don't like the call, two receivers are running to the same spot. I would've preferred a fade or corner route here to each side, with them in Cover 2.

Of worthy debate is the decision to go for the TD instead of kicking a FG. At 2 min left, there is no guarantee we'd get this ball back even with 3 timeouts. We had driven 60 yards or so, and had the momentum, so I'd have gone for the 6.

-The D managed to stop them on the next drive and we got it back at our 43 with 1:03 left.

-A skinny post to Ashe falls incomplete, hit his hands. A 9 yard completion to Ashe followed, then ANOTHER FUCKING BOTCHED SNAP costs us about 20 seconds on 3rd down, and then Parker has to throw it up on 4th down.

Thoughts...
The OL did their job, they handled Hughes and Parker didnt get sacked, which is better than I expected to happen.

WRs cant run routes or catch the balls that hit their hands, but Parker doesnt always put them where theyre easily caught. I wish Ashe would deliver like the coaches said he could, because I think I've seen him drop 3 slants/posts that were on the money this year.

8 of 12 plays were passes while we had the lead in the 2nd half, 6 fell incomplete. We threw the ball 37 times in the rain. I've pointed out the calls I thought were stupid, only 3 or 4. Parker throws behind his receivers far too often, takes longer to make decisions and has to rush throws.

Clemson doesnt convert on 3rd down because we don't set it up on 1st and 2nd down. Not once am I noticing we ran on 1st and 2nd down in the 2nd half. We had the lead didnt we?

Anyway, on to Maryland, and there better be some fucking revenge for last year.

Random Thoughts--TCU and Beyond

2009-09-27T12:20:00.004-04:00

Harper's play this season has been disappointing. Clearly, there was a huge drop off when Spiller came out with Harper spelling him. Would we not be better rotating Spiller and Ellington until Harper learns to run without tip-toe'ing into the hole? Harper was supposed to be the big, powerful back who also had some speed to go with the power. We have seen none of this so far. After wasting a redshirt last year by fumbling in the Bammer game, Harper has not lived up to the hype coming out of high school. Ellington has been more effective so far. With Harper half ass running, I would much rather roll the dice with a smaller running back even in short yardage scenarios.

The Chinese fire drill at the end of the football game was ridiculous and unacceptable. Even without a timeout, Clemson should have been able to get a first down (it was 3rd and 1 with about 30 sec to go) to stop the clock and reset the offense. Instead, the Tigers waste a bunch of time, botch a fucking snap, then waste another ton of time. It is 3rd and freaking 1 at the end of the game people. Line up, run the qb sneak, get the first down, regroup. Clemson wasted at least 2 more shots at the endzone by screwing around late

It is pretty evident that there are some major issues with Clemson finishing off drives, and I don't think that there are any answers yet. Good football teams get 7 almost every time they move the ball into the redzone. That being said, I thought the way Swinney handled the game late was less than impressive. IMO, Swinney should not have called the first timeout to "think about" what to do. I would have kicked the damn field goal, reduced the TCU lead to 2 and played defense. Let's face it, there is no real reason to think that Clemson can score with the ball inside the 20...kick, play defense, use timeouts, and try to win with a late field goal--side note, had Jackson nailed the medium ranged field goal earlier, there would be no decision to be made.

Clemson has a big problem with its redzone offense...2 TD's in 12 or 13 tries is unacceptable and will lose you football games. This has to be fixed. PERIOD.

The line appeared to play pretty well today. Credit is given when it is due. Hopefully Walker at the RT spot will be a solution once Hairston is healthy again. I will attribute this improvement to Pearman's influence, as Fat Brad hasn't really done much with the line since he has been here and he doesn't coach the tackles anymore.

I think the honeymoon for the Dabo/Napier playcalling duo is about to come to a close. I am also confused by the jumbling of formations and disconnect with the flow in playcalling. Clemson runs consistently in the "I" for a few plays, then inexplicably moves to a 5-wide set. While some coaches (Ralph F. in his GT offensive coordinator comes immediately to mind) use multiple formations to run a few core plays to exploit matchup issues, I do not think this is the case. Often, it seems as though the coaches are hell-bent on running a few plays and will insert them just to run them. This continuity and the offensive flow will be something to pay attention to over the next few weeks.

Clemson has to incorporate more than Spiller and Ford into the offense. It is pathetic that we do not have a wide receiver who can fun a half decent route, nor one who can go up and get the football. Besides Ford or Spiller, it does not appear as though Parker is extremely confident with other receivers. CU will need other threats to keep defenses honest and allow Parker more targets down field.

Kyle Parker appears less and less comfortable. He looks like he is throwing off of his back foot a good bit and has to deliver the football before he (or the receiver) is ready. On item that I would like to see more out of KP is making positive yardage with his feet. There have been several occurrences in which Parker has moved out of the pocket with open space in front of him. Parker often tries to do a little much (see interception against GT, where he under threw across his body a wide-open Ford instead of tucking the ball, getting the 3rd down conversion, and moving the offense down the field). Once again, KP is a freshman and will only get better with experience. I expect him to improve greatly between TCU and the end of the season.

The defense overall played well enough to win. There was the fluke pass during the 1st quarter (these things are almost a stroke of luck, and they happen...not too much to bitch about other than just bad luck). Clemson had a good bit of trouble with the qb inside. This is a basic play run by a lot of teams with agile quarterback play. Georgia Tech killed us with a similar play. Defensively, we have a few issues with coverages, but are in a pretty good situation entering into the heart of conference play.

Special teams were pretty bland (compared to previous weeks) with the Tigers missing a very routine 35 (or so) yard field goal in the fourth qtr (this is big because Clemson's red zone offense isn't worth a shit, and we need all the points we can get--it also would have made it a 2 pt game, allowing the Tigers to kick a game-winning field goal later). I really cannot complain too much about the kicking game, other than say that these kicks must be chip-shots. Overall this season, I have been impressed with R. Jackson.

The trip to College Park this weekend is (hopefully) just what Clemson will need to get back on track. UMd lost to MTSU earlier in the season, and should be a relative speed-bump for the Tigers. Let's hope Clemson doesn't waste opportunities like the '08 UMd game and plays all four quarters.

Impressions before looking at the film...14-10 TCU

2009-09-26T18:53:00.005-04:00

-I do hope all the idiots on TardNet Mange Board will shutup about TCU not being able to recruit better than us, and therefore how badly we would defeat them. What you saw was a well-coached team and coaching makes a difference, and they just outplayed us in the 2nd half of this game. We did not play well enough on offense to win.

I'm sure several idiots will say "well they didnt impress me", but if you can't see how well they play coverage and pressure the QB after this game then you need to watch more football. Their offense found a way to move the ball on us. It doesnt make any difference whether they impress, they won.

I'm aware that the first TD was setup by a fluke play, and no I don't believe they'd have driven down to score, but it happened and shouldnt have mattered if we had taken care of business. If Jackson had hit his FG, we'd have kicked the ball at the 2min mark and won 16-14, so the blame is on ourselves and not 'chance'. You cannot put the loss on Jackson either, because the offense's job is to get 6, and they didnt get the job done.

I don't give Dabo a pass for losses, but the team didnt quit and I didn't see us get outcoached, except in the Napier vs. Patterson arena. Still, he's 6-5 now and this team doesnt make clutch plays. If I put blame on him directly for this game, its for his WRs not being taught how to get open.

-I won't say they whipped us, but they handled our defensive front well in this game. We didnt dominate, they didnt dominate. We did not get enough pressure on blitzes and our guys were just a hairs-breadth off on pass coverage, but some plays could've been made in the secondary and were not.

Defensively, I think we really lost the game only because we couldn't stop a simple zone read play. I did not expect Dalton to run as well as he did, though I knew he could scramble. This really was the only frustration I had in watching us play defense and we'll look at the defensive breakdowns this week on the blog. The play is designed basically like GT's FB option but from shotgun, the QB reads the DE to the playside, and if he collapses in, he takes it himself, otherwise he hands it off to the back. A LB should be there to back him up, and I didn't see Maye, Conner, or Cooper/Alexander anywhere near it. Looked like they got deked out by the Line motion.

Our Ends were out of position on many of these plays due to overpursuit. Dalton finished with 86 yards rushing.

-Offensively, I am proud of Landon Walker for his handling of Hughes. If we're going to be harsh on them for not doing enough at RT any other time, then we have to praise them for doing it right. Hughes was about as well-handled as he could've been with Hairston out, even when flipped to the left side on Lambert (who did get beat by Hughes several times). We ran at him, and chipped him with the TE's several times to keep him in check.

But, Parker was still rushed several times and had to throw sooner than planned. He did not make good decisions with the football, particularly in the 2nd half. He was just off on several touch throws and looked inexperienced again. I was not paying close attention to their secondary movements, but it appeared to be the same coverage scheme (still cover 25/man) in both halves of the game so I'm not sure why we did not attack the post more with Spiller or Jacoby, the seam in the Cover 2 is right down the middle. The play that worked against GT with D. Allen was called and Parker missed it. It would've won the game.

-I thought playcalling in several situations was average-to-poor, and I dont like how it took us so long to call run plays in the 3rd Quarter. There seems to have been no adjustment until the 4th. We don't execute on 3rd downs because we don't set ourselves up on 1st down, and when we do it seems Parker forgets that he only has to hit the underneath man to get the 1st. Several times I saw CJ open in the flat and he wasn't even looked at.

-Our WR's, other than Jacoby, still don't get open. Ashe dropped a critical pass that hit his hands again. Clemson must find a way to get other WRs involved in the passing game. If they are on the field and never get the ball, then the coach has to find a way to make sure they do get the ball. If they aren't open, teach them how. If they can't catch balls that hit their hands, don't put them in. If they can't run routes worth a flip, teach them how.

-Harper still doesnt run with authority. Ellington got no touches, I think I'd have had him in there instead of Harper. CJ had to come in when Harper couldn't do well enough to spell him, making him more tired.

-CJ Spiller finally got enough carries at RB, and though he deserves a week off from the obvious pain he's in, I hope it continues next week. I can take Ellington not getting touches if they are going to CJ, CJ can break a game open on one play.

-GOD DAMN snaps cant be FUCKED up by game 4. FIX IT.

-Good use of the TEs in the game, chipping Hughes and catching key passes in the flat and intermediate areas, but I know they would've been open over the middle.

-The referees were harsh in this game, alot of those calls were no-calls in my opinion, even though the majority went against TCU. One of the PI calls early in the game was awful. However, #70 for TCU held many times and it wasnt called.

Both of us watching a Clemson game, courtesy our long lost cousin in Bammer

via EDSBS

TCU preview

2009-09-25T21:07:00.001-04:00

#15 TCU (2-0) with wins over UVA and Texas State.
Head Coach: Gary Patterson

TI Preview

Offense-A spread/pro-style, not all that disimilar from our own in some respects. Its quite balanced and RB J. Turner is quite good, as are the freshmen behind him through 2 games. QB Andy Dalton threw for 2500 yards last year and yet TCU is primarily a running team, so he's the type that doesnt lose a game for you. Dalton is a very consistent game manager who doesnt turn the ball over much or take big risks, which I would expect from a defensive-minded coach. Dalton is capable of scrambling, but in the several games I saw, he's mostly a statue in the pocket. TCU tends to use alot of 3/4 wide sets in shotgun with a TE and RB, and then also quite a bit of power-running formations to get good matchups. Its what I call an offense that spreads you out just to run on you. TCU also brought back their leading receiver. Their OL is tough and well-coached, but they have never faced a DL as talented as ours. Not even Oklahoma was as talented up front last year.

I do not expect TCU to cause tremendous problems for us, they do not have the same skill talent on offense.....assuming we didnt forget how to tackle.

Defense-Patterson does what Danny Ford once did: he gets speedy athletes and puts them all on defense, then coaches them up to play. Future NFL 1/2nd Rd pick Jerry Hughes (4.5 sacks already) came in as a RB.

We've written the article on the 4-2-5 TCU runs, but this defense loses 7 starters off last year's team, and thats the only reason I think Clemson can have an edge on them. If this was 2008, I'd predict loss, because no way our OL could handle the pressure. The unit has had at least one sack in 26 consecutive games. Their secondary is good at CB, but weaker at safety. They lose 3 of 4 DL starters, only Hughes returned, so we should "in theory" be able to do something with the other side of the line.

But TCU plays pressure, and have been susceptible to big plays. OU beat them on long plays last season, not sustained drives. Virginia had some success with their new spread in the running game, due to the very large splits on their OL. Generally Cover 2 teams dont zone blitz as much (recall Tampa 2 is actually Cover 3) because with two playing deep and one underneath zone being vacated by a blitzer, it creates an extra seam or a mismatch with a DL on a receiver over the middle. However with 5 DBs, and split coverage, TCU has fared better with it.

As of right now, Hairston is still leaning to "no-go" but its a gametime decision. IF we cannot have him in, then Plan B must be to run directly at Hughes and wear him out, as well as keep the TE in to block. If I were Napier, I would try to take advantage of overpursuit by running HB screens to Spiller, but since he didnt do it against Morgan, who the hell knows.

(Continuing) items to look for this season

2009-09-22T06:37:00.003-04:00

In a recent spot for Raycom, I listed a few items that I felt both myself and Dr. B would be watching for over the course of this season. I will share them here and throw in commentary as we go along. These core issues are problems that we think may plague the Tigers over the course of the year along with some items that looked pretty good. The initial concept was based on the MTSU and (mainly) CU's performance against GT. I suspect the problems on this list will be dynamic and initial concerns/praises of critically will need to be adjusted...this is just a starting point. I will point out ongoing comments with different color texts.

First and foremost, this team appears to be quite a bit tougher, both physically and mentally. Physical toughness was evident last Thursday in the second half. Georgia Tech’s defensive front looked fatigued at the end of the game. Clemson was able to successfully run the football, and run the ball between the tackles. This fact in and of itself is a monumental accomplishment from the year prior. Along the same lines, I am really excited about the development of R. Taylor and his ability to contribute to this offense thus far (if you need further proof of Taylor’s physical play, watch the long wheel route Spiller scored on last week…RT laid the blitzing linebacker out). The same toughness is seen on defense. The Clemson defensive front has played outstanding the first few weeks, neutralizing the Yellow Jackets potent flex offense for most of the football game. McDaniel has been a crucial force in the secondary. His play has been phenomenal. This defense could be one of the better Clemson defenses that we have seen in years.
There is no doubt that this team is tougher than last season. The team seems to hit a little harder and believe that things are going to go their way. The defense in particular has played tremendous so far and really took it to BC all day. I particularly am impressed with the Sapp/Bowers/Alexander (with Bowers at DT) in obvious passing formations. Each of these guys can get after some one's tail. Sapp played particularly well last Saturday and looked really quick on the BC film.

While physical toughness is more easily assessed, this team has shown signs of increased mental toughness. Once again, with really only the GT game to assess, Clemson fought back from some difficult circumstances. After digging a huge hole early on, the Tigers clawed their way back, overcame more adversities out of their control (officiating) and had a very good chance to win the football game. This shows a lot of heart and character. This will to win and never give up attitude is something we haven’t seen in quite a while. The overall positive attitude throughout the game and into the post game presser showed a team and group of coaches that seemed to believe it had what it took to win.
This team believes in itself. Having the right "can-do" attitude and accepting responsibility seems to be something that continues to resonate from the top down. Again, it is easy to be positive when things go your way, especially when you are playing a severely inferior opponent like CU did with BC. I think that we will see the Tigers face more adversity (specifically when Clemson has the football) against TCU. This game should give a pretty good measurement of how this offense will play against a good defense and how Kyle Parker will adjust to leading this team for four quarters. This is the week that we will see how good or bad this offense really is.

Second, this is a very exciting football team. Clemson has two players (Spiller and Ford) who have the ability to make a huge play anytime either touches the football. The Tigers have made quite a few big plays so far this year. Such explosiveness keeps this team within striking distance under any circumstances.
Spiller opened the scoring for the Tigers with a 77 yard punt return, and also contributed 77 yards on 17 carries until being held out of the game--the announcers continuously reminded us it was a "coach's decision,"--let's hope he can stay healthy. You have to wonder how much longer this season the opposition will kick the ball to Spiller.

Third is Kyle Parker’s maturity as a Freshman. We all knew he had an arm, but I really did not expect to see the poise I have seen thus far out of this young man. His decision making has been pretty good and throws positive (for the most part). It appeared that after he settled down last week (basically after the first period), Parker was ready to be this team’s leader.
Kyle Parker seems to have taken a step back this week. Parker had quite a few throws and quite a few poor decisions (as seen with the 2 INT's and a mere 100 yards passing the ball). Parker will have to make better decisions from here on out. He will also need to move the defense with his head (look off safeties) and not rely on J. Ford all night (which I guess involves someone else on the team stepping up--could be Clear or Jones). Regardless, while this offense needs to feed the ball to Spiller then Ford, CU has to to be able to count on other team members to step up and make big plays.

This team still has not won a good one yet, and there are many reasons for this. To open, the coaching staff takes full responsibility for the botched quick kick last week. This play has its place, but after a timeout while the defense is in a “safe return” is no time to try something like this. Instead of getting all cute and trying to get your place kicker to nail the coffin-corner, why not simply take a delay of game and run your regular punt unit out? This team is prepared to punt the ball and make necessary tackles. Arguably, this coaching decision and poor on-field execution cost Clemson the football game.
Clemson still has not won a big one yet. However, the Tigers did come out and do what was necessary to dispose of a BC team that historically has given Clemson fits. A win over TCU this week would be a step in the right direction, and bring the attitude and ability portions together.

The improved offensive line is still not at a championship level. This is evident by the RT position becoming revolving door for the big guys. This unit is also not very deep. I am not sure how far this team could go if the injury bug rears its head at some point this year.
After the BC game, I still think we are in poor position as a group up front. I will not elaborate too much on this topic because Dr. B has taken an in-depth look at this group repeatedly. The only item I will add is that Hairston was injured last week and his status for this week is questionable. With Jerry Hughes coming to town, Clemson will absolutely have to utilize extra help to slow the All-American DE down. This help can come through formations (TE or wing to Hughes' side) or keeping a back in on passing situations. If not, Walker and/or Lambert will get beat handily up and down the field.

Sloppy technique has really caused the most complaints from me this year. Missed tackles and dropped passes have littered the early year. There were a few drives GT had that were particularly troubling. In such instances, the Tigers did not wrap up the ball carrier, resulting in extra (unnecessary) yards for the opposition. I am all for creating turnovers, but the first man in must wrap up…the cavalry can follow the initial tackler and try to strip the football. The Ashe drop for an interception against GT and the numerous drops in the season opener (J Ford included) cause worry amongst the receivers. This is a group still has a long way to go, and I will be eager to see if Brandon Clear, Jaron Brown, or Terrance Ashe will be able to step in and be a credible target for Kyle Parker.
Clemson dropped a few balls against BC, but the root problem appeared to be Parker's inexperience. Let's hope this gets better. That being said, Clemson must develop a dependable receiver other than Ford. Clemson also needs a receiver that can go up and grab a jump ball (similar to Rod G.). M. Jones appears to be the closest thing that the Tigers have at this point. I will say nothing negative about the defensive effort last week. The film on this entire group looked excellent.

The inexperience at the head coaching position is always a concern. Until Swinney wins a few big games, you have to wonder how he will respond to big games and high pressure decisions. While I think this staff is composed of many veterans who can help Swinney through tough situations, you just never know until it is time to perform (the reverse pass against GT last year and the quick kick against GT this year were not necessary). Swinney and Napier are a fairly young duo, with neither having too much experience at his current job.
Swinney was able to manage the game this past week against a poor BC team. Despite kicking six (6) field goals, Clemson did not do anything that jeopardized giving the game away (probably because BC would have to score on ST or Defense to even get close). This week should give the young coach and offensive staff more of a challenge. Oh yeah, we HAVE to score TD's at some point to win tough football games.

Based on the first two games, there are a few things that I will be watching over the duration of the year. How will the Tigers get over a tough loss? When adversity strikes again this season (whether in the form of injury, poor officiating, etc…), how will this team come back? Football, like life, deals a tough hand some times. I will be interested to see how hard the Tigers fight back when things get tough. If this team is as resilient as it was against GT, there should be nothing to worry about.

How physical will this football team be up front at the end of the season, and will the Tigers have 5 offensive linemen that come out each week and bring the war to the opponent? One of Swinney’s major goals over the off-season was to bring a more physical brand of football to Pickens County. So far, this team hits a lot harder and is much more intense than previous years. It will be interesting to see if they can maintain this attitude and style of play for four quarters every week for the next two months. It will also be interesting to see how well Lambert and Landon Walker respond to what looks like a season-long competition for the RT spot.
It looks like we will get to see Lambert and Walker on the field together a lot more that anyone wanted. It is crucial that neither of these guys get embarrassed at any point this year. It is imperative that these guy improve week to week. C Lambert, in particular, has all the physical tools to be a really good lineman...let's hope we are singing a different tune about his play by year's end. Overall, the line continues to need more push. I want to see a member of the opposing team's d-line on his ass every offensive play of every game.

Is Kyle Parker really this far ahead of the curve? One thing that is evident about Kyle Parker since his arrival on campus is his maturity and ability to perform immediately. KP has been a force on the CU baseball team for two seasons, including a Freshman campaign during what should have been his senior year of high school. Parker has made excellent decisions so far. After the first quarter against GT, he settled down and really played fantastic. I will be looking to see how the season wears on him and how he comes back from adversity over the next ten games. Freshman QB’s that contribute this much this early are rare, and I think everyone is excited to see how KP evolves with some experience under his belt.
KP was clearly not as sharp against BC as in earlier contests. He is, though, a freshman and experience is critical in college football. His completion percentage is low and he has thrown some poor INT's this year. It will be interesting to see him against this TCU defense this week. Hopefully the confidence has not been shaken and we will see a poised QB deliver the ball to the appropriate spots. I will be curious to see KP's selection of receiving targets as the season rolls on as well as his advancement in looking off safeties.

Coaching decisions are things that will be constantly analyzed and criticized over the course of a season. Swinney and company’s ability to adequately prepare for and manage a game will become evident as the year progresses. In game adjustments will show the staff’s comfort with personnel and schemes. I think these guys did a good job throughout the GT game of making constant adjustments, with Clemson improving in all areas as the contest progressed. Further proof was the neutralization of #91 in the second half (move Hairston to RT and provide support with a TE/back constantly chipping). Mid-game adjustments are new to Clemson football, and so far they have gained most everyone’s praise.
Swinney and the Tigers won a sloppy offensive game last Saturday. All year we have heard of this killer mentality and a commitment to becoming more physical. Swinney had better get the offense in gear, as squandered opportunities in the Red Zone will come to haunt this team at some point this year if we can't score from short-range. After the game was in CU's control against BC, Swinney was content to run the ball and the clock out and move forward. As noted earlier, I have no tolerance for dumbass risks and "cute" plays that end up screwing your team over. In fact, I would prefer that we not even need to throw the ball and simply run the iso all day long.

The final aspect is the kicking game. Richard Jackson has one heck of a leg and has been pretty accurate so far. The ability to get three any time you are inside your opponent’s 35 yard line really helps win games and gives everyone more confidence. Other aspects of CU’s special teams play (other than the botched quick kick) have looked really good. Kick and punt coverage has been good and everyone knows that either CJ or Jacoby can go the distance as a return man. With Clemson’s defense poised to have a great year (note, there is not much on defense that I am wondering about), can Clemson eliminate poor special teams decisions and avoid giving up the big plays that have haunted the Tigers in previous years? Last week, special teams was the deciding factor against the Tigers. Let’s see how the rest of the ‘09 campaign plays out.
Other than poor decisions by the coaches, the special teams for Clemson this season have been pretty special. Richard Jackson has shown accuracy to go with his cannon leg. CJ did it again last week against BC. Let's keep up the good work with this portion of the game!

Inside the TCU 4-2-5 Defense

2009-09-21T14:10:00.004-04:00

When I went hunting for information about Gary Patterson's 4-2-5 scheme at TCU, I found almost nothing. Very little information is out there about it, but I did manage to find a partial download of their Cover 2 playbook scheme as well as Patterson's published article at a Nike Clinic about his defensive philosophy, along with help from Coach Huey's forums. Here I'll digest the important pieces to give a preview of what we will see against TCU next saturday.

A 4-2-5 and a 4-4 scheme (Virginia Tech) are not terribly different in general. You will need quick SS types to play LB in a 4-4, or matchup on TEs and the like in a 5 DB secondary. What is different about what Patterson does is in how he teaches it. When I read these articles, I was surprised at what they do in installation. Most coordinators will tell you that your coverage works with your front 7's alignment, i.e., one can dictate the other. You dont do crazy things with your LBs in a normal 4-3 because they could be totally out of position to get into their zones or man-coverage on a pass play.

But Patterson teaches them totally separately and believes the coverage is totally independent of the front aligntment.

Our fronts and coverages have nothing to do with each other. The front is called by the use of a wristband. We break down our first 6 or 7 opponents and put the fronts on the player's wristbands. We dont have to teach anything new to our players during the season. The team's may change, but the fronts do not. We do teach during the season, but we dont have to re-teach our fronts.

Patterson's then does one other thing other coordinators dont: he divides his secondary coverages into two calls called by the safeties to each side. In effect, his FS calls the coverage for one side, and the Weak Safety for the opposite side, dividing the offense down the middle. Most teams check off their coverage and make calls based on formations, but Patterson does not do this. In his words:

“We divide our packages into attack groups. The 4 DL & 2 LB’s are one segment of our defense. We align the front 6 and they go one direction. The coverage behind them is what we call a double-quarterback system. We play with 3 safeties on the field. We have a strong, weak and free safety. The free and weak safeties are going to control both halves of the field. They are the quarterbacks and they will make all the calls…

…In our coverage scheme we are going to divide the formation at the center every snap. We play with 5 defensive backs in the secondary…

…[If the passing strength is to the defensive left] the FS calls ‘read’ left. The FS is going to talk to the LCB, SS, and the read side LB. The weak safety aligns on the other side and talks to the right corner and right LB…

…Starting in spring practice, the 1st Mon. we teach Cover 2 (Robber). On Tues. we teach our Blue coverage (quarters)….On Wed. we teach squats-&-halves coverage (Cover 5). After that we are done teaching our zone coverages…

…We don’t worry about formations any more. When you divide the formation down the middle, to each side there are only 3 formations the offense can give the secondary. The offense can give you a pro set, which is a tight end and wideout; a twin set, which is 2 wideouts; or some kind of trips set that the defense will have to defend. That is all they can give you.

In 3 days we teach our kids to line up in all 3 coverages against those formations…when we start talking about our game play, we never talk about lining up. All we talk about is what the opponent is going to be doing and how we are going to adjust to it.

Unless the offense lines up in a 3-back wishbone or a no-back set, there are only 3 ways the offense can be aligned and still be sound. Unless we want the coverage to overplay something to one side, we don’t worry about formations….

The Defensive Front
Basically, they normally align their DT’s in a 3-tech to the strong side, and either a Shade or 1-tech weakside. This is similar to what Clemson put against Georgia Tech. The advantage of playing your Nose Guard shaded off the Center's shoulder is that when he charges inwards, he can control both A-gaps. Their DE’s align in a 6-tech (head-up on TE) if there is a TE and in a loose 5-tech if no TE (just outside the OTs shoulder). Essentially their front will align either to the boundary/field (short/wide side) or a slight change based on whether a TE is on the OL. They do not flip-flop their DE's based on the formation or hash, only their DTs.

In blitzing, a small number of relatively simple calls can be combined into 157 distinct calls. But with the way he has simplified it, a DT only has to memorize 6 words to accomplish a variety of maneuvers and stunts.

…(When we blitz) the secondary doesn’t care what is going on with the front and LB’s. All they know is there is going to be a blitz and both LB’s are going to rush. That tells them they have to cover everybody if there is a pass…

…If there is a double smoke (an outside S blitz from both) being run, the FS knows the SS and WS are blitzing off the edge. He has to talk to the 2 LB’s to get them into coverage…

As far as blitzes go, its not the usual zone blitz with Cover 3 behind it that most teams, including Clemson, tend to run because of the split coverage to each side. TCU is not a heavy zone-blitzing team. They will blitz with Cover 2 Robber behind it, but for the most part are playing straight Man with a blitz. An offense cannot run base man protection schemes against them, because of their use of the twist and slide games (stunts essentially).

Coverages
For the majority of the time, TCU is a Cover 2, Cover 5, or Man defense, but with Cover 3 in zone-blitz situations. What they tend to do against 2-back sets is slide a safety down into the box, so it looks like a 4-3, and play Cover 2 Robber to the side of the passing strength.

…In the secondary we have 3 basic zone coverages. We split the difference in those 3 coverages and it gives us 9 total coverages…We can also play cover 25. That means we are playing Cover 2 (Robber) to the FS side and Cover 5 to the weak safety side. The 1st digit in the number is the FS side and the 2nd digit is the weak side…

The problem with a 4-2-5 has usually been inadequacy against the rush. Against a Strong offset-I formation, for example, TCU will shift their LBs over to the strongside (called a slide) and slide the WS down into the box at the last second. With 3 DBs playing on the strongside, the Robber coverage call is unaffected. Despite the lack of another LB, TCU still manages to have one of the best rush defenses in the country because of these presnap shifts.

What is Cover 2 Robber? To the 2 WR side, for example, the SS and CB will matchup across the LOS with the FS playing deep-half. The FS watches the backfield for play-action, and once he reads pass his eyes immediately go to the #2 (slotman). If #2 runs vertical, SS stays with him. If #2 runs an out, the SS waits for #1 and is watching for a curl or post route by watching the guy's hips. He'll be underneath the route most likely to "rob" it.

If the hips sink, he's going to break and stop (like a curl). Then the SS jumps the route. Otherwise he goes with him on the post.

If #1 runs an in/out route, the CB calls "in" or "out" and the SS must get under the route to "rob" them. The CB is not responsible for them. On posts, the FS is meant to get under

On the weak side, there will only be the WS and CB on the #1 receiver, and the combination will play what is called "squat and half" coverage or "bracket" coverage. This means the CB will come up to try to squat or sit on routes (bumping the WR at the LOS) with the WS playing deep coverage. Bracket coverage looks a little like a Cover-2 zone, except that the first defender never peels off the receiver to defend the flat. Both defenders maintain high-low coverage throughout the receiver's route. Note that by "weak" I am talking about passing strength, not the Split-end side. The weak side would be a TE and Flanker, which are not as good at receiving as two true WRs to the strong side.

Cover Blue: Cover Blue is a cover 2 "Read", where the FS and WS both have halves, and the corners are in a read (called Blue technique) which means they will follow the #1 receiver vertical unless #2 releases outside before 8 yards deep. In this case the FS and WS will cover the #1 receiver. In a sense this is also Cover 4 (quarters).

Together with a cover 2 robber scheme to the other side, recall the coverage is called by the S to each side, it would be difficult for the QB to read.

The difference between robber and blue is who has flat, curl and wheel responsibilities. Cover 2 Robber: CB has #1 deep and post. SS has #2 flat, curl. Generally on a wheel route, they run the FS down and leave the SS underneath. FS has #2 vertical. If #2 runs an out, rob #1. Blue is 2 read but safety run support (SKY). CB plays outside #1 but on top of route if #2 blocks. If #2 to flat, CB stops feet and WS gets over top of #1.

Cover 5: A true Cover 2 look with CBs in Cloud (they have run support). The Free and Weak safeties are playing 2 deep zone with 5 men playing zone underneath. In other playbooks I've read, Cover 5 is a Cover 2 Man-under scheme, but not in TCU's. Also, TCU runs a matchup zone coverage like Clemson does now (not like V. Koenning, who ran a spot drop, like BC does) so it might as well be man/man. They almost never play the whole field in Cover 5, only one side.

Highlights of them shutting down Texas Tech:

2008 highlights:

Clemson downs BC 25-7

2009-09-20T18:13:00.006-04:00

CUAD Postgame notes, and Dr. Saturday's post mortem on BC.

Since the Defense raped BC's front, I'll spend more time looking at the offensive playcalls and the OL play than usual. I'd rather not go almost play-by-play, but since the playcalling bugged me so much I'm going to for this one.

-First play starts out well with a corner route to Ford on the boundary, then a huge cutback lane on the next play gives Spiller another first down. Good block by Austin to spring him free. 3rd play is a WR screen and Clear fails to make a block, loss of 3. I don't agree with the play call, the defense could be punched in the mouth, I would run it again or look deep. 4th is a coverage sack when Parker had time and opportunity to make a throw, but McClain just let the guy release. On the INT, BC zone blitzed two men up the A gap right into Parker's face, and he threw off his back foot into the LB's hands. Ball shouldve been deeper, but this throw was forced by their pressure. Clemson didnt have people inside to block 2 extra guys, but this could've been handled better, the gap between Cloy and McClain opened right up. McClain blocked his man, but the DE backed off into coverage.

-Defense forces quick 3 & out, Spiller returns the punt 73 yards for the only CU TD of the game.

-Defense would have another 3 & out but for the PI call. Steele calls blitzes from the SS and then the Nickelback Gilchrist on the next play from the slot, and the pressure forces the QB to make a bad decision and throw. The pass was tipped by the WR with Conner on him, and Hall picks it off at midfield.

-Clemson comes out in I, BC shows blitz so we audible out into shotgun, then Parker stares down Ford the entire time. The ball was underthrown again, and a little behind him on what looked like an out route and the LB underneath Ford picks it off. The audible is fine, and the call is good, but the execution got us.

-D 3 & out.

-Next Clemson drive starts inside the 10 due to a holding call on the punt return. CJ gets the first by himself on two plays, then we get outnumbered up front on the next. Another WR screen to Jacoby was set up well, but their LB got off Cloy's block and made the play. Clemson was conservative in playcalling and should've been so inside our own 20.

-D 3&out, and Bowers/Sapp weren't even in on the series. Goodman and Branch both made good tackles. Ford returns the punt to their 45, and another block in the back pushes us back to our 30.

-Harper in at RB, a designed zone read play goes nowhere because no hole opens to the right side and he doesnt cut it back. Harper needs to turn upfield and run it, we should run wide with Ellington and Spiller, not Harper. Parker overthrows Jones on the next play. BC blitzes 5 on the next play, the line picked it up, and he scrambled for the 1st, but our WRs were bunched together on their routes, you cant get guys open when their routes are both little hitches side-by-side. Harper stopped in the backfield by a man shooting up the middle on a play where McClain goes with the FB right and Cloy gets sandwiched and falls down. The next play looks like a called QB Draw for no gain, there was no blitzer to force him to run it himself. Dumb call, throw the ball. Punt. End of 1st.

-D 3 & out. Spiller gets us excellent field position again on the return at the BC 42.

-Clemson runs some zone plays to the left and gets some good yardage into the redzone. Then we try a Wildcat formation play and Spiller gets nowhere, I dont like the call, stick with what we can run and dont run around the perimeter inside the red zone, run right at them. Ellington takes a zone read (they listened to me!) and gets to the corner but not enough for the first. On 3rd down they blitz off the corner, we dont pick it up well, and Parker has to throw it away. FG 10-0.

-BC loses yardage on their first play, then the QB pulls out from under center and Thompson gets the ball back for us at the 8.

-First play is a handoff right side to Spiller to the 5 hole, but Walker did make his block as did McClain. A LB jumped into the hole and CJ bounced it out and they strung it out for lost yardage. Diehl looked to have taken the right man, and Ashe was blocking his man, but Ashe released him and he was the one that strung it out. The next is a shotgun PA screen to Ford stopped for a loss, again don't like the call, go for the endzone. Third down play is a 2-back "almost-pistol"-formation option play, Korn looks to pitch and his man is covered, then he makes the only decision left and holds it, and is tackled behind the line. Do not like this call either, we should've taken one shot into the endzone, and not tried to run perimeter plays in the red zone, when we did have success running inside earlier. Where is the killer instinct? MAN UP AND RUN RIGHT AT THEM. FG 13-0. We should be up 17 right now.

-D 3 & out.

-Incomplete PA pass to Marquan at the first down sticks was thrown into coverage, when Spiller looked open underneath. Parker did not look off Jones. Hitch to Palmer gets the 1st down, then an end around to Ford gets close to another. Spiller would've gotten more than the next first down on a power play had McClain gotten anything on his block. On another inside zone play, the OL blocks well but again McClain is getting beat by his man, Spiller still gets the 1st. BC shoots the gaps on the next inside play and strings CJ out as we enter the redzone again. Harper takes another inside zone left, but cant break the tackle. Parker rolls right on a designed play and both WRs on that side are covered as he throws it out of bounds. FG 16-0. Playcalling here wasnt so much an issue. The play that was strung out was designed to go inside, and the rollout was a fine play call, but there shouldve been another man following the two WRs into the boundary and I dont see him. Parker wouldve had time to set and throw back to midfield.

-D 3&out. A bad punt gives us the ball at our 40. We get the ball with about :40 left. Parker is blitzed off the corner on 1st down and throws it away, Ellington drops a pass in his breadbasket on 2nd, and on 3rd down sails a throw to Ellington. We didn't even run off 25 seconds. Punt, and BC takes the knee.

Halftime
Clemson has had no drive over 40 yards.

-D 3&out.

-We get the ball at midfield. Harper runs right on 1st down, and just doesnt fire into the hole, no gain. A WR screen to Ford gets a few yards. A pass in the flats to CJ gets only 2. CJ takes a toss sweep right for the first. PA to Ford would've been a TD if Parker had taken a little bit off. A short pass to Ashe gets 7, and an inside WR screen to Ford doesnt benefit from any blocking. BC blitzed at the same time so Parker was rushed. Jackson kicks a 52 yarder, 19-0.

Normally a WR screen would work great if they blitz you, so the call was fine, but the play had to develop a little faster and nobody blocked. L.Walker was standing still and Ford ran right into him.

-McDaniel picks off the deep ball in what looks like Man-Free coverage at our 46.

-Ford is double covered and Parker never takes his eyes off him then sails one over his head. Why not look underneath or left? Harper takes a Draw nowhere, and Palmer's catch sets up 4th & 1. The 4th down play was a power play to Ellington, and Deihl does not make his block, and Austin doesnt execute a cut block either (either that or he tripped). Hairston was actually lined up at TE on the right side here, and doesnt make a great block. It didnt look like he fell down well either, I suspect this is where he got hurt.

-D 3&out. First lightning delay.

-Spiller is still in the game here after the delay, but only two plays that I see. Lambert is in at LT. McClain again gets beat by his man. Parker hits Palmer for a 1st down. Coverage shows that if we tried for an inside route, we'd be hitting it all day. They show a Cover 2 look to me. BC blitzed and good coverage on 3rd down forces a punt.

-BC gets their first yardage because Jenkins missed the QB in the backfield on the PA fake, and he scrambles 18 yards. A few plays later he scrambles again on an inside blitz where we missed him and gets another first down. End of 3rd Qtr. Bowers didnt miss him on the next play, lined up from a 3-tech DT position. 7 plays for 32 yards, this was their best drive of the game.

-Ellington fumbles on the very next play. He was carrying it high across his chest and the LB popped it out.

-On BCs TD play, they showed us a bunched set, with 3 receivers to the right side. We blitzed one LB up the backside A/B gap and another around the backside corner. McDaniel was in close, and lets his man go right by him. He was supposed to bump him and backpedal. The FS took the inside receiver to protect the post, which was his only choice. The Corner took #2 into the flat but didnt look to see #1 running behind him into the corner of the endzone. Miscommunication and assignment. 19-7.

2nd lightning delay.

-Clemson opens with the ball again. End around to Ford, then a Power play with Lambert unable to seal off the backside when Austin pulls out. On 3rd down Parker hits Marquan on the boundary for a first inside their 25. We try to run perimeter plays again with Jones on the end-around and get nothing, then they blitz off the left side on 3rd down, it isnt picked up and Parker has to rush his throw and it falls incomplete. STOP RUNNING THESE PERIMETER PLAYS. FG 22-7.

-D 3&out.

-Really, Clemson should call conservatively to run clock, and we are able to run the ball inside. Norris is in the game at RG, and he and Cloy got good push here. Ellington blows into the hole much quicker than Harper on some of these zone plays. Parker hits Ellington on a PA pass on a flare route for the 1st, which was really a great play call right here. But then Harper comes in and the OL just isnt creating push and he isn't cutting back or doing anything but fall down. Parker overthrows Ford on another corner route. Punt downed at the 1. I dont think we blew assignments here, Harper doesnt have the explosion that Ellington has, the crease was there.

-Meeks picks off the next pass that was really another bad throw. Ball was thrown inside on a vertical/skinny post and sailed a bit on him.

-Harper takes a handoff to the left side that goes nowhere, but a penalty pushes us back. Ellington takes the next zone play to the 11. Korn does the right thing by falling down and taking the sack, keeping the clock moving instead of throwing it away, but Ellington did not carry his block through to the end. Harper comes in and falls down as soon as they touch him. I can see going conservative here with the calls, the game is in hand, but honestly I'd have gone for the TD. Another FG, 25-7.

-D forces a turnover on downs and Clemson takes a knee.

Thoughts...
-McClain got beat too much, and didnt look too good to me. Austin looked much better, Walker looked ok, Cloy looked good, and Lambert got beat once or twice. Push was better than I thought up front.
-Clemson ran fewer Power plays and more inside zone plays than before, the left side is doing their job, many times cutback lanes were wide open because the left side had down-angle blocked everyone right.
-Harper just doesnt have the burst into the hole, he looks tentative and plays slower than he should.
-Playcalling in the red zone needs to be more north-south and less east-west, but understand that zone defenses bunch up in the red zone and there arent as many open spaces. Still, scoring against such a defense comes down to the running game and we should've done better. Otherwise I feel like the calls were fine: we were conservative and it was wet, but thats no excuse for 6 FGs and a pattern of inability to score in the red zone this year. As far as I know, its been only once from within the red zone (D. Allen's catch last week).
-The offense will get a first down, possible two, but then can't move the sticks due to blown OL assignment, dropped pass, poor pass or lack of execution offensively.
-BC blitzed at great times and we did not pick it up far too often. TCU will see that. They played good sound zone defense against us.
-Parker made some bad decisions and throws and didnt look off his primary enough, there were open men further downfield to hit. Wet balls are harder to throw but he sailed a few. He seemed too eager to hit Jacoby and doesnt look off.
-I dont think I saw a Clemson defense play this good against a conference team since I was a little kid. Other than the miscue on the TD, I can find nothing critical to complain about.
-Raycom sports highlights available here.

ShoelessCU highlights

This whole OL problem, 2009

2009-09-20T14:30:00.002-04:00

Last year's post on this garbage.

I would say most of us agree that the offensive line has improved over last season, because damn, they could only go upwards from '08. Still, our offensive line is not getting the job done at all. We've faced 3 opponents who had undersized and/or young DLines, and we still cant generate push and control the LOS. We are running many more2-back I-formation plays, and against what we've faced, we should be racking up the yardage.

What do we expect?
Well FF and I only expect some damn improvement week to week, and be able to base block. No team is perfect and everyone has stuff to work on, but if you can't base block (block the man in front of you, man-man) then you can't do anything. No traps, none of this guard-pulling crap, nada.

Brad Scott says a "winning grade" is "75% or better". Thats bullshit. 75% is not winning football against FSU or Miami. 75% gets you 7-5 seasons, not 10-2 seasons. I would put that at 80-85%. You have to expect more to get more. It is a subjective grade based on whether a lineman hits his man/assignment, and his technique on those blocks.

Bear in mind that so far, most of our running plays have been designed to go right. The first two weeks, we ran Power quite a bit. We did not do bad running the ball, but we should be sticking it to MTSU and any inexperienced line with a sandpaper condom. I don't care if they stunt and slant or twist, there still should be open running lanes. There were not so many right-side power plays against BC and we ran inside plays more.

But to tell the truth, we are not missing assignments altogether. The sack against MTSU early was a missed assignment. GT's Morgan beat Lambert's ass up and down the field, but Cory wasn't missing his assignment, he just can't move his feet or keep his hands on anyone. We are BLOCKING the guy we're supposed to hit, but we arent PUSHING him anywhere, that comes down to technique. Its one thing to hit your man, but its another to knock him on his ass. When he bull rushes you, its not assignment that is the issue, its technique. Our technique is what needs work, thats what a coach is there for.

What do we know?
1. Cory Lambert, after beating Landon Walker out for the RT job in spring, still sucks. Danny Pearman says he basically forgot all his fundamentals against Georgia Tech, and I'm anxiously awaiting Pearman's comments again this week about it, because he tells you like it is.
Did you ever see somebody playing HS ball who was a foot taller and wider than everyone else on the field, and then couldnt do a damn thing? Thats what I think of when I see Lambert, a big baby. Hell he's one of the strongest players ON THE TEAM and he takes it like a $2 whore.

2. Antoine McClain was said to be a total monster in spring camp, and pretty much every article I read in May talked about how good he was and how he'd solidified his RG position, but in 3 games, I dont see any of that. He doesnt get raped like Lambert, but he doesnt get as much push as he could.
3. Landon Walker had the RT job last year, then decided to take the winter off and it carried through til August, because he thought he was top dog and wouldnt be challenged for the starting job. I really am more disappointed in him than anyone, because I felt towards the end of last year he was really coming on. Now, Pearman really hasn't praised him at all since joining the staff.
4. No help from the H/TEs in blocking, or at least not enough. It should not take moving Lambert over to LT, he should have the TE or a back held in protection helping him on Morgan. I want Napier to use the TE more, but if he's out on a pass pattern and we still dont throw it to him, and yet the RT needs help, what would you do? If the TEs we have can't block, teach a lineman how to play TE and line him up out there. You won't throw to him anyway so why not?
5. We dont run to the left side. I'll point out that we did try that some, and more against BC. Some of CJs runs against GT were cutbacks off designed right-side plays because they were overplaying the Power by slanting right. However if Thomas Austin is so good, and Hairston is the "Spiller of the OL" as Dabo says, why do we not have HUGE holes open on the left side and more run plays designed to go there? If the holes are there, then where are the plays? If the holes arent, then why are our two guys on the left side so highly rated?

This tells me that either Austin and Hairston arent the all-star types they've been made out to be, or Napier is dumb. Its one or the other. I'll give it to Hairston in pass blocking, and he definitely deserves accolades for that. He handled Morgan until Morgan ran himself out of gas last week against GT, and against Bammer and FSU last year, his absence was NOTICED. Yet I still dont notice him mauling people on run plays.

Thomas Austin can pass block as well, but on Powers and traps, where he has to pull, several times he just doesnt HUSTLE into the hole. Several times he looked tentative and was tip-toeing over there and didnt know who to block. With CJ behind you, you have to RUN over, lower those hips and explode on the first man you see, and he doesnt have that motor switched to ON on some of these plays. If these two are supposed to be our best, then they will get the most criticism from us, and a lack of hustle and fundamentals is what pisses both of us off.

I know the staff has said Hairston will be ok with his sprained MCL, but if he can't go against Jerry Hughes (TCU) or what Miami/FSU will throw in terms of speed, we are in deep deep trouble.

Whose fault is this? Brad Scott's. He has been OL coach since Spence came on staff. He is regarded as one of the best? By who? Show me who comes calling for him? Brad can recruit in this state, and has built many contacts, but what good does it do us to recruit and not develop? Was that lesson not learned over the last 9 years? If you bring them in and they do nothing, its on the coach. Its either bad evaluation in the beginning, or bad development; either way its on Scott.

Look at the OL recruits we have brought in, star ratings by Rivals:
2005:
Thomas Austin - 3
Jamarcus Grant - 3
Barry Humphries - 3
Corey Lambert - 4
Quentez Ruffin - 3
Ruffin is gone, Grant never has been able to do anything. Humphries screwed himself off the team with behavior. Lambert was chased by everyone in the southeast.

2006:
Chris Hairston - 3
Jamal Medlin - 3
...and thats it. This was a smaller class in terms of numbers, and the key went to Defense that year in recruiting. Medlin was a total miss, and unfortunately, can't play. In hindsight, Clemson hurt themselves NOW by going with a smaller class THEN. We should've oversigned.

2007:
Mason Cloy - 3
Wilson Norris - 3
David Smith - 3
Landon Walker - 4
This is the class that comes in after the 2006 season, when the OL play and lack of depth hurt us at the end of the year (remember VT?). Cloy starts at Center, Smith and Norris have been 2nd string Guards.

2008:
Dalton Freeman - 4
Antoine McClain - 4
Kenneth Page - 4
Matt Sanders - 3
Our highest rated OL class coming in. Freeman is 2nd Center, McClain starts at RG, Sanders has been a long-snapper. Page hasn't done anything at all.

2009:
JK Jay - 4
Brandon Thomas - 4
Jay comes in and immediately pushes for RT, WTF? A true frosh should never challenge for the starting job at RT at a place like Clemson. If not for his back, he'd likely be starting by now. Thats a pretty sorry state of affairs. Thomas is also redshirting. Clemson expected Thomas to RS either way, but Jay was expected to help at Tackle.

2010-Projected:
D. Beasley (G)-3
Kalon Davis (G/T)-3
Gifford Timothy (T)-3
Reid Webster (T)-3
All of these are tall enough, and will be over 300lbs before they really play, but where are the 4/5 star players? Timothy is a "project" tackle. Kalon Davis will likely be the best of this class, but we'll see.

3-star players should all be capable of starting by their upperclassman years, or be good solid contributors minimum. 4 star players should contribute early, and with coaching play professionally. Definite starter by upperclassman. 5 star players could play as freshmen at most places, and with a good work ethic and some coaching should certainly play on sunday. Where are the 5 star linemen if Scott can recruit?

Why is Scott so valued then? I realize the coaches divide areas and don't only take positions to recruit, but the position coach signs off any recruit. Position coaches pick em, the coach assigned in that area recruits em to a certain point when the position coach gets involved again. Brad missed on 4 players here altogether: Lambert, Medlin, and Grant....possibly Page. As highly rated as Page was, he should contribute. These guys cant even step on the field without getting whipped.

Also, look at the split between G and T by numbers. We have brought in classes full of Guards. Is it any wonder we have issues at tackle? 2005 was a good split, 2006/2007 has one tackle, 2008 has none. 2010 seems to be an admission that they missed on some guys. If he can't evaluate a guy as being able to play tackle when you need tackles the most, he shouldn't be here. Don't move them all inside because they cant play on the edge, find a coach that can teach them how to play on the edge. Can Pearman turn it around? I hope so. Clearly Scott can only evaluate Guards, so he got moved to interior line coach, but our interior linemen are the ones that get the push up front, and they still cant do it.

So why is Scott here?

Impressions before looking at the film....BC 25-7

2009-09-19T12:45:00.009-04:00

Holy shit what an ugly game offensively. I would not say the offensive line ever controlled the front for BC. If we cant control the front against MTSU, GT, or BC, who can we beat up front? My general impression of the playcalling was that it was FUCKING AWFUL, but I'll wait til I watch it again to pass judgement on Napier for the day.

Artistic rendition of Clemson's OL play:

Special teams was outstanding though.

-Parker is hitting open spaces early, but two throws were poor. The first was underthrown into what looked like a Cover 2, with the LB playing deep middle zone (almost like a Tampa 2). That ball shouldve been about 5-10 yards ahead of the WR. Never underthrow balls down the middle. Missed opportunity. The 2nd was another bad throw, and it appears behind the receiver, who is cutting an out/corner route. Parker doesnt seem to notice the underneath zone player.

All in all, he took a step backwards today and looked young. TCU plays a matchup zone different from BC (more like what Clemson plays), so lets hope the zone defense wasnt what caused issues.

-4-3 Under look during most of this game, and we look damn good, excellent penetration and bad technique by their front line. K. Alexander is playing quite a bit on early downs. I have not seen domination by a Clemson DL like this over BC, ever. They always always give us fits up front, and today we beat them SOUNDLY.

-The fumble was that their QB pulled out from under Center too soon, dont apply bedroom principles to football son. We get the ball in the redzone.

-Korn comes in, floats one in the flat again a little, but they defended it excellently, dont like the play call. They then blitzed him on 3rd down and the right side gave up penetration. Don't put that one on Korn, the right side didnt block on Spiller's 1st down carry either. 4 plays -8 yards, AWFUL. Clemson should be ahead a minimum of 20-0 by now. We are able to move the ball on them, and get the ball in the redzone and cant do shit?

BC however is playing very sound fundamental zone defense, so they deserve credit. They drop to their spots and pay attention, and good zone defense gets really tight in the red zone.

-Clemson is hitting an inside/zone handoff play, very few HB Power plays, a contrast to last week.

"Clemson can get jiggy with you"-Doc Walker is good for at least one dipshit comment per half. I wish to God they'd get rid of Steve Martin.

-Ellington just dropped a pass that hit his numbers for the 1st down at the end of the first half. 16-0, should be 20-0 at least, but given how well we could move it, it could get to 27-0.

137 yards for CU, -2 total yards for BC at halftime.

-I like that Clemson is going for it on 4th downs, because our Defense is playing lights out, but we have got to get more push up front. The 2nd 4th & 1/2 we went for was a HB Power play and the interior line went nowhere but backwards.

-McDaniel's pick, looked like we were in matchup Cover 2, but maybe I didnt see Hall.

Then the lightning delay begins, effectively a 2nd halftime. Chris Hairston is badly injured it seems, and trainers are helping him off the field. I hear its a Sprain. Jamarcus Grant is not dressed today due to fever. Taylor is not playing today because of a violation of team rules.

-We come back out, and the offense STILL cant do anything, and the Defense looks flat. We cant take the extra halftime to make adjustments? BC's QB capitalizes because McDaniel and/or Maye are coming into the B/C gaps on blitzes and not slowing down and watching the pass rush develop a little. If they had their QB would not have been able to scramble. Perhaps shouldve run McDaniel on a delayed blitz.

-Ellington had only one hand on the football on the fumble; he was carrying it high. Bad things happen with Korn in the game today.

-On their only TD, Clemson blitzed and the flexed WR got a little bump and got behind the coverage. I didnt see who missed him, but looks like the FS had to pick the TE or the #2 receiver, picked the TE, and couldnt recover. I think that was a mistake by a LB, who shouldve picked up the TE at the LOS. The CB picked up #1 to his side like he should, and stuck with him into the flat, and the FS should usually pick up #2.

-2nd Lightning Delay, Raycom said they were live streaming, and have fucked it up. Thank you WLOS for ditching the real Clemson fans in the upstate and going to show Nebraska, I dont give a fuck about ABC and the size of this market. Thank you Raycom for promising live streaming, and not having the damn good sense to buy bandwidth so people can watch it.

-I didnt see the next drive that resulted in a FG but did see the highlight of Jones making a big catch and run. CJ is officially out with that toe injury from MTSU.

-Clemson started to be able to run the football, which is all you can do here now, and cant get a drive going. A huge punt pins them at the 1, and then Tuggle throws a deep route inside towards the Safety J.Meeks and he picks it off. Korn comes back in. Ellington bounces one outside down to the 11, watch Korn come up right behind him. Korn goes nowhere on the next play, but does keep the clock moving by taking a sack, and we have to kick it AGAIN. Defense holds and we take the knee.

The defense and special teams are the only highlight to this game, so heres the link to find the new Block-C DF-style caps. Much better than the fucking hideous blue one in Tiger Town.

BC Preview

2009-09-17T19:50:00.004-04:00

Record: 2-0, defeated Northeastern and Kent State handily.
Head Coach: Frank Spaziani, longtime DC at Boston College and a former assistant under George Welsh at UVA.

AthlonSports Preview

Offense-Jagz and OC Steve Logan are gone, as is much of their pass-happy West Coast flavor. They are attempting to transition back to a balanced offense with former NFL coordinator Gary Tranquill (also a coach for UVA under Welsh, and OC at UNC in the early '00s) and the offense had a difficult time adjusting to the new scheme in spring ball.

They return their 2008 receptions leader Rich Gunnell and their top RB Montel Harris (900 yards in '08) and Josh Haden (479yds), but their other WRs are very tall guys. All but one OL is back, and its a mammoth OL. This is the only thing that worries me about BC: their OL has always given us fits.

For the most part, they are a pro-style 1-2 back offense, with some no-huddle. There are similarities with their offense and Clemson's in that respect. Its not a mystery, as Kevin Steele says he has faced Tranquill before and its pretty conventional. Steele says both backs are small and tend to hide behind the big OL, and yet are able to break tackles well in film.

How would you describe a Gary Tranquill offense?

"NFL, traditional. He's going power running game, he's going to formation you to death. Every game there's going to be a wrinkle or two in there formation-wise, something out of unbalanced or motioning or shifting or something that's going to get you discombobulated. You've got to refocus and get it corrected quick. There will be something."

I watched about half of their game against Kent State, and was surprised at their OL play, they were having fits. Steele was asked about that:

What did you make of Kent State's defensive line against Boston College? It looked like they gave B.C. a little trouble.

"There's more in their portfolio than Gary has shown. They were pretty basic in the first two games. I think they were trying to establish themselves physically and take care of the ball. Gary, the guy has coached a bunch of snaps. You've got two freshman quarterbacks. Maybe he held it back because he didn't need it. And being early in the season with two young quarterbacks, you probably don't need to put that much on their plate. I'm sure that's part of it. I mean, those guys are brand new - brand new.

Defense
-BC has really lost a great deal of what made them so good against us the last few years. They lost more of their front-7 talent than anyone in the conference. BJ Raji was a 1st rd pick at DT, and Ron Brace was a 2nd rounder. At MIKE, last year’s ACC defensive player of the year Mark Herzlich was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and will miss the season. Mike McLaughlin, who finished 2nd in tackles last year with 89 (and 10.5 TFL), ruptured his Achilles tendon during spring conditioning. The 3rd LB graduated. They lose only the starting safety from last season's squad that was tied with Florida for INTs at #1.

Schemewise, its pretty traditional like Georgia Tech. A base 4-3 that zone blitzes mostly on early downs and plays a safe 3-5-3 on definite passing situations. They dont trick you, but they do generally tackle well and play good coverage without having the best recruits in the country.

Clemson finally got the BC monkey off our back last year (27-20) in what was likely Dabo's most pivotal win as HC, and recall it was a game Bowden would've lost. Then they turned around and won their last 3 games and the Atlantic Division. Its hard to think that they will have success against our defense with a RS Fr. QB running the show. They will be able to run the ball, but if we stack the box that wont continue. Similarly, with them losing two NFL DTs and LB Mark Herzlich (ACC Def. POY), I dont see their defense posing a terrible amount of trouble for us. Clemson should be able to pound the ball inside and use that to open up the passing game.

BC Visits Tigertown

2009-09-17T17:33:00.005-04:00

Here is what the Tigers need this weekend

Some pure physical play. Obviously, we will be watching what happens up front. Traditionally, Clemson gets pushed around and beat up against the Eagles. BC has been so much bigger and more physical than Clemson since the two schools started playing each other again earlier this decade.
Admittedly, I don't know much about the '09 Eagles (and I don't think that I am alone being ignorant about BC) other than they have beaten the crap out of Northeasten and Kent State.

Here is what the guys at ESPN think: Gameday Preview

Dr. B has done an excellent job breaking down Spaz's defense. An interesting note will be the QB play from BC, and specifically who will be under center for the Eagles. Fr. Justin Tuggle and 25 year old freshman Dave Shinskie have shared snaps for the first two games of the season. Shinskie obviously played some minor league baseball before enrolling at Boston College. With such a lack of experience at the QB position and large bodies on the right side of the offensive line, I would suspect the Eagles will try to assert the running game early. BC does not, however, have a beefy tough tailback that can deliver tough hits.

This game should give Tiger fans a good look at how physically prepared the team has gotten over the off season, and the first full game loo at Landon Walker. By now everyone knows about his slack practice attitude, and hopefully he has made the proper adjustments to become a good offensive lineman for the Tigers this season.

Bottom line for Saturday is that Clemson is much more talented than BC overall. The play of our linebackers will be important, assuming BC gets the normal push that they have gotten over the past few years up front.

First off, Clemson will have to avoid the GT loss hangover. After hearing the players and coaches for the past week, I personally do not think this will be a problem. Dabo is upbeat and has openly stated that he will not let last week's heart breaker affect the balance of the season.

What we will be looking for is the elimination of silly mistakes. Clemson will not be successful this week or any week with missed tackles, poor blocking, and dropped passes. Clemson certainly will not be successful with poor trick play decisions. We want to see Clemson get back to the basics...just line up and beat someone without all the bells and whistles. We want to see four full quarters of good fundamental football out of the Tigers.

On a side note, TDP has listened to all the bitching and moaning and moved the TCU game to 3:30.

Dye quits, Dye doesn't quit

2009-09-17T16:07:00.002-04:00

Per M. Plyler, Dye will practice with the Tigers today, and has reevaluated his decision to quit the football team. Dye will not participate in this week's game against BC.

Why in the hell a player would quit two games in makes no sense. I guess Dye realized the poor judgment displayed by deciding to quit this early and has done the best thing he could do, return to the football program. I will be eager to see the effort and attitude that is shown throughout the course of this season. When he entered Clemson, I had high hopes and was looking forward to seeing Xavier play at Clemson. With our lack of quality depth at receiver (and no one who has clearly separated as the #3 receiver), he could see playing time over the season...

Dye up and quits

2009-09-17T13:10:00.004-04:00

Jr WR Xavier Dye has quit the team 2 games into the season. He asked for his release and it was granted, largely because he was demoted to 2nd team X in favor of Brandon Clear after his drop against MTSU. Dye never played a snap against GT.

EDIT: Dye seems to have changed his mind. He will now be known as Xavier Favre.

From Dan Scott's show:

"I’ve had the opportunity to visit with Xavier a couple of times. I have talked to him about some different things, but he seems to be looking for maybe a different opportunity somewhere else or whatever. We're just kind of working through that process.

"I’ll just say I love Xavier Dye. Just one of the best kids I've ever been around. He’s just worked really hard. But at the same time, competition is a tough thing sometimes.

"We’ve only played two games. It’s a long season. But this is a competitive enviroment. It’s not about who you like and all that kind of stuff. This is a game of performance and when you're in a competitive situation where it’s really close and it’s a lot of competition, you've got to perform. And if not, you've got to give somebody else an opportunity.

"I don’t think he liked where he was at this time after two ballgames. But again it's disappointing to me that he doesn't want to hang in there."

A guy quits 2 games into a season for being demoted? What the fuck? Wouldn't you have the damn good sense to ride the season out and try to get better instead of missing the year of football, and practice to get better in the meantime? Clear is not so far ahead in talent that Dye couldnt get his job back even by TCU.

Dye left Greenwood HS before his senior season because he felt he was getting no exposure, and went to Byrnes. That was dumb in itself. Some transfer issues, as I recall, kept him out for the first half of the year. Now he quits and wants to start at some smaller school. Not a team player. My understanding is that he can quit and play at a 1-AA school next year, not this year, and have 2 years to play 2.

That pattern won't serve him well in life.

I understand some people think he might've been thrown under the bus for the crucial drop, when Ford drops several. Some say he was asked to move to another position and had to learn new things. Youre a Jr, you should know those things if you had your head in the playbook and worked on catching routine passes, it wouldn't be an issue to read coverage and run a route from another spot.

He needs to take time and think this through carefully before he seals the deal.

Inside the Clemson offense: Spiller's TD Play, Pro Wing X Over

2009-09-16T13:19:00.012-04:00

Here we have a breakdown of the TD play to CJ Spiller last week.

The Play
In this "Ace X Over" or "Pro Wing X over" play, the number one receiver (X) runs inside to a deep post over the top to exploit the defensive coverage. X is normally the first QB read on the play, and is meant to draw the FS and CB away from the sideline; if he's open the QB is meant to hit him. His side is the two-WR side, so the progression is likely deep-to-short.

Specifics
X (Jacoby) runs a post, which is a straight run 10-12 yards and then a 45 degree cut inside. The CB on him might be playing zone, but is responsible for the deep post and must stay with him. It is a route used to stretch the defense vertically and open holes underneath.

The H-back follows underneath on a wheel route. A wheel route is simply that the RB runs out on a little flare route (a little curve to the sidelines) and then runs vertical. A flare would be to run out and stop, while the wheel continues. Wheels are useful because the defender will bite when the guy turns around to look at the QB, and come in thinking its just a little dump pass, then the receiver runs right by him. As such, its very useful when they are trying to jump your "out" routes.

The Z receiver (Ashe) runs a Dig/Square-In route. Off the line, he is trying to sell a GO route (straight vertical) and then when he gets to the route depth (10-15 short dig, 15-18 deep) he cuts inwards parallel to the LOS on the Square-In. A dig is just a little different, in that he cuts to show a post initially and then parallel inwards, but we cant tell from this footage.

The TE and Taylor stay in to block. Taylor decleats the blitzing LB. The play is designed to look deep and then short, as most pass plays are, but the QB progression through his reads can change, in general, based on his presnap coverage read (e.g., out to in, or long to short).

A simple variation, if they could handle the DE better, would be to run Ashe a little deeper on his Square-In, and run the TE on the same route (a drag) underneath him.

The Defense
Watch closely what the defense is doing in the play. They align in a 4-3, with the FS aligned about 10-12 deep and over the TE, and the SS about 4x6 off the line (6 off and 4 yards wide). At the last second, GT shows their hand and the WILL comes up to show a zone blitz.

On the snap, this initially looks like straight Cover 3 to both of us, but watch the rest of the play and that FS. The SAM reads run first, and sits over in the flat zone. The FS aligns over the top of the TE, and isnt watching the post at all. If anything this might be 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 Cover 3, but perhaps a combo coverage (zone + man). His hips open to the strong side (he would never focus that much on one side of the field in a straight 3) and he sits instead of backpedalling. They have to be playing zone (on the TE's side) because the strongside corner is not to be found on the dig route and the FS's head is on a swivel (and looking into the backfield) and eventually turning to run with the Z when he comes across the field.

Then watch the Wolf (GT's LB/SS hybrid). His eyes start in the backfield and he immediately moves with Spiller. We don't think the GT defense realized that Spiller was lined up in a wing spot when this defense was called. They probably saw Taylor come in and checked to this play without looking to see he was the tailback. By the time the SS realized what was going on, Spiller had his shoulders turned up field and the defender was totally screwed.

A very similar play (with the TE running underneath) is used by USC in this video on QB Reads, check it out.

Swinney Press Conference: BC

2009-09-15T19:35:00.003-04:00

On Boston College:

This is our first division game, which is obviously very critical for both teams. We're excited about getting back to Death Valley and playing well in front of the home folks. It's a typical BC team. Those coaches do a great job.

Defensively they are what they are. Every year they're one of the best defenses in the conference. It's very hard to consistently move the ball on them. They're consistently one of the best against the rush. They don't beat themselves. They play good fundamental defense. They have some young linebackers and they look pretty good to me. Just looking at them in the first two games, they're the No. 1 scoring defense in the conference. They've held their opponents to 19-percent on third down.

"Offensively, the first thing that jumps out at you is that they're very balanced. They've got six starters back on offense. Four of their five guys up front, which his where they've been really good, those guys are back. The biggest thing this year is that they've got two quarterbacks. They've had a guy who has been the starter. Now, they've got two guys who will play. They won't change their system for either one, although No. 7 looks like a guy they may use to run some zone-read. That's obviously something that we'll have to prepare for.

Indeed, BC has always given us fits on the defensive side of the ball because of their ability to force you to move the ball consistently and put drives together to beat them. Its a 4-3 base, and they generally go for the big heavy guys up front, and that stops alot in the running game. Its mostly a cautious Cover 3 spot-drop zone coverage, but with that as a base, you can get creative with blitzes within a 3-5-3 alignment they play in definite passing downs, but generally BC blitzes on early downs to try and make you go further on 3rd down. Its always been a fundamentally sound defense without much in the way of flash or aggressiveness, and they have always tackled well against us.

Does BC tend to do something unique with their pass rush or how they line up?

Swinney:"No. It's here they are, come get you some. They are what they are. They do what they do. They don't try to trick anybody. They line up and try to play sound, fundamental football. They blitz and will slant linemen from time to time, but they're not exotic by any means. Let's see if you can go 80 yards against us. You have to take advantage of opportunities when they do come. That's what I think we've done a good job of in the past. Most of our big plays against these guys are where we've just gotten in space and made a play. They're good tacklers."

Offensively, their OL's ability to control the LOS fairly well has always nullified any aggressiveness against them, but so far this year they have had more trouble with the pass rush than before. Its a traditional NFL offense, very multiple with a new wrinkle every week, and West Coast-based. One and two-back pro-set formations. They are pretty small backs, but elusive and make good yardage after first contact. Clemson will have to learn to make better tackles and not go for the turnover on every play. Several times against GT I saw our guys try to strip instead of bring the QB/RB down. This means that they arent the power team they were in O'Brien's days, and you can expect 5 receivers out in pass patterns that give a high percentage of completions. They arent flashy on offense either, but they play sound and dont turn the ball over or make many mistakes that kill themselves.

On last year's game, a game many of us believe Bowden would've lost:

Was that win last year up there the most important for you?

Swinney: "Could be. Had we lost it, who knows. It was a step in the right direction. You could tell that the team had changed. But I think the turning point was the Georgia Tech game. The BC game set the change in emotions mentally. Hey, let's keep doing what we believe in. I think that game kept those kids believing amid the turmoil."

What did you learn about yourself last Thursday?

Swinney: "I learned that we're doing the right things. I learned that we're on the right track. I learned that we've hired some pretty good coaches. I learned that I'm human and I screw up too. But I also learned the things that I believe in 100-percent? there's nothing less than important than a score at halftime and you fight. That's what we'll continue to do."

That seems like an answer Bowden would not have given. Would he have accepted blame for being outcoached by Johnson?

On why we saw relatively little of Ellington and Harper and Taylor running the football:

We gassed C.J. pretty good the other night. I would have liked to have played those guys more but hey, if we're going to get beat, let's get beat with our best. Andre and Jamie are great players and we are going to get them in the game.

You know Bowden wouldn't, he'd make the damned dumbest substitution you could possibly make, like running JD on a sweep at the goal line instead of CJ, or power running with CJ instead of JD....or TAKING REGGIE OUT OF THE GAME WHEN HE'S KILLING SC. CJ got his 20 carries, and thats what he should get every game, not the 5 for this guy, 15 for another, and 8 for someone else. That gets no rhythym.

On Thomas Austin and the hold:

of the things we do in our Monday meetings is go over the penalties. We went over the penalty tape and I encouraged him. He's a good player. They called a hold, so. I'm sure there was a hold in there somewhere. I encouraged him to keep playing like he's playing. It's a tough, tough situation and very unusual to have that, a game winning play, the perfect call, the right throw and catch and the same guy called for a hold with the game on the line. I wouldn't trade him for anyone. I'm proud of Thomas Austin.

Actually Doug Rhoads has suspended 4 of the referees from the game, and said the Austin call, as well as the gift call GT got on the next drive, were not holding penalties.

Lot of damn good it does us now.

Is there something in place to where the ACC can blackball an official, like Ron Cherry or anyone?
Swinney: "I love all our officials. Doug Rhoads has been very good as far as being able to communicate with. I think he has only been the main guy for a year or so. My dealings with him have been great. I think he wants to have the best officiating crew in football. I think he takes a lot of pride in his job. He knows what he's doing. When he has issues, he'll hold people accountable. I have a lot of confidence in him. Things happen in life that you don't like and it's a shame but that doesn't mean you can't learn from it and grow from it. Things are only fatal and final if you let them be. We'll overcome this game"

I wonder who asked this question? I love the shot at Ron Cherry (ACC's affirmative action policy at work). Coach is right, you cant make excuses. We had other plays that could've been made earlier and we wouldnt have been in the position to have a hold cost us a drive to tie the game (at least).

On Landon Walker

What's it going to take to really get him back to where you thought he'd be?

Swinney: "Making up his mind that he wants to be a great player. He can be a very good player. Down the stretch last year he really improved. And Cory worked his tail off to earn the opportunity. The biggest thing about Landon is that he's got to practice better. He's a fighter. He's a tough kid. He's got pride. We've met and he's going to get his opportunity to be the starter again. Hopefully he'll perform and keep the job. He got off to a good start yesterday. I like how he has responded. We'll see what happens.

For whatever reason he didn't have the same sense of urgency as the other guys. Hopefully he has matured a little bit. He has played a lot of ball and has had some success. And he did have a good off-season. Physically he's in good shape. We need someone to step up and be the guy.

Which kinda confirms what I posted here in Spring: Landon doesnt want to work for it. He got lazy and complacent and lost the job to Lambert. He says he's had problems adjusting to the quicker pace in practice now. In fairness to Lambert, his run blocking is not as terrible. He's big and strong, which will show in run plays, but still needs more push. Most of what we ran against GT were Power plays designed to go right. Pass blocking is more about getting off and quickness, and though that is why he got the RT job this Spring/Fall, he has shown NONE of that.

It should worry you that Walker was the 2nd best RT in pass blocking though. We could be in deep shit if he doesnt perform and lock down this job.

Ruling from the ACC

2009-09-14T21:14:00.002-04:00

From the Director of ACC Officiating Doug Rhoads:

NCAA Rule on substitutions states that "No simulated replacements or substitutions may be used to confuse opponents. No tactic associated with substitutions or the substitution process may be used to confuse opponents."

Rhoads says that the Fake FG was illegal, as well as the play to Marquan Jones, which was the same one used to Jacoby against Sakerlina last year. The spirit of the rule is that you have to give the defense a chance to matchup, and a chance for the officials to do their job (like counting to 11, or 7 men on the LOS, etc.). My earlier interpretation of the illegal substitution rule was incorrect (Rule Section 9).

Any punishment of officials remains hushed up.

Public service announcement

2009-09-13T12:01:00.004-04:00

In honor of Raycom this week, we remind you of the rules on having sex during college football season. Courtesy EDSBS, be sure to listen to the podcast.

-Landon Walker did not play much against GT, and got handled by Morgan in what little action I saw, but can't be terribly worse than Lambert, so he's supposed to start this week. The coaches have all said that his major malfunction is that he doesnt get after it in practice, and doesnt pay attention to detail. Pearman seems really down on his performance level. Look for David Smith to get in some at RT as well.

I just wish I could say the Line will do better against BC, but BC always gives us fits because they play with 4 big DL and they generally control the LOS against us or at least hold their own. I don't have a lot of optimism about improvement overall, but they don't have a killer DE to expose just how shitty Lambert is playing.

-TCU's Jerry Hughes should scare you, he's just as fast as Morgan off the edge. Clemson MUST move Taylor or hold Palmer/Allen in to block sometimes to handle Hughes. Palmer is still sore from the hit he took falling out of bounds on his great catch. Pearman was recently interviewed, and said he was extremely disappointed in how Cory played at RT, but that he still anticipates Lambert playing many snaps against BC. Pearman himself believes that he might not have prepared Lambert as well as he could've.

I'm still encouraged that despite our OL not being great, they can still be servicable enough for this to be a good team. To win a championship it must improve however, winning starts at the Line play. If you cant push someone around in the 4th Qtr, you are going to lose close games.

-On the Fake FG GT ran, it seems that Coach Swinney has put in a complaint the ACC. This will likely all be hushed up because the Conference wouldnt want to hurt their referees by disciplining them publicly, but with what I'm hearing, the play was believed to be illegal by our staff and the conference seems to agree. The rules about illegal substitution have been tweaked after our trick play against SC last year, and while Thomas never left the field, which wouldve made the play legal last year, he did "attempt to deceive the defense" by walking over to walk off the field, and that is now illegal. 12 men were on the field, 11 walked off, and 10 came back on. Thats our contention. A snippet of a conversation between commitment Desmond Buice and the staff indicates that the officials called and apologized to the Coach Swinney about the holding and the fake FG, but I'm not sure if Swinney would tell him (Buice) that.

-The WR play from Thursday night, and MTSU as well, is really bugging both of us. Its just awful route-running overall. We dont make great cuts and don't catch easy passes. The WR is supposed to plant his foot and pivot, and our guys just run and curve around on ins/outs. Ford played the X-position, where Dye and Clear usually play, so thats part of the reason why those two guys didn't do anything Thursday night. However, I'd like someone besides Marquan show up and play football. I thought Ashe would have done better specifically.

-Brandon Maye needs to learn how to attack a blocker from looking at the film of GT. He's getting himself knocked around because of technique in his attack. I think he's a great great football player, but his speed and instincts are the reason why he makes plays. If he could get off some OL blocks, he'd definitely be a Butkus finalist, and perhaps win it outright.

-Ron Morris says that this team showed some heart in the comeback that hasn't been there in the past. He's right on that one.

-Greg Oliver talks about 10 things we've learned about the '09 Tigers here.

This almost makes me like Gawja fans

2009-09-13T03:54:00.003-04:00

well no not really....fuck georgia

Clemson falls to GT 30-27

2009-09-11T10:58:00.011-04:00

I'll go drive by drive and hit the highlights as best I can, hopefully seeing all this purple again doesnt destroy my eyesight. I picked out some plays and uploaded them to youtube myself, and found a few others.

-I like how Clemson is coming out and trying to run the football. Parker's incompletions are bad throws. He's throwing under his receivers and not to a spot where only they can catch it. We luck out by not having two of them picked off. I think we get a bad spot on the 3rd &2 run by Spiller. Watch Lambert get his ass beat on this 4th down play.

-Nesbitt comes out on the very next play and sails one into the arms of McDaniel. It was a really late throw into what appears to be Cover 1. He runs it back to the 45 and fumbles it, and Maye recovered. Clemson fails to do anything on the next drive, and it appears to me that GT is playing good coverage. The snap infraction on Cloy was just a little twitch of his hand.

-The TD play, a crack arc play. I plan to cover this in detail again later. A crack block on McDaniel by the WR and a cut on the Corner, someone gets turned around on the play: Bowers and Maye. Conner tries to keep the play inside, but it really was a great pitch. Conner's assignment is the pitch man. If Bowers collapses, Maye should be there to back him up but gets stood up by a Guard.

Just to define them:
Arc block: Block on a DE or Corner by a RB with the back attempting to block the defender inside, the blocker starts wide out and then comes back towards the middle of the field.
Crackback: Block by a player who has lined up more than 2 yards outside the tackle and is blocking a man inside his position.

-We take a few plays and get close enough to punt. Then Dabo decides to go for the 57 yd FG, and the team is late gettin on the field. Timeout called. Then Jackon pooches it, and doesnt get it out of bounds as he was supposed to. 3 players missed tackles immediately, and shouldn't have. None of those 3 play defense normally. Dabo was outcoached on this play. He should never ever have done this. Johnson had a man deep as a returner waiting, and Clemson should've taken the Delay and punted the football normally. Stupidest call of the game.

-Clemson gets the ball back from the kickoff in good field position, and Ashe fails to catch a pass that hits him in the hands for the INT. Lack of concentration.

-GT makes a few good runs here at the end of the 1st, one good pitch by Dwyer goes about 20 yards, and then Nesbitt sails one into Gilchrist's hands. The early Dives were working because we couldnt get B.Thompson to shoot up the A-gap, the Center had him well-blocked early every time. They were basically running a crack-arc screen to the boundary side. Had Gilchrist not picked up his toe, it wouldve been a touchback and no TD to follow. On the fake, Chancellor should've seen Thomas out wide, but Johnson ran off his kick team fast, and Thomas came on the field right at the last second (or actually never left) and Chancellor never thought to look, its not his job to count. It was not an illegal substitution.

Its true that you cannot break huddle with 12, but any new player coming in an a no-huddle must check in across the numbers. If a player was on the field beforehand, he doesnt have to check in at all. (Edit: this interpretation is incorrect)

-On the next drive the 2nd timeout is wasted by not getting the play in on time. Overall the offense looks confused and out of sync, and we STILL cannot convert 3rd downs. 2 of 7 in the 1st quarter, though we led in possession 11:28 to 3:32. This was a factor late in the game when GT got tired on defense. End of 1st.

Check out the blocking on this inside misdirection play, this is really a clinic on inside blocking.

On the goalline, Clemson's defense did a great job to stiffen up, and we held to a chip FG. The DEs are starting to get penetration at this point in the game.

-Clemson got good field position after the kickoff return by Jacoby, then this happened, and watch the block of Rendrick Taylor:

It was a simple wheel route by Spiller who was set in a H-back position with Taylor as the Tailback. A deep post over the middle drew the safety and Spiller was free to run. The "wolf", basically an extra SS, was the man covering him. Definite mismatch.

-Defense came on and, as we stated, the CB is on an island against this type of offense sometimes. They stopped GT and Nesbitt threw up a lob and Butler got burnt, Gilchrist was a little late getting over as well. GT runs some inside dives and keepers, but the D is now sticking to their assignments and in better position overall. GT punts. GT uses the punt-coverage formation that we really hate. Actually I think its the damned dumbest formation in all of football. The linemen line up in basically 1-2 yard splits with 3 actual blockers for the punter. I don't see why any coach runs this, because if Clemson would just RUSH more than 2 men, we'd block a kick. Several times in this game we sent only 1 or 2 against the punt, and their punter takes forever to kick the ball.

-Next drive, Landon Walker is in at RT. Morgan still runs right around him to pull CJ down from behind on a play to the left side. Palmer is over there to help Walker, but never touched Morgan. Then later the INT over the middle to Jacoby Ford. Parker didnt plant his feet before he threw the ball, and it lost some velocity. The DB wanted the ball more than Ford did if you ask me.

-In years past, this team would've folded with GT at near midfield, and they'd have scored, but GT fails to capitalize. Clemson stretched out some crack arc screen option plays to the boundary and they got little yardage.

-Teams trade punts, Parker pushes a few throws out-of-bounds and Morgan continues to beat Lamberts ass. He's got too much speed and leverage on him. On the very deep ball to Spiller that went incomplete, Jacoby was wide open underneath. Clemson punts again and GT runs off the clock.

Halftime 24-7 246 yards for GT, 147 for Clemson. About 200 of those yards were on the first 4 drives by GT. KP was 8/17 for 98 yards, 1 TD/2 INT.

-In the GT opening drive, CU has shut down the inside Dive plays by putting Thompson/Chavis right on the outside shoulder of the Center and both are drawing double-teams. GT punts.

-CJ makes a cutback on an Off-tackle Power play, designed to go right, and cuts up the left side for 20 yars. Hairston is now playing RT. The dumbest call was the HB Pass CJ threw....that looked like a Rodney Williams pass. Palmer worked back to the sideline as Parker was pushed out of the pocket and makes an outstanding catch falling out of bounds at the 8. Clemson fails to shut off the backside rush on the next play and the DE runs him down from behind again. Why we didnt change the cadence or use a misdirection to get Morgan overpursuing a play baffles me. On the next play, Allen runs a pump route (out-n-up) to the post and Parker throws the ball about a foot behind him. Great catch. 7 plays 57 yards. 24-14

-Defense forces a punt after one long keeper by Nesbitt. I like that Johnson tells his offense to stay out on 4th and 1 and try to draw Clemson offsides, when do we see Clemson do that anymore? -On 3rd and 7, Parker throws a bullet to Jacoby and he makes a good catch through a double team of the safety and a LB. GT only rushed 3 with a Spy over the middle for Parker, Morgan was out on the sidelines. 77 yard TD. 24-21

-Defense forces a 3 & out, but a BOGUS holding call on the punt, before the kick, by Cumbie gives them a first down. Basically he hit the lineman head on and they tackled each other. Total bullshit. Defense forces another 3 & out because Nesbitt can't find his open man underneath.

-CJ starts the next drive with a perfectly executed HB Power for 25. The next play was the same but CJ cut it back and wouldve had another 25 if not for a great tackle. Their defense left M. Jones uncovered and he busts them for a big gain into the red zone. End 3rd Qtr The 3rd & 1 on the goalline looks to be an OT handoff and GT runs it down from behind because Austin gets whipped. Clemson FG. 24-24 7 plays 72 yard drive.

-Nesbitt sailed another and again it tails right and into McDaniels hands. He's got no zip on his throws. I dont see how they can throw to beat anyone with this guy.

-A quick play to Jacoby nets a big gain but two plays later Parker should've been intercepted, the corner route was underthrown into 2 GT players, and none got the ball. Spiller manages to block Morgan on the play, a great cut block. I really couldnt believe Jackson would hit this 53 yarder, but he SLAMMED it. That would've been good from 64. 27-24.

-Georgia Tech gets stuffed on the run, but a little quick pass to Allen underneath gets them to the 40. Now they have decided to run a little zone read QB keeper to the field side and Clemson couldnt really stop it for the rest of the game. Notice the counter step by the Wing and the fake handoff to Dwyer, then Nesbitt follows his Wing into the hole. We didnt have someone standing in the alley forcing things inside on some of these; McDaniel was backed up and we didnt shift our LBs. I am trying to get a good video loaded on youtube of this, but it seems not to work. As they are entering the red zone, I think Clemson should've called a TO just to rest our defense, but we stopped them and forced the kick. 27-27

-Clemson is really killing them with the Power play all night. Their defense is tired. Parker fumbles a low snap from Cloy on 2nd and 10, on 3rd down he hits Ford who ran right by Terrant, negated by a STUPID call.

The DT was fatigued, stopped moving his feet, and Austin has two hands on him as he falls down, then Austin fell down on top of him to pin him. That's not holding. We got shafted.

-Clemson gets a gift call back on a holding call on the next drive, the RG rammed into Thompson's hip and knocked him down, that was not holding either. On 3rd down & 11, Chancellor gets ripped on a post-corner route by Thomas. We were playing Cover 2 and Gilchirst didnt get over. The real culprit here was the pass rush, we got none. That play should not have had time to develop from a post to the corner route. They set up for a right hash kick and make it 30-27.

ShoelessCU highlights

Impressions before looking at the film...30-27 Tech

2009-09-10T20:01:00.008-04:00

Actually I'm not terribly upset after this game. Clemson played awful for one quarter, and then, as youre supposed to, shut down the FB Dive play altogether by the outstanding play of our DL. Clemson's offense took a quarter to get things together, and put together some nice drives. I predicted this as a loss in the preseason, and I'm not ready to say we'll never lose again, but I'm encouraged more than I have been in many years.

A Bowden coached team would've rolled over and lost by 30 points, but Swinney's decision to run that fake is what cost us this game.

Before I look at the film, I will give my impressions of the game.

-Lambert got whipped even while he was holding Morgan on the 4th down call, actually I'm convinced that Cory Lambert is a truly awful offensive tackle. He got his ass beat the entire first half. WHY did the coaching staff not shift the TE over to the right side? Why was Taylor not put in at H and sent there to block?

Did you see how we adjusted in the 2nd half? They moved Hairston over to RT. He can handle Morgan. Late in the game GT's defense was gassed.

-On the 82 yard TD: Bowers totally missed his assignment first. He went down to a blocker, when he was supposed to be the FORCE player on the QB. He went to the inside, got hit, and Nesbitt was free. Then, Conner missed his assignment, resulting in the touchdown. Watch his head pivot left/right when the pitch was made. His job is the trailing offensive back, not the QB. YOU PLAY YOUR ASSIGNMENT. GT had excellent blocking on the play as well, the WR came up to block McDaniel, the WB blocked out the CB, and they totally cleared the running lane.

-On the fake FG, Jackson was supposed to kick the ball out of bounds. GT smartly had a man back there as a deep safety, likely also watching for a fake play from Clemson, since the FG was really too long to try.

I think it was a really STUPID call, but Clemson had 3 men there to make the tackle and fucked it up royally. Why would you have your HOLDER over there making a tackle on a great return guy?

This is the difference in the game, this play. Why would you call a timeout to run this play and not have the right personnel in to make a tackle in case he cant get it out of bounds? I don't understand.

-Ashe shouldve caught the football on the first INT. Lack of concentration. It hit his hands.

-Clemson failed to tackle in the first quarter altogether. Also, they were not in their spots and were getting blocked out of plays. Paul Johnson outcoached us on the fake kick-TD pass. I was screaming for Dabo to call a timeout when they ran in. Then Chancellor quit on the play to Thomas.

-TD on the wheel route to Spiller, great block outside by Taylor. GREAT BLOCK...he decleated that mother...but the route running for most of this game was not up to par. Some great catches were made, but some passes shouldve been caught.

-TD to Allen over the middle was a great play by Allen, the ball was a foot behind him. Parker had to throw a bullet, and that part was good, but behind the receiver.

-Clemson was playing mostly Cover 1 Man and Cover 2 in this game, at least thats what I'm seeing. They are doing well on their assignments in the 2nd quarter throughout the end of the game. Nesbitts throws are sailers, thats why he gets picked off by the deep safety.

-Ford had his man beat on the INT, but Parker shouldve led the throw more to the left side. Then Ford quit on it, and didnt make sure that ball was on the ground. I put the blame on Parker however.

-A point of interest, a RH thrower, be it baseball or football, will always have the ball tail to the right. The throws to the right sideline were intended to be further in, but the ball always tails right. The ball to Ford tailed back to the middle of the field, Parker must learn this.

-GT adjusted late in the game with simple QB Lead plays, with Dwyer hitting the hole and blocking for Nesbitt. Their left side made great blocks for most of those plays, I give them great credit for that, but Bowers did not blow them up and could've.

-After Bowers first gaffe, he and Sapp played well. You noticed they stood pat, forcing GT to give the Dive play, thats why they stopped running outside pitches and options. But Clemson stopped the Dive, and you saw it completely shut down their offense until late.

-I am pleasantly surprised that our staff makes adjustments now. They adjusted to Morgan, and stuck with the power running game instead of panicking. The Defense made their adjustment at the end of the 1st qtr.

We're about to see whether this team is going to pick itself up and beat BC, or roll over dead.

I'll look at the film and pick out some clips tomorrow.

oh...and i fucking HATE purple

What to Look for Against GT

2009-09-10T07:59:00.006-04:00

Here are a few keys that we will be looking for against GT.

Clemson's ability to play sound fundamental defense. We have probably assessed the veer/wing-t/flexbone more than any other opponent's scheme this offseason. As previously posted success or failure will come from CU's defensive ability to have each individual team member do his job. Don't get out of position on the dive, make the end your force man, then make a tackle, and do not get lulled to sleep. IF Clemson can abide by these rules, GT should be limited on offense.

Turnover battle. Last season, GT was +4 in the turnover battle, with one of the interceptions turning into a pick-6. Clemson will need to limit the poor decisions (both with Parker in the pocket and with Napier/Swinney with the play calling). On the GT side of the football, the veer is fairly complex. If the defense can pressure the pitchman, a fumbled lateral is extremely possible. Keep in mind that GT put the ball on the ground quite a few times last week, losing it 3 times. Long and short, both signal callers will need to make good decisions and put the ball on the money--Parker downfield and Nesbitt with the laterals.

Clemson's offensive line. We will see many fewer fronts and looks this week than last. We will also see a much more talented group of folks on the defensive side. I fully expect GT to attempt to force Clemson to throw the ball early. This means putting extra people in the box, run blitzing, etc... Clemson's keys to identifying, anticipating, and adjusting to these looks will dictate the course of play. Obviously, we will watch to see how the Tigers fire off the ball. Swinney openly discussed becoming more physical, and this is a good week to start.

Special teams could decide this one. As we all know, CU' Spiller and Ford and GT's Jerrard Tarrant notched TD returns last week. Clemson looked pretty good punting the ball. The big question I think lies on Richard Jackson's leg. He looked confident last weekend despite the two long misses. The last time we were in Bobby Dodd stadium missed fieldgoals absolutely killed the Tigers.

Hopefully we will run the ball like this tonight:

GT Preview

2009-09-10T04:13:00.001-04:00

GT Record: 1-0 after handling Jacksonville State last week.
Returning starters: 9 offense, 8 defense
Head Coach: Paul Johnson, 10-4 at GT, 117-43 overall
Won two Div. 1-AA National Titles at Georgia Southern in 1999 and 2000, and played for another in 1998. Went 45-29 at Navy.....NAVY! Only one losing season while he was there.

GT Offense: Well we all know its the Flexbone by now. We've covered in detail how to defend against the option attack and the passing attack he utilizes within his system as well. In addition, the Birddog (Navy fan site) has gone over the same things in this post on defensing the option, as well as the myths about it...pay close attention to the last one.

Yes, teams will find ways to defend it, but, GT will get better at running it. Johnson points out that nearly everyone runs a pro-style offense of some kind, and have for the last 10-15 years, but nobody is better at defending it now schemewise than they were before. The team with the better players wins, you dont win with just scheme. Hell, look at the Gamecocks.

However, its not a well-oiled machine early in the season and we are lucky to catch them now instead of later. Indeed, though GT ran the score up in the 1st half of the Jax State game, I noticed they were not very sharp at the QB position. Dwyer is Dwyer, but Nesbitt was careless with the football with some late pitches and bad decisions. Thats correctable, but lets hope he's that careless this week.

If they can pass the ball however, watch out. I was surprised they did not work on this wrinkle as much in the game last week, simply because they were new things put in during this spring to expand the "Flex" part of the bone. Demaryius Thomas is a great WR, along the lines of those who have killed us in the past. If he was in a passing offense, he'd be talked about more than Dwyer.

That said, Clemson has the best DE tandem in this league and we are capable of slowing down this attack. Recall the key player in defending the option is the DE. Jenkins and Thompson are whoppers and can plug the middle.

Brandon Maye and D. McDaniel had great games last week, and either they will again this week, or Dwyer will. Expect Alexander in at SAM quite a bit, and McDaniel to play in the box.

Kevin Steele was interviewed tuesday afternoon by reporters and had a few things to say about defending GT. He mentioned that the staff had worked on GT in the preseason and he had caught part of the Navy-Ohio State game, and noted that Florida's offense is more option than people realize. He has never faced the Bone as a coordinator, but obviously having worked at Nebraska and Tennessee back in the day, he has faced it as an assistant. He had an opinion on why the option is no longer prevalent as a total system anymore:

Steele. "I just talked to the guys at ESPN about that. Their question was, can this (option) offense work (in college football today)? And the answer is yes. It can. It was working when people stopped doing it. What happen was a recruiting thing. Everybody wanted to go to the NFL, so quarterbacks wanted to be at schools where they were throwing it around and that's why you walk out here in the summer time or any other college campus and they've got 50 teams in a passing camp. You go to any high school and they're out there throwing it around out there. That had been the case for years in California and it sort of swept through the rest of the nation. So there's just not a lot of people running the option today. You just don't see it a lot in high school games. You can go to high school games now and at times barely see a running back. A lot of people are shotgun snapping. There are coaches who sign quarterbacks who have never spent any time under center. That transition has affected why people went away from the option. It wasn't because it wasn't working."

Then on Thomas

How do they work Thomas into their option game?

Steele. "You could put him in any offense and he would run a hitch and a slant. But that's not where the scary part is. The scary part is they arc the back out to take the corner and crack Thomas to take the safety, then here goes the pitch and you have to make the tackle and the next time Thomas goes to crack the safety, the corner goes off of him a little bit quick with his eyes. Chris Chancellor and Crezdon Butler have covered a lot of good wideouts. But there's not a load back coming at them with a pitch man and the ball on the line of scrimmage, and now they've got to change their eyes."

GT Defense
GT's defensive line did little against Jax State and Clemson averages about 30 lbs more up front. Jax State had success with their RB running up the A-gap against those DTs. GT's defensive ends play well, particularly Morgan (#94). Most of the time they played a strongside-shifted and occasionally stack 4-3 and some Nickel (Jax runs the spread). Pressure came from the LBs on blitzes around the outside and up the B-gap mostly. I expect them to blitz on 3rd downs, with the young Dline, to get pressure.

Clemson SHOULD be able to run the ball inside, even though their LBs are fairly quick and the SS Bennett is very good. Also, our Tackles are big enough to slow down their DEs.

Injuries of note
GT's Speedy Wingback Roddy Jones will play Thursday, while backup B-back (Fullback) Preston Lyons will miss the game. Should Nesbitt go down, GT is short-handed at QB with backup Jaybo Shaw having broken his collarbone a few weeks ago, however their backup did play considerable snaps in the opener.

In memory of Jim Phillips

2009-09-09T19:51:00.004-04:00

Six years ago today.

I don't know if we'll ever have another one like him. Pete Yannity is a good guy but I just don't like his play-by-play.

I am actually in the clip, I stood under the goalpost on the right.

Swinney Press Conference:GT

2009-09-08T12:12:00.005-04:00

On Georgia Tech:

"We've had a good week of practice and I think the focus has been very good. Yesterday seemed like it was going to be one of those days where we would have had to pull it out of them. But it ended up being a good practice. That's something I told my staff yesterday. We really haven't had a lot of bad practices. I thought they showed some endurance yesterday.

"This is a big, big game for both teams. It doesn't get any better than this, an opportunity to showcase your program on national television. It's what you play for and coach for. It's all about discipline for us defensively. We have to tackle and hold on until the Calvary gets there. You have to play unselfish football and be disciplined against a team like this. We have to be very disciplined for 60 minutes. Everyone has to do their jobs. There's also a lot of cut blocks. It's hard to simulate that in practice. Just like it's hard to simulate C.J. and Jacoby in practice. You better know where 9, 21 and 8 are on the field. They're a very capable bunch.

"I really like Dwyer. He's a great back. He's very deserving of his recognition. The thing I like about him is that last year he had seven games where he had 100 yards in the first half. He's a workhorse. He also averaged 7.9 yards per carry in the fourth quarter. Not only is he a fast starter, but a good finisher. He's a very, very good player that we've got to try to minimize. Another thing is that they'll lull you. 20 of their touchdowns last year were 20 yards or longer. They're very opportunistic and selective as to when they'll call those types of plays. As soon as you don't do your job, it's a big play on their part. They're a ball control run-the-clock offense but they can strike quick, too.

"Offensively for us, it's another good Ga. Tech defense we're going up against. I was excited to see they lost three NFL players up front until I watched them on film. No. 91, we won't play another one better than him all year. He's pretty special. How we handle him will be critical to the success we have offensively. But they're very solid at backer, too and very good at corner. No. 1 and No. 22 have played a lot of football, too.

"We have to maximize our opportunities. We have to catch the football. We have to score. It's very important when you play this team. We have to get some points on the board and hopefully press them a little bit to get out of their personality.

"We'll head down tomorrow, have our meetings, eat and then head down around 6:15 p.m."

When asked about things the team clearly needed to improve:

"Finishing drives and taking advantages of our opportunities. You won't win many games with four drops. Just make the play and it's a touchdown, and then there were two miscues by Willy. Those are things you have to eliminate if you're going to be a good team. Because these are things we can control. Let's focus on those. It's the same thing defensively. We did a great, great job, but the last two drives we gave up 60-70 yards."

The intensity did drop off at the end of the game on defense. Korn's INT was a floater that Harper should've caught and if he hadn't fumbled he had an open man deep downfield on the play. Swinney said that Korn will indeed play at some point Thursday night.

When asked why we're 2-8 in Thursday night games, Swinney volunteered no good reason, but said that we have changed things structurally in preparation for GT this week compared to the past.

What is it about Ga. Tech's offense that has so much of the country talking about them?

Swinney: "They're unique. When I was playing, everyone was I (formation). When the first spread teams started coming out, then all of a sudden nobody knew how to defend it. Nobody practiced against that everyday. Now that's kind of had its way. Then all of a sudden the zone blitz came in and it was a big adjustment for everybody. It wasn't the norm. In college football today, what they do, it's not the norm. We won't play against it all year. In the past, that was what everybody did. It's a style of play that coach Johnson believes in and they've been pretty darn successful. I think he's had one year ever where he has won less than eight games. He has a system and a plan he believes in and he sticks with it."

You have to feel pretty confident in your ability to deal with that offense, given the way you handled it a year ago considering the adverse conditions.

Swinney: "Yep. And we had six turnovers. Our kids remember that. And that's good. We have played them before. Malliciah and Corico and Meeks weren't here last year, but everyone else has seen them and studied them. We played them well. We just can't be too complicated. We learned that last year. We had to be pretty simple with the situation we were dealing with. It's dive, pitch, quarterback and it's every play, play after play after play."

How conventional are they defensively?

Swinney: "They're a 4-3 football team. They're a team that you'll have to put drives together. I wouldn't say a high risk defense, unlike what we just played where they were just all over you. We didn't know where those guys were. We'll know where these guys are. They're very good players. Good fundamentals, good technique. They're gap sound and can win matchups. No. 91 is a disrupter. He's outstanding. They're very good with their coverage schemes. It's a very well coordinated defense.

On the offensive line's performance:

"Actually I thought we played pretty well up front. They were absolutely loading the box on us and we were being as stubborn as we could be. We had control of the game and it was about us trying to get better. We had a whole drive with Rendrick and Jamie and were not being fancy at all. We could have done a lot of other things, but just really trying to make a point and wanted to see those guys on film and how they responded to all that. We tried to run the ball and were able to run the ball despite the fact that the numbers said not run it. On the goal line down there, we lined up too deep and then their smoke guy got us off the edge. Effort was very good and there was improvement. But we're not there yet."

That much is true, MT was loading the box with 8 and 9 guys, but there were some times when players flat out missed a block or had bad technique.

Fat Brad talked about it Monday afternoon:

Your assessment of the first game.
Scott: "Well, I'm glad to get it under our belts. It was a difficult opponent to prepare for because of so many multiple fronts. They used about four different defensive packages, and an awful lot of twisting and blitzing. There really wasn't any base looks. Coaches just love to get that one over with. But I think the kids responded pretty well and had a good night. It's a better start than last year."

No shit its better Brad.

How did Mason Cloy handle his responsibilities Saturday?
Scott: "He did a great job. He's the QB of the offensive line and made all his points. We might have had one situation in there where he made an incorrect point, but there were probably 60 opportunities to make quick calls because of the pressures right at the snap, the twisting and linebacker fires. He was right on top of his game and pointed out our blitzes.

The missed point he refers to ended with Parker being sacked.

With it just one game, do you have a feel for your group's physicality? Is it where you want it to be?
Scott: "You're never satisfied. I think we can be a little bit tougher. These kids played hard. This defense required us to do an awful lot of zone blocking. We had to play more east and west because you have to be gap sound when you're doing the things they were doing. All of that had to happen right at the snap, too. But the communication - I challenge my guys all the time… we have to identity their front, and then we have to communicate the calls, then we have to execute. And I think we did a pretty good job of that. I think our backs made us look good a couple of times, and a couple of times we helped them out some."

Zone blocking is what we've played the last 3 years. I don't care for it with a college OL which has a coach the caliber of Brad Scott. It takes too long to learn properly and execute, but he's right in that you almost have to do it against a team that blitzes like this.

Scott pointed out that D. Freeman, David Smith and Wilson Norris all played in the 2nd half and that only 3 people inside missed assignments. Maybe Brad should just light a fire underneath Thomas Austin's ass then, because he wasnt getting into the hole on those inside power/trap plays.

Can you talk about grades for your guys?
Scott: "We just grade them. I don't like to throw out grades. Grades are so subjective to coaches. Everyone grades you a little differently What's a 75-percent grade to me might be totally different than someone else. I'd say we had a group of guys that graded out winners. I can tell you that."
What would you classify as a winning grade?
Scott: "75-percent or better."

That should be more like 80% Brad. Is that why our linemen dont improve to their full potential?

You've talked about the abundance of stunting and twisting, the movement you saw out of Middle Tennessee's front. Talk about handling that as an offensive lineman. How difficult is it for a lineman to constantly get a good lick on a defender or hit him square between the shoulders when you've got that kind of movement on every play?
Scott: "Oh yeah, you're on the edges a lot more. What I was talking about is maybe they're covered by a down lineman at the snap, then that guy moves this way and the backer, who's working with the (defensive) tackle, they're right over the top of you, the tackle blitzes through the opposite A-gap, and then the linebacker who they're not looking at now blitzes through the backside A-gap. It's what we call a Gut-X blitz. All of a sudden you go from being able to identify that, with the tips that they had, then seeing it on the snap and being able to make those adjustments and calls. So you'll never cover those guys up. What you hope to do is get a hat on them. Then our backs are good enough to where you don't have to cover that guy up every time, not when they're gapping, stunting and blitzing like they were. I'll bet you could count on your hand the number of times they weren't blitzing and giving us all kinds of looks in the first half. I think that was part of their game plan. They were quick and were pretty athletic guys.

Napier on how much of the offense we showcased against MT:

Billy Napier: "It's interesting that you ask that. Because it became a game where there was some uncertainty about what they were doing, so we were pretty vanilla. You get into a position where you're up by 20 or so points and you see the way your defense is playing, I think that impacts the way you call and what you will feel comfortable holding back. I think our guys up front did a good job.

"We ran the ball more effectively after we made some adjustments at halftime. There was some frustration, but at the same time there were some positives. We've got some really good skill guys. I think that's pretty evident. I think No. 11 is going to be a good player."

Steele mentioned that some of their success running was missed gap assignments and playing high on tackles, but a few of them were his fault for making some (fire zone) calls.

Etc.
-Brandon Clear is starting in place of Dye this week....late change.
-Jamarcus Grant was moved to LT, based on the play of Norris at LG behind Austin.
-Chavis was moved from DT to NG, which basically means that in any 3-man fronts, he's playing 2nd string. Essentially he's a Tilt-tackle, lining up tilted to the Center and not head-up on a OG.
-Cumbie got some good pressure and is 2nd string DT.
-As expected, K. Alexander will be playing more SAM in run-support this week instead of Scotty Cooper. I expect that to happen again for BC because of their larger OL. TCU's offense is more spread-based.
-Spiller moved into sixth place on the ACC's career all-purpose yardage leader list with 171 yards during today's game. He entered the game as Clemson's career leader in all-purpose yards and now boasts 5,079 yards for his career. Spiller needs 749 yards to tie for the league's all-time lead.
-DeAndre McDaniel doesn't fear the GT offense.

Playing fundamentally sound football, he said, is crucial.

“The biggest thing is being disciplined,” he said. “It’s everybody taking their responsibilities. There’s a quarterback, you’ve got to make sure you’re there. There’s a pitchman; you’ve got to make sure you’re there.

“They get a lot of big plays on you when people get out of their responsibilities, fill the wrong gaps, do the wrong things. You’ve got to be disciplined with this offense.”

Just stay within the scheme, Maye said.

“One of the biggest things is assignments,” he said. “You’ve got to play your position. You can’t be a hero. When you try and be a hero, (Dwyer and Nesbitt) are taking it the distance.”

-Butkus candidate Kavell Connor did not play a single snap against MT.

Facing Middle Tennessee’s spread offense, defensive coordinator Kevin Steele went with a scheme that required only one “traditional” linebacker. Conner’s only action was on special teams.
“I didn’t know we were going to play that much dime," Conner said. “I was still preparing to play even though I wasn’t involved in the scheme a lot.
“You learn not to take anything for granted,” he said. “It was a humbling experience.”

NOTE: We've been asked to write blogs for Raycomsports.com, and given that its a short week we might not get one up this week. We'll plan to post one a week there for now, and then a few days later post it here just to have it here for reference.

Inside the Clemson offense: HB Power/Trap

2009-09-06T20:09:00.013-04:00

Each week we're going to try to highlight one or two specific plays that either resulted in scores or were run very often by the team. This week, since Clemson showed so much I-formation running for the first time in years, we'll go over the HB Power and the Trap. Since we havent covered offensive plays before, the first topic to cover is the terminology. Have you ever wondered why a play has a complicated name like "Spread left 24 draw"?

The "Spread Left" indicates the formation and the strength. Spread is a generic term, and could be a 2 or 3 WR set on the left. It could be "I right/left" indicating that the TE or two-WR side is the right or left side in the I-formation. "I right motion" would mean that one WR could be moving from the Flanker to the slot. The specifics depend on the particular offense you run, and the coach who built it up, but the same plays are there in various formations in every offense.

To understand the numbers, you have to know the offensive numbering system. The first number in "24" refers to the numbering of the offensive back, the 2nd to the lane where the ball is supposed to go. The QB is designated "1", the RB "2" or "3" and the FB usually "2", "4" might be an H-back or 3rd RB in the Power-I formation (I with 2 FBs/1 RB) and so on, and sometimes will be the tailback. Running lanes go from Center to the sidelines, and are assigned a number. Each gap between offensive players is assigned a number, even on the right, odd on the left. So the A-gap is "3" or "2", B-gap "3" or "5", and so on. "0" and "1" are directly behind the Center, like a right/left QB Sneak.

(note the picture is from the defense's perspective and uses their numbering for plays)
Your wide running plays will be run in the 8 or 9 holes, your off-tackle plays will be run in the 6 or 7 holes, while your dive, lead, slant plays will be run in the 4 or 5 holes. All of what Clemson ran in the I-formation against MTSU were basic plays that every offense has within it, within some formation. What we're going to highlight here is the Lead Trap and the HB Lead Power, both plays that involve pulling Guards with a Lead blocking FB.

The Trap
The play shown here is an I-Right 36 Trap:

The term trap comes from the idea that a lineman is left unblocked by the playside G/T and thinks he's home free until he is walloped by the pulling guard....i.e., trapped. In the play above, it is the OLB/DE who gets trapped because the TE doesnt try to hit him, and he thinks he's free. In this play, the backside LT blocks down on any defender capable of shooting the open gap behind the pulling LG, thats his chief task. Anyone who can shoot the gap will stop the play for a loss. He blocks the End first and then releases to a DT if he comes free. Hopefully that DT gets picked up by the Center, even against a 4 man front, and this call is made at the line. The RT and TE double-team the DE in this 3-4/5-2 front diagram, and the LG pulls out and blocks the OLB/DE. Against a 4-man front it will change of course, but its pretty easy to see how given that most 4-3 teams use a shifted front.

The TE only stays on the End for a count of one or two, then releases him to take on a LB. The FB charges up the 6 hole between the RT/TE to hit the first man he sees to come free, either outside or inside, hopefully a SS or scraping LB. Recall that its a trap, and the Guard is following him into the hole to take on that outside Backer/DE. The RB takes the ball and charges right behind him into the hole that should be open. WRs are either charged to block their man, pushing him to the boundary, or occasionally put in motion to help chip an End or OLB, while the QB should be taught to pretend like he still has the ball and sometimes fakes a throw to a WR running a Go route to draw the safety deeper.

Inside traps are the same concept. The Center takes on the DT across from the LG, and the RG backs away from his DT for a count, leaving him unblocked until he gets slammed by the LG pulling across behind the Center. The RG then continues upfield into a LB. In I-formation, the FB steps up into MIKE and the RB follows him through the hole.

The Off-Tackle Power plays are run alot within Clemson's offense, from various formations. Its basically a gap-scheme, and the OL angle-down blocks anyone and the pulling LG takes on a LB, and somebody is going to get double-teamed on the defensive front. You would try this play to neutralize a very good 3-technique DT, for example. As a fan, watching the line, you'll see them suddenly go left, pushing the defense to the side away from the play and the Guard pulls out to take either an End or LB depending on whether its a type of inside or OT power play. The TE and RT are meant to double-team their DE, and the FB runs out to hit SAM. The RB follows his FB to the OT-TE area in this "36 Power" play.
Specifics...
The QB is coached to open to his right and hit the RB in-stride and then continue as if he's rolling out to the left.

The TE, after double-teaming the DE to get him out of the way, releases and jumps onto the first scraping LB he sees, opening a funnel on the strongside. Your TE cant release too soon, or he sacrifices technique. He cant release too slow either, because the LB is coming. So the player is taught to block the DE into the LB, and then release, same as the Trap. Depending on the front, the TE can immediately release to an inside LB, if its a 3-man or 4 man shifted to the weakside, for example.

The LT stays on his End, if he's the only man out there, and the C-RG can either double-team the Nose or angle-down the man across from them. The FB is taught to step towards the inside leg of the TE and play inside-out leverage (pinning his opponent outside of the lane) on the biggest threat to the play he sees, usually a scraping LB or a SS. However, his first step is actually straight ahead, feinting a lead play to the left, before taking his step right into his defender. If a defender jumps into the lane, the FB is told to pin his shoulder and push him inside, letting the RB bump outside. Of course one must adjust to what the defense is doing, e.g. blitzing a safety or shifting their front, and the FB is generally told to hit the first guy he sees that can threaten the play and the Guard is as well.

Against this 4-3 stack front, the RG and RT are double-teaming the DT and the TE takes the DE. Its still an I-right 36 Power, but the assignments have changed.

(courtesy Trojan Football Analysis)

The blocking scheme call for the OL is usually very simple on Power plays: Gap, On/Over, Down; Gap, Down, Backer. The Gap rule basically means that the RG and RT are to allow NO penetration to their inside gap, its a generic term. On means to block anyone anywhere on your pads. Over/Backer basically mean to move to the second level and find a linebacker to block. Down means to block the defender across from the OLman to your inside. You can see how this will form a double-team on someone on the right side of the defense.

Much of this video is simply various power plays.

If executed perfectly, the RB gets into the secondary and will have only one or two men to beat one-on-one.

Clemson thumps MTSU 37-14, a closer look

2009-09-05T21:34:00.009-04:00

On the opening kickoff we got a taste of what we all hope will come often this year, CJ took the ball at the 4 along the MTSU sideline and charged straight ahead, cutting through a huge hole and down the right sideline to the house. The 360 announcers said the roof would come off if he did took it back, and that was their highlight of the night. Those two were clueless. It was his 4th career return TD.

I'll try to go drive-by-drive and hit the Clemson highlights.

MTSU gets the kickoff back and D. McDaniel plants the returner on his ass, setting the tone for the defense which played lights out for most of the night. Clemson came out in Nickel/Dime, playing mostly Cover 3 with a 4 man front. They didnt tackle well to start missing 4 tackles on the first play from scrimmage. On 3rd down Steele elected to go with a 3-man front, and blitzed both Maye and Sapp (who was standing behind the LOS as a LB) up the B-gap into Dasher's face. MTSU had a WR screen called on the play so Sapp basically came completely free and forced an early throw that McDaniel picked off at the CU 41.

First Clemson drive starts out in the I-formation (THANK GOD) with the apparent intent to run it, but then get a false start and a play to Spiller goes nowhere. Parker missed a wide-open Ashe on 2nd down, and a 3rd&15 pass to a wide-open Dye gets dropped. Would've been a 1st. MTSU only rushed 3 and dropped 7 with a Spy/Robber. A great punt puts MTSU on their 11.

MTSU starts in the 'Gun and takes their first QB Draw of the night for 5, then another 3-man front with 2-men blitzing up the opposite B-gap forcing an early throw on a fade pattern that went incomplete. Clemson is playing Dime defense, with 2 down DEs and one DT. The next play was an OLB Blitz and if Sadat Chambers had gotten two hands on it, it would have been pick 6. Clemson gets the punt back on the MTSU 45.

Clemson drive starts out running from the shotgun with Jacoby in motion, a hole opens up but, being in the 'Gun, Spiller gets no momentum going before a guy wraps his legs up. On the next play Spiller takes a handoff off-tackle on a Power for about 5 yards, shouldve been tackled for a loss because the TE and FB didnt get push on the play. A toss sweep to CJ falls just short of the 1st. On 4th and 1 Jamie Harper takes another inside Power play from the I for the 1st down. The next play showed something Napier has put into this offense, an almost-pistol 2-back shotgun formation. The RBs were at their normal 5yd depth, but Parker was about 3 yards depth, the idea of the Pistol being to give the RB some momentum. Not surprising that we run it then. What looked like an Isolation to Harper gets nothing, and Jacoby drops a wide-open play over the middle to force the kick. Jackson missed it to the left, 46yds, barely.

First play for MTSU was high throw that bounced off the WR's hands and Maye intercepts at the MTSU 35.

Clemson drive starts with a PA and Parker takes a sack. MTSU began bringing pressure on this drive. Should've thrown that one away though and had time. A WR Screen to Jacoby gets a few yards and Parker takes the next one himself for the 1st. Lambert was totally beat on his block. Ellington comes in...where is CJ Spiller? Harper again, where is CJ Spiller? A roughing penalty gives CU a 1st. Taylor catches a PA pass and is tackled at the 5. Sideline calls a TO because Diehl is not where he should be it seems. A PA play is well-covered and Parker smartly throws it away, then stupidly throws one into double coverage on 3rd and Goal. Jackson makes it 10-0. No running plays.

On 2nd down, Maye blitzes from the outside, stunting with #94 to force Dasher inside, where Kevin Alexander grabs him from behind. Branch was playing a LB position and blitzing as well up the other side. Defenses forces 3 & out. Clemson gets it back around the CU 27.

Spiller gets 3 on a strongside power/trap play, Parker takes a designed draw up the middle, and Jacoby fails to catch another that hit his hands. The CB was right with him but he had it, and it was a perfect throw.

MTSU gets it back and makes one good play, then a botched shotgun snap costs them any shot at sustaining a drive. Maye makes that tackle and breaks up the next screen pass, and Sapp tackles the QB on an option for a loss, forcing the punt.

End of 1st QTR.

Following Spiller's return from the CU 17 to around the MTSU 33, he gets up gingerly and was apparently injured on the play. Dabo says its his toe and he wouldnt chance it further, so he pulled him. Korn comes in, and on 2nd down DROPS THE DAMN BALL on a FS blitz in his face. The FS never touched him, he just dropped it as he was beginning his throw, then got rocked. Returned 68yds for a TD, 10-7.

Clemson gets good field position again, on a squib kick, and Jamie Harper is taking advantage of some good cutback lanes being opened up, as is Ellington. Jacoby drops a wide-open pass at the MTSU 20. Jacoby turned his head before he caught it. Throw was perfect. Parker takes it himself the next play 20yds to the 10. An end-around from Jacoby with an inside fake gets us to the 1. This was really a well-setup call after the inside power runs. Then Clemson's OL takes a dump. The safety comes unblocked around the left side and tackles Taylor from behind. Next play is the same lead Iso, too much MT penetration and bad technique by the right side of the line. Then Dabo pusses out and kicks the FG.

2nd and Goal at the 1.5, and cant get it in. Personnel was fine, which is better than Bowden's days. He'd have put in Ellington to run it there. 13-7, 11 play 57yd drive, which was otherwise good.

Campbell starts the next drive with a sack on another WR Screen. D. McDaniel makes a KILLER hit on Dasher to force the punt....then Jacoby strikes for 61yds. 20-7. 2nd time ever for CU to return a KO and Punt for TD.

MTSU begins adjusting with more quick passes to beat the Clemson rush. Jamie Cumbie lines up at DE with Sapp inside and comes around behind Dasher for a sack. Rashard Hall comes from deep safety to make a great tackle and forces the punt.

Spiller actually took it, and just ran out of bounds. He did play in the next series. He was hobbling. The next play was a PA fake in the 'Gun to the strong side, with Parker rolling to his right and the line rolling left, he hit Jacoby on corner route and he cuts back inside (route is meant to go outside) and past everyone for 43yds. 27-7.

Defense forces a punt, and the offense, showing some no-huddle, moves the ball just enough (5 plays 23 yds) to get a FG making it 30-7. Only real highlight was a 21yd post into the seam on 3-deep by Jacoby.

Halftime.
Defense held them to 62 total yds in the 1st, 2 TOs and 1/7 on 3rd down.
Offense had 91 rush, 75 pass, 2/9 on 3rd down.

MTSU comes out no-huddle, using quick passes to negate the rush. Blissard takes a 43 yd reception after two missed tackles into CU territory. A few more quick plays and Dasher hits McClover on an 18 yard fade route on #29 man/man for the TD. 30-14. Clemson didnt blitz on the drive. 7 plays for 85 yards.

Jacoby picks up a short squib and takes it to the MTSU 38. Korn comes in, tosses to Harper a little high and wobbly, and Harper cant catch it and MTSU intercepts. I dont believe that the pass was late getting there, and I put the blame on Harper. Sure Parker has more zip than this but Harper shouldve made the catch.

MTSU starts moving the ball again, but Chancellor picks off a pass on a quick hitch and after that, they barely do anything the rest of the game, but honestly Clemson is giving up too many yards on inside read options and draws. Most of this I attribute to playing a 3-3 and 3-2 front at times. We won't see that next week.

Clemson gets the ball back on the 32, calls an option and a read option that get nothing, then Parker hits M. Jones on a post route for the final score of the game. Clemson lined up in 'Gun, 1 back and the play was a designed fake WR screen to the left. Parker stepped forward, pump faked left to bring the safety in, and Jones was wide open.

MTSU continues no-huddle and moves the ball on us, but Dasher misses his open man and the coverage was glue. Draws and inside read options beat Clemson, but we are playing 4-man front. Turned over on downs.

Clemson comes out in the I-formation and starts pounding the ball with Rendrick Taylor, but get NO push against this scrawny line of MTSU. Walker was in at RT and did fairly well on his man actually. Taylors fumble was caused by his arm hitting McClain, and McClain recovered it. On 4th down a lead power play gets nothing. I thought Austin was supposed to be good? He was too slow getting on his man.

MTSU fumbles on the next option play to the left, forced by Maye, and I dont see how we didnt come up with that ball. Dasher's passes are broken up by glue-like coverage and they punt.

Then comes a bad snap, Parker falls down, and another play he just misses the open receiver. Why no rushing plays? Why did we commit to running the previous drive and not once here with a big lead?

End of 3rd QTR
MTSU was again able to move the ball on quick passes and draws/options, even though Clemson is sticking to 4-man fronts now. Dasher begins cramping up and noticably limps the rest of the game. MTSU has some success with their Wildcat formation and gets inside the 10, but Chancellor forces the WR out-of-bounds and the ball turns over on downs.

Why is Korn not playing here? Theres no need to have Parker in right now. 8min in the 4th, I'd have Korn running the offense to TRY to get his confidence back up after the turnovers. Harper begins running the ball more, from singleback sets, and runs it pretty well. Some of the backups are playing along the O-line here as well. Dwayne Allen sticks with a few blocks. Parker fails to see an open man downfield on 3rd down and Jackson misses the 48yd FG to the right.

MTSU again is able to move the ball on us, and no we were not just playing backups. A few possible TD catches are juggled and dropped in man/man coverage and again turned over on downs.

Clemson runs out the last 2 minutes with Ellington showing some brilliant flashes. MTSU was clearly tired and tackling was bad. Korn comes in only to take a knee, WTF?

End of Game

Game stats.
Defensive stats.

Parker's decision making aside from a few plays has been really good. It surprises me actually. I figured he'd throw into coverage more and lock onto the primary more often than he did. He had little opportunity to make touch throws however.

Clemson's OL actually did a good job of picking up blitzes and with 202 on the ground, the stats show they did alright after the 1st quarter, but several times we could get NO push when we needed it. 4/14 on 3rd down against MTSU aint gonna cut it. Maybe I'm complaining too much, and MTSU had 8 or 9 in the box many times, with Ford and Spiller out.

Jacoby has glass hands. Catch the damn ball Jacoby. He cramped up a little after his last big play, and never returned.

I predict more up-tempo offense and no-huddle next week, we were fairly simple and vanilla today. TE's will get more looks and more RB screens will come in.

The Defense stayed home and showed discipline on perimeter options, and didnt miss many tackles. (Chambers and Rashard Hall come to mind as the biggies) The only complaint I see is that we just outran ourselves getting to Dasher. A slower QB wouldve been sacked at least 6-8 times. DaQuan Bowers was in the backfield a few times, but had little to show for it. Coverage was very good. Most of the blitzes were a variation of the fire zone or Gut-X blitzes posted here before, from 4-2 and 3-2/3-3 fronts. Many times, the 2nd blitzing LB was actually the Defensive end: Sapp, Alexander, and Branch. Maye and McDaniel played outstanding, but particularly Maye. In the 2nd half, they did lose some intensity though, and much of MTSU's yardage was on 3rd down (133 of 299).

But, if Bowden had been here, we'd have seen 15 bubble screens, Korn would be starting, and we'd have only won by 7.

Larry Williams review.

SID highlights/TNet

Impressions before looking at the film...37-14 victory

2009-09-05T19:48:00.006-04:00

-Jacoby needs to catch passes that hit him in the hands, two big plays could've happened had he just done that. He made a few great ones, and dropped a few as well.

-Parker looks fine to me.

-Korn just dropped the damn ball, the guy had not yet touched him. Korn's INT in the 2nd half was more the WR's fault.

-The OL is doing ok given that there are 8-9 in the box, but play is generally sporadic, particularly at the goal line. I was not happy that Rendrick did not get in on those plays. Not impressed with goal line play whatsoever, but did like the playcaling on all but one time in the red zone. They just have to execute the plays.

-Where is that commitment to playing CJ Spiller? Guys like CJ dont leave the game with 7 touches. Was he injured? I can see taking him out early for next week.

-Special teams returns look outstanding, the missed long FGs were just long. I hope for 60-70% over 40yds. Jackson was very close on the 2nd but pushed it right.

-Defense is playing a few 3-3 fronts, and generally bringing at least one more when they play 3 down. I see several fire zone blitzes and 5-man pressures in front of a Cover 3. What they also seem to be doing is simply standing up Sapp or Branch and playing 3 down linemen, but sending the Bandit anyway.

-Anybody know where Jeff Scott, WoodyMac, and Pearman got those Block C hats?

Thoughts on last night....one day to go.

2009-09-04T12:10:00.006-04:00

Pretty much everyone is talking about Oregon RB L. Blount, after he coldcocked a Boise State player last night, but I don't have much to say about it. He talked trash in the offseason, saying that Boise State "deserved an ass-whoopin" and then they got taken behind the woodshed last night.

The BSU player, #94 Hout, tapped him on the shoulder and said something he should not have said. Probably somethin about "hows that ass whoopin bitch?" or a use of the N word. He provoked it, and probably deserved to have his ass knocked out for doing that, thats still bad sportsmanship on HIS part.

That said, Blount should be suspended a minimum of 3 games for that punch, and considering that he's been in trouble this offseason, and that he let himself lose his cool by threatening a fan (though the fan was talkin shit too, clearly), I'd kick him off my team period.

UPDATE: Blount has been suspended for the rest of the year by Oregon. Hout has been "internally disciplined."

(courtesy EDSBS and LSUFreek)

Otherwise, the only surprise last night was Spurrier's commitment to an inside power running game, and the SLUGGISH NC State team. I suspect the Cluckers will have a pretty good defense, and give UGA a fight next week because they usually do and UGA overlooks them. They'll lose to UGA, unless the meteor strike I've been praying for happens, and then proclaim they'll not lose again til Florida.

When what really will happen is that they'll beat FAU, then crumble at midseason. Their young secondary will eventually give up alot of yards, and anyone with a brain who knows them will know that all you ever have to do to SC to win is POUND them up the middle.

NC State showed me that Russell Wilson really does have an NFL-quick release, his WRs cant catch and the TE, who was open the first half, is slower than molasses.
They were weak up front on BOTH sides, until late in the 3rd, and did alright to prevent SC from killing them when they lost field position in the 1st half. I suspect O'Brien will salvage this team and they'll be playing much better when we come on the schedule.

Links
-Scott Rhymer's best article, in my opinion. Just block somedamnbody and you'll win.

-Clemson pulled in its 3rd commit for 2011, Brandon Ellerbe (6'1 200, 4.5) from NC. Its nice to pull in players from NC, we used to own that state. He projects as a safety. He's been looked at by Duke, Vandy, and Virginia, and was very interested in UGA and Florida. His teammate is the top LB in NC, who we lead for, and another is a good OL recruit. We may pull in all three, but its too early to think about.

-The State has a video of Swinney and Parker previewing MTSU in the press conference earlier this week, coachspeak stuff.

-The AP writes about the season D. Bowers and Ricky Sapp should have, and an interview with Chris Chancellor.

-RichRod's troubles at West Virginia have been linked with Clemson booster Lamar Greene, whose name vaguely rings a bell with me, as well as Ron West.

-Sawchik points out the possibility of upset tomorrow.

-Several tidbits in this Strelow article, about the QB being a new dimension in Franklin's system, and mix & match of our WRs in different positions on the field. Also, the less-talked-about trip to Austin this offseason to meet with the Texas staff earlier in winter.

Season Opening Notes

2009-09-03T07:38:00.000-04:00

Here are a few items that we will key on throughout this season.

Clemson's ability to dictate its own destiny. Under Tom Bowden, the offensive strategy was to react to what the defense put in front of our offense. This idea was evident in the TB era (though not the entire time), with Clemson lining up at the LOS then looking to the sideline for the actual play. While I am all for gathering all information before making a decision, I do not believe in this strategy. I think that overall trends, down and distance indicators, and overall team strengths (for both teams) should dictate a strategy. This should also dictate play calling decisions. Too many times I think Clemson has gotten into game situations and the coaches have tried to "out think" the opponents. IMO, this agenda ruins game rhythm and the fluidity of an offensive series. This criticism blends in with the previous blog (Swinney/Spence) on this issue.

I would also like to clarify my stance on adjustments--they are absolutely necessary. I just do not believe that (on a 24 second play rotation--this simplifies the "new" clock rules) a coach can get a team into a formation in 5 seconds, have the defense line up within that 5 seconds, make efficient calculations and signal in a new play in 15 seconds, and effectively run the play in 4 seconds--please excuse the roughness of these assumptions. In short, it is very rare in the college game of football that a group of coaches can digest all this information in such a short period of time, relay said information to players 40 yards away through hand signals, then expect the players to digest this information in a short period of time and gain a significant advantage.

I believe that the tempo and objective (run/pass/special play ratio) should be set by the play caller at the onset of the drive (i.e., the offensive coordinator should have a good idea of the layout of plays and how they will play out before the team begins a given drive). The offensive objective should also be set in pre-game preparation (study of game film). This plan should involve plays that the offense is capable of executing. When properly prepared, it is the play caller who pulls the right strings at the correct point in time and takes advantage of the preparation done throughout the week and throughout the game. The last portion of that sentence was the most important, as I honestly believe that Clemson under TB made the least game time adjustments of any team I can remember (see CU vs. UMd last year and CU vs Auburn in the Peach Bowl, as Clemson had no answer to the defensive adjustments these teams made). Bottom line...preparation is everything. Once the game starts, the war is broken down to individual battles for the offensive coordinator, with each battle being each individual offensive series.

Let me stop the digression...the coaches should have a good idea of the play call before the actual play. If there is a huge problem the qb can call a time out or (if the coaches allow) audible. Play calling is a chess game. Each coach knows his player and (through film study) should know the other players and other teams. Down and situation is the third variable to this situation (by knowing down and situation coupled with watching film and what the team has done in the game thus far, you should know the other team's tendencies). The items in parentheses dictate why a coach should be able to dictate plays from the sideline without much qualm.

The final point that I will make regarding controlling your own destiny is that this staff seems to be more proactive. Swinney has already said that all positions are up for grabs all the times. This is in direct opposition to TB's strategy of not changing until the system is broken beyond repair (or TB is about to get his ass fired, in Willie Simmon's case). Tom's strategy was to make a decision and never alleviate from this decision (particularly from a personnel standpoint). Swinney "hires and fires" on a daily basis. This increased competition will not only drive the players to practice and play better but will also ensure that the best and most prepared players on a weekly/daily basis will be utilized in game situations.

Thus, this long winded dictation says that Clemson cannot be a reactionary unit and must play to its strengths against its opponents weaknesses in game situations. We cannot wait for a player to fall into place, we must go out and find this person. By calling a play from the sidelines and running the play (or allowing the QB to audible at the LOS), you build rhythm and dictate the tempo of a drive. By creating competition weekly for all positions, you ensure that the best players will be on the field at all times.

Clemson's ability to maintain consistency. This issue is one that has peeved us over the years. One week the Tigers are world-beaters, the next we cannot beat Duke. Can the Tigers avoid the peaks and valleys that we have seen out of this team over the past 10 years? The big difference between this team and teams of the past is motivation by the coaching staff. This staff seems to have more of the "get after your ass" mentality than the previous group. I think that mistakes made this season will be more from lack of experience from a head coaching standpoint than a lackadaisical attitude by the team.

I also think that the simplification of the offense/reduction of the playbook coupled with more repetition in practice will allow the Tigers to execute more consistency. Repetition is the only way to drive home an idea/technique, and in turn gain consistency. You can bet Dabo will have the guys excited about playing football each week.

Physical Play that is Technically Sound. Nothing pisses me off worse than an arm tackle...and I have been regularly pissed off watching the Tigers the past few years. I will be interested to see the effect of the new coaches on this team. We are watching for mistakes all year long. You can bet your sweet ass that mistakes will be brought up on this blog, simply because they are avoidable and are often the difference between 3 pts and 6, getting the ball with 3 min left or 45 seconds left on the clock, winning and losing.

The new coaches (specifically Pearman, as a former TE here at CU) brings a fire for physical play. Swinney himself is committed to physical play. The effect of this commitment should be seen in goal line and short yardage situations. It should also be evident in the 4th quarter. The more physical team usually polishes off its opponent by wearing them down to nothing by the end of the game.

On a side note, congratulations to Coach Ford on being a member of the 2009 Football Championship Game Legends Class. Coach Ford is well deserving of such an honor and continues to contribute to Clemson University.

It is a travesty that Clemson University will not put the Block C on the side of the stadium...this is an issue that I am positive will be discussed in future blog.

Its about damn time he gets recognized

2009-09-02T17:36:00.002-04:00

Danny Ford can be in the ACC Legends Class, but not in the Ring of Honor alone itself?

Ford, who now lives just outside of Clemson in Pendleton, S.C., began his head coaching career as the youngest head coach (30 years old) in Division I football with a win over Ohio State in the 1978 Gator Bowl. Three years later, he led the Tigers to the 1981 national championship and was named National Coach of the Year. In all, Ford compiled five ACC Football Championships in his 11 seasons as head coach of Clemson. His winning percentage of .760 is the third highest in ACC history and he ranks second only to FSU’s Bobby Bowden in most bowl victories while an ACC coach with six. His 96 victories, while Clemson’s head coach, are fourth-best in ACC history. At one stretch his Clemson teams were ranked among the Associated Press’ rankings for 41 consecutive weeks and his Tiger teams earned 18 wins over nationally-ranked opponents.

Make it happen Dabo.