Archive for August, 2009

A Handzilla sighting, and maybe a starting kicker

We may not have legit visual evidence that Bigfoot exists.
But proof for the existence of “Handzilla” is supposedly on the way.
Wrote a story earlier this month on freshman defensive end Malliciah Goodman, a k a “Handzilla,” and the reason it even took that long to reach print is we tried in vain for a few [...]

Queue “The Final Countdown”

This job has more than its share of benefits and pleasures, to be sure. And don’t think I don’t understand and appreciate that what supports my family is the passion folks have for college football in this state.
But when you’ve dissected a football team as we media types have so thoroughly since the second last [...]

Living on fantasy football island

Played in my first full-court pickup basketball game in 5 years, 6 months on Wednesday, a sabbatical this 34-year-old never dreamed possible when I used to run 5-6 hours every weekday in college.
This is only pertinent for two reasons:
1. That’s about as long as I go between blog posts, for which I apologize (well, if [...]

The color purple and the magically growing O-line

An hour or so before kickoff at one of Clemson’s home games last year, I recall someone I know coming up to me on the sideline and asking, in a hushed tone, whether I thought the Tigers would come out wearing purple.
My reply was something to the effect of “I didn’t realize purple created more [...]

Clemson breadth chart

Whenever I receive Clemson’s or its opponents’ game notes each week of the season, the first item I always turn to is the depth chart.
We’re conditioned to believe a depth chart accurately depicts who starts, who the definitive backups are and what that team’s primary offensive and defensive personnel grouping is.
It does carry value in [...]

Camp conclusions

A black cat just sprinted across my path on my midnight pre-blog run.
So either everything in this stream of opinions/thoughts/insights is doomed to blow up in my face, or there’s a neighborhood feline that keeps similarly strange hours and hasn’t learned to look both ways before crossing the street.
****
It feels like the biggest consequence in [...]

Reaction from the Parker announcement

Here’s what all the involved parties had to say after Monday’s practice when redshirt freshman Kyle Parker was tabbed the starter over redshirt sophomore Willy Korn for the Sept. 5 opener against Middle Tennessee:
DABO SWINNEY
I met with all the quarterbacks last night … based on where we are right now, there has been some separation [...]

Younginer set to follow Dwyer to pros

It only took, oh, a month or so to formalize, but Clemson freshman pitcher Chris Dwyer FINALLY signed with the Kansas City Royals on Thursday, as we reported several weeks ago he would.
That’s not a dig at Dwyer. It’s the process that’s transparent, seedy and ridiculous.
Major League Baseball has a sliding scale for signing bonuses [...]

Thursday thoughts

Cleaning out the brain as Clemson practices just once today before resuming two-a-days Friday, in preparation for its second fall scrimmage Saturday:
I certainly haven’t been privy to enough of the practices (or any of the last scrimmage) to make a judgment call on which quarterback has been better this month.
But everything I hear continues to [...]

The great Goodman debate

As a reference point for this discussion, did a story Sunday examining the frequency with which Clemson used first-year freshmen the last three years, exploring the premise of whether it’s worth it to spend/burn a year of eligibility for less than 10 offensive/defensive snaps per game.
Missing from the online version is the order for what [...]