A Brief History of Tiger Illustrated

MillerHighLife21 · Jul 11, 2017

I figured the historian thread should actually get moving with contributed histories from long time members. I've been here since September 2001 when I was in my junior year at Clemson, so I'm going to give a shot a bullet pointing what I remember. If you see any links to videos with a password in here, the password is 'gotigers'.

2001

General reaction: "People PAY for message boards?"
Popular free Clemson board becomes cesspool of fake Gamecock accounts
Prominent Gamecock message board figures engage in actual offline stalking (Trooper Del)...private paid boards suddenly make more sense.
As people migrate over, annoying tendencies from the other board (Germans) come with them and are bravely and successfully fought by TI members.
Ard's content quality is off the charts better than all competition. Also was a big fan of Reggie Herring.
Season was chaotic. Coming off a #3 midseason ranking prior to Dantzler's injury the prior year, we returned Dantzler but lost SEVEN defensive tackles in the off season. 4 to graduation, 3 due to robbing a dorm. Nick Eason is forced to move from DE to DT. Rich Rod was gone to WVU and the board actively speculated about whether he or Tommy should have been hired for this job. Discussion would not go away until Dabo.
Offense was pretty good, defense could not stop anything up the middle. Passing game looked exactly the same. Running game did not. Had a couple of great games against GT (stuff of legend) and NC State. Lost to SC in the most boring game I've ever seen between us.
Punter Wynn Kopp and his father published a book about punting that was discussed on national TV while we played at FSU, losing in a 41-27 effort after some great play calling because....Wynn Kopp fumbled TWO punts. Irony was everywhere.
The board was not happy...but we had recruiting for hope and the improvements against FSU helped also after years of not even scoring down there.
Woody Dantzler becomes the first player in CFB history to rush for 1,000 yards and pass for 2,000 yards.
We head out to Boise for the Humanitarian Bowl on the Blue Turf and play in the snow. Only about 3,000 fans go but the ones that did all said they had a great time. Roscoe Crosby scores a touchdown on a 53 yard pass from Dantzler.

2002

Landed a solid looking recruiting class. Nine 4 star guys and many players who are part of the Clemson lexicon to this day. The Fry brothers. Justin Miller. Reggie Merriweather. Anthony Waters. Gaines Adams. Nathan Bennett. Duane Coleman. Chansi Stucky.
Some guys had to go JUCO or had come from Fork Union as was the norm for us back then. Legends like Tymere Zimmerman didn't qualify. Francouer played pro baseball.
5 of Roscoe Crosby's friends were in a car accident while driving to Florida to watch him play in the minor leagues. 3 died. Crosby has a baseball related surgery and missed the 2002 season.
Dantzler was gone and it was finally time for Willie "Shotgun" Simmons to control the show. TI was very excited. Willie "Shotgun" Simmons had been featured on Tiger Illustrated the magazine (which I still have in my attic). Nobody was yet aware of Simmons, Trump-like hands.
Had a close loss at UGA in a good game.
While the freshman offensive line was mostly redshirting, Simmons got sacked...a lot. Then we learned that he couldn't hold onto the ball when getting hit and the fumbles became a big problem.
Our starting center was walk-on Tommy Sharpe who is generously listed on the depth chart at 6'0" and 270lbs. Probably closer to 5'9" and 250lbs. He also had a habit of throwing up on the football early in games. Did it against SC.
Against UVA, when the game is out of reach in the 4th quarter a freshman by the name of Charlie Whitehurst gets a shot and promptly goes 8-8 leading us to a TD. Doesn't fumble when hit. QB controversy is created.
Charlie beats SC in epic performance considering how bad our offensive line was. We managed to run out the clock with a 6 minute drive on the back of Yusef Kelly and the whole stadium yelling "Yuuuuuu" after every run. Tommy Bowden often joked about having him stand next to him when there was booing so he could pretend people were "Yuuuu"ing.
We play Texas Tech and the pirate offense and get our royal tails handed to us. Charlie starts and gets the tar beaten out of him. Offensive line looks like it's not even trying to block. Bennett and the Fry brothers seethed on the sidelines while Charlie bled into towels.

2003

Recruiting class is smaller and lacks star power. Kicker Jad Dean is the most exciting player in the class because our kicking was so bad. Two 4 stars
Offseason articles included highlighting how Nathan Bennett ran blocking drills against trees and he becomes the boards favorite player.
Line hype and Charlie hype carry much hope into the next year.
Got shut out at home against UGA to start the year after an opening weekend concert the night before. It was not good. The board was not happy. Devil's playground is born sometime around then.
The Hurry Up and Wait offense is born
Debuted the purple jerseys and white pants at GT. Smoke GT 38-3. Team looks really good.
Lose to Maryland badly. Board thinks the Fridge is a genius.
Win a great game against UVA in OT.
Lose at NC State due to turf gnomes.
Beat UNC.
Get hammered at Wake in one of the worst games ever. Board is in chaos. I was at the game in a pre-mobile internet era so I didn't see the on board chaos that actually happened. See Cris recap below for the chaos that was involved in terms of board shut down and bannings. Fans wonder why a good coach would ever hire a realtor as a WR coach.
Philpott publishes a story that Tommy will be fired at the end of the season. Cris cannot get any confirmation of the sort. "I trust Cris" vs "I trust Roy" war breaks out between the boards. See below to note that it still bothers Cris. I can personally confirm that the call was made to secure the buyout money, but whether Tommy was actually told he was being fired after the season is hotly disputed. Somewhere in the AD the decision was made if that phone call was placed and this, I believe, is where the dispute comes from to this day. Roy never issued a retraction and the controversy followed him around ever since. Cris gains very public mantle as most reliable news source for the Clemson program in aftermath.
Epic FSU beat down happens. Chad "I will gain 5 yards and there's nothing you can do to stop me" Jasmin emerges. Donnell Washington becomes an immovable object in the middle of the DL. We beat FSU for the first time since 1989 a mere week after one of the worst losses in program history. The board is confused. So much self-righteous rage had been justified just a week prior...it did not know how to reconcile it with this. People begin speculating that Bobby let Tommy win to save his job.
We smoke Duke. Duke was perpetually bad back then so nobody really thinks much of it going into the game against SC.
SC is 5-6. We are 7-4. SC plays in the mighty SEC and would be 11-0 in the weak ACC. Bobby let Tommy win. The game is in Columbia. SC will surely win. This is what will forever make this game the sweetest...because nobody saw it coming. Shixty-shree - Sheventeen happens. The trail of tail lights is visible from the upper deck of the cockroach at halftime. Todd Ellis has to say "Touchdown Clemson"...a lot. Ben Hall is free! Chad Jasmin is unstoppable. The Doughnut Defense is created. Legends are born. Babies are made. Chansi Stuckey drags dudes to the end zone as defines most beat downs against SC (Emory Smith, Chansi and Mike Williams). The Clemson fans in the stadium chant "Tom-my Bow-den *clap clap, clap clap clap*". All is forgiven. If only there was a playoff we could win the national title right now. Stories of entire stadiums of SEC fans at other games gasping when the score is posted dot the interwebs. Legendary highlight videos commemorate the event. Board members talk about how good of a coach Tommy is because he's chewing out refs and players while up 30 points.
The board is the happiest place on earth. Nobody remembers Wake. Nobody cares. This is near championship levels of happy. If not for the turf gnomes at NC State we would have won the ACC.
We get Tennessee in the Peach Bowl. Fulmer Award recruiting Tennessee. #3 ranked Tennessee who we can't possibly beat. Tennessee who has stolen many of the top recruits from our state over the years. Duane Coleman ain't got time for Vol trash talk and nearly starts a fight before the game. Tennessee does not know what they are walking into. They can't move the ball. They can't stop Chad Jasmin. They get so frustrated at the Hurry Up and Wait offense that they have their whole front 7 just stand up and shuffle around before plays. Kyle Browning runs a variant of the fumble-rooskie play to put the game away. Fulmer is so rustled that he won't appear in The Blind Side movie unless they change the score of the game. Fulmer's decline begins. Tommy bows and says "You're welcome". Happy New Year.

2004

Board is super excited to see us have 27 commitments and only 1 unstoppable 4 star OT by the name of Corey Lambert. It does not matter. Tommy is awesome. Tommy gets a contract extension. The recruits will come after a full recruiting cycle with these wins.
In a puzzling move, Tommy decides that after one of the best offensive years we've ever had he should change things up and move Brad Scott from OC to OLine coach and use Mike O'Cain at OC and QB Coach instead. It's okay though, Tommy is a genius.
Board loses it's mind with excitement to discover that our walk on program is good enough to find us a starter at left tackle in Jesse Pickens. It's okay though #63-17 (note: hashtags do not yet exist because Twitter would not be created until 2006).
Duane Coleman injured in August camp. Out 6 weeks. Chad Jasmin has graduated. It's alright though. Yuuuuuusef still there!
We open the year with a rousing defeat of Wake Forest in Death Valley in double overtime. After last year, everyone will take it. Besides, we were still figuring things out at RB.
Georgia Tech comes to town with some freshman WR named Calvin Johnson. Totally cool though, we have Justin Miller.
We just need 1 yard up the middle for a first down and we ran run out the clock for a 24-21 win. I move out of my lucky seat. We can't get one yard up the middle for a first down to run out the clock and have to punt. The punt snap sails over our punters head. Rather than kicking it out of the back of the end zone for a safety, he falls on it at the 11 yard line. Calvin Johnson scores his 3rd TD of the day against Justin Miller. Justin Miller sucks. I moved out of my seat...it's totally my fault.
The board is confused but it's early in the season and we've got problems. Injuries, haven't figured out RB although that Merriweather kid looks good. We've got a freaking walk on at LT. It will be okay.
We head out to Texas A&M. Their fans are amazing and all fans in attendance have a blast...until we lost 27-6. I was not present on the board during the game because I was at the game. Going deep to Currie was basically the game plan. Their game plan was to interfere with Currie when he went deep. Their plan worked. We are terrible. Conspiracies about air conditioning on the team buses being broken in the Texas heat start to appear. That was the problem. People move on and continue telling stories about how awesome their A&M fans are and about how they find opposing fans and buy them drinks to talk football.
Top 10 FSU and Virginia (not a typo) trounce us on the road. We are 1-4. Why is Mike O'Cain our OC?
We get Utah State at home and Tommy has hit the "screw it" button. Starts a 17 year old freshman at LT named Barry Richardson. He doesn't die and we win 35-6. He should still be in high school. He should be going to his prom! OMG!
With a little fire, we manage to beat Maryland and then NC State in close games. We are now 4-4. Things are looking up, but we have to go play at #11 Miami. This is going to be bad.
WE BEAT FREAKING MIAMI IN MIAMI IN OVERTIME!!!!! You can't hang with Currie's speed! Nobody can stop Merriweather! FANS WERE ACTUALLY AT A MIAMI GAME!!! This is just like last year! The finish part deux! Tommy starts slow but always finishes strong! Yeah baby!
We lose to Duke. Mike O'Cain states in a press conference that he was confused. We get deep analysis of how close their defensive line's facemasks were to the football pre-snap. Duke was 2-9, 1-7 in the ACC that year... Cris Ard is not happy.
We are 5-5 heading into the South Carolina game at home. The chickens smell blood. They are so ticked about last year and it's time for revenge! Syvelle Newton bravely leads his team to taunt our Tigers as they run down The Hill. He's such a great leader. They have the PHENOM Demetrius Summers at RB! We are surely doomed.
The Gamecocks forget that you do not want to make David Dunham angry and he promptly de-cleats Cory Boyd forcing a fumble on the opening kickoff. The chickens manage a single first down in the first quarter after we block their punt and they recover the fumble to advance it for a first down. The level of beat down happening is epic (that's called, foreshadowing). We hold them under 200 yards total, with an average of 2 yards per rush and 9 of 27 passing for 131 yards in a 29-7 win. With about 5 minutes left to go, Newton has had enough medicine and starts a huge fight that clears both benches. We win that too.
In the aftermath of the fight, both teams decline bowl bids as self-inflicted punishment. For some reason a lot of people on our boards were violently angry about missing the SomethingOrOther.net Dark and Stormy Toilet Bowl.
Lou Holtz retires just like Woody Hayes, after a fight with Clemson.
Board actively debates national response to sports fights.
Tommy fires Mike O'Cain (OC) and John Lovett (DC).
Time to get recruiting. There's some stud running back out of Atlanta that we've actually got a shot with. Did you see how good that freshman left tackle of ours was?

2005

Tommy hires Rob "Mad Scientist" Spence from Toledo as offensive coordinator. Word gets out that Tommy is "handing over the keys" to the offense. Board dives into analysis of the Spence offense at Toledo and wonders if it will be effective at this level.
Tommy hires Vic Koenning from Troy as defensive coordinator. "Will it work at this level" wondering continues.
The legend of Quozzel is born with incredibly in depth analysis of the Spence offense against each upcoming opponent as well as Koenning's defense. There's a tremendous amount of excitement and some really incredible writing on the board.
On January 16th, James Davis commits to Clemson after meeting with Spence on a visit. We lose our friggin minds and then collectively cross our fingers to hope he actually signs.
Signing day arrives and we land the #17 ranked class in the country including 6, 4 stars including James Davis, Antonio Clay and Rendrick Taylor. As well as TI staple, Quentez "The General" Ruffin, Tyler Grisham (who offered that guy?) and Kavell Conner
Rivals servers miraculously survive the pushing of F5.
People are very excited about the spring...until they find out that Spence wants offensive linemen to run block out of a 2 point stance. This is unforgivable and will be a point of contention throughout his entire tenure for the board.
Spence talks a lot about leverage, disguising the play, etc. The linemen all take a judo class.
Quozzel writes more amazingly detailed analysis of Spence offense.
James Davis leaves on the first day of camp. The board loses it's collective minds in panic before he returns. Everybody can't wait to see him play but the board is generally concerned about if this is going to be a bad sign for the future. Luckily (fast forward) it's not, but it was a big topic.
The season arrives and we open with Texas A&M. In the build up to the opener, all of the stories of how well people were treated in College Station and our fans roll out the red carpet to return the favor. We have found our sister school. These are our people. It's our first game with Spence AND Koenning AND James Davis. The game is a grind and we can't seem to find the end zone outside of a punt return TD early on by Chansi Stuckey, but our defense looks really salty. Whitehurst takes a helmet hit and gets taken out of the game for the last drive after A&M takes a 24-22 lead. On the final drive, James Davis gets 8 straight amazing carries and gets us in field goal range for Jad Dean to hit his 5th field goal of the day and win! That was awesome!
We travel up to Maryland for a tough game and Spence gets to earn his mad scientist moniker. He sees a vulnerability in the Maryland defense and sits on it for the entire game, until he finally calls an outside run on the final drive to spring Reggie Merriweather for a 38 yard touchdown to win the game! The Quozzel posts gain more weight. Offense is starting to look more comfortable. There's a lot of screen passes in this offense....
The next two games would be two of the most legendary losses in Clemson history. Miami came to Clemson in a game that set the decibel record. We got the game to overtime after the loudest defensive stand I've ever heard. Ears were bleeding. In triple overtime after a miscommunication on a route, they intercepted us to hold on for the win. The game was still legendary and Miami was head and shoulders above us talent wise though.
Boston College arrive in Death Valley with Matt Ryan playing behind an offensive line that included 4 future NFL draftees. Our defense gave everything it had to contain them. David "The Painbringer" Dunham de-helmets Ryan in one of the most brutal hits I've ever seen. Ryan earns serious respect by getting right back in the game. BC ends up winning 16-13.
After 2 losses, everybody is ready to get healthy with a win over Wake. Freaking Wake Forest and Jim Grobe man. We lose 31-27. Nobody wants to hear from Quozzel. There's no part of the board that's ever going to be okay with losing to Wake, regardless of how much better they are under Grobe.
We travel to NC State on a Thursday night and the board is a bit on edge. The Devil's Playground is rearing it's ugly head complaining about 2 point stances and leverage. James Davis goes full Beast Mode rushing for 143 yards on 12 carries. Merriweather adds 47 and overall we rush for 243 yards as a team in a 31-10 win. We can't be stopped. The 2 point stance is genius. James Davis is your Huckleberry.
After a tune-up vs Temple we travel down to GT and Whitehurst plays hurt and it's obvious. We lose 10-9 in a gut wrenching loss that we know shouldn't have happened.
FSU comes to town. We dominate. It's the Chansi Stuckey show as he has over 150 yards and 2 TDs. Defense holds FSU to 226 yards in the 35-14 win. People are becoming keenly aware of just how good this defense can be. Koenning is the man. Spence is the man. Tommy is the man.
We travel down to Columbia. They're looking for revenge...again. Charlie is looking to become the first QB in the history of the rivalry to go 4-0 against the chickens. We are 6-4 and they are 7-3 coming into the game. 7-3 in the SEC is basically undefeated by mortal standards. It's a defensive game and the dirt peckers lead 9-6 late in the 4th. Davis has been running hard and will finish with 150 yards but they've visibly focused on stuffing our passing game. Charlie has only thrown for about 150 and the cockroach faithful are relishing the thought of finally taking him down. After consecutive penalties, we have 1st and 35 from our own 22. Davis runs for 8 yards. Charlie hits Stuckey for 15 and then Baham for 28. Charlie is the man. Every chicken in the stadium knows what's about to happen. 1st and 35 will be on bumper stickers tomorrow. The Chicken Curse is in full effect. Davis finishes things off for a go ahead touchdown putting us up 13-9...but the chickens would still have a chance. Koenning unleashes the fury and we force two consecutive interceptions on their last 2 drives.
The Legend of Charlie Whitehurst is now sealed and will eventually lead to one of our board members losing his wife to Charlie at an event in Clemson consecutive years. If history has told us anything, this will happen at least 2 more times. Once he ascends to Clipboard Jesus status, there will be no stopping him.
We end up playing Colorado in the Champ Sports Bowl. Davis plays great...but the defense...my goodness the defense. The Colorado players children are waking up still today having nightmares about Charles Bennett and Gaines Adams. My God that man has a family!
We are jacked. Our defense is amazing. We have James Davis. Spence is a genius. Our turnover problems have stopped. Offensive line looks great. Long live the 2 point stance! Time to get cruitin'....

2006

As signing day approached, the board was already foaming at the mouth. We had commitments from 5 star DE Ricky Sapp, as well as FOUR 4 star DB's, 4 star DE Jamie Cumbie and in December landed a commitment from a superhuman speedster by the name of Jacoby Ford. Two weeks prior to Ford's commitment however, this happened.
Urban Meyer was hard onto CJ and got him to switch that visit from our big recruiting weekend to go to Florida instead. Dabo was persistent.
We were just happy to get a visit from a RB like CJ at the time. Nobody thought we were actually had a chance. Then on Jan 22nd, we had 5 coaches there for an in-home and Spiller wasn't giving anything away in terms of a favorite.
Two days before signing day, after a visit to FSU where speculators thought he might commit to the Noles...he named a top 3...and we were in it. The board was in full on "there's no freakin way" mode.
Signing day comes and the paperwork starts coming in. We've got a top 20 class with a lot of defensive talent coming in along with a crazy fast WR...but we're all waiting on that Spiller press conference. The press conference is one of those events where you remember exactly where you were when it happened. I was sitting in a cube at Nuvox in downtown Greenville with a couple of co-workers who were avid Clemson fans. We brought some glass bottled Orange Crush as a signing day good luck charm. And then...it happened. All hell broke loose. The board was nuts. Nobody could believe it. Mama drama happened because she couldn't believe it either and we weren't quite comfortable until the paperwork arrived.
Summer was good. Anticipation for the season was upon us. We had James Davis AND CJ Spiller AND Jacoby Ford AND a great defense AND the 2 point stance for run blocking AND all those screen passes!?! Natty here we come!
Over the summer a rumor spreads that senior kicker Jad Dean is attending a kicking camp against Tommy's wishes. Nobody things much of it at the time.
Ray Ray McElrathbey gets custody of his little brother Fahmarr to get him out of a bad situation at home. Clemson petitions the NCAA to allow for donations to help after numerous requests and the waiver is granted. The story ends up making it to the NY Times.
We open the season by trouncing Florida Atlanta 54-6. Then we head to BC and early in the game...this happens.
Sometime around there, I blacked out from sheer euphoria. When I woke up, I discovered we had lost in double overtime because of special teams. In addition to allowing a kickoff run back, we had the extra point blocked in double OT...but none of that would have mattered if replay hadn't overturned a Mike Hamlin interception that was clearly an interception. That call still makes me angry.
The aftermath of that game was not pretty. Tommy was visibly angry with Jad talking about muscle memory and get off time leading to the block. People on the board were mad at Tommy for throwing a player under the bus while we all debated whether or not it was justified. We'd all focussed on offense and defense so much coming into the year that losing due to terrible special teams never really crossed our minds. We were back to reality before we had to go to Florida State where we hadn't won since Danny Ford.
The turf gnomes also turned out to be a growing threat as they evolved from simply tripping to breaking ankles and tearing ligaments of multiple critical starters. The rash of injuries lead to the board debating if there was a problem with the turf we used at practice, the way we ran drills and the brand of shoes that we were using.
The game that we played against FSU that day was something straight out of a novel. Proctor's dad is in attendance cheering him on when he scrambles 20 yards for a TD early in the game. His dad is losing his mind. Fahmarr is in the stands in his orange watching. We get out to an early lead but then FSU claws back to tie it up. Oh well...it was worth a shot. But then, Rob Spence made one of the greatest play calls in the history of football. We completed a pass play to get to our 49 yard line and then did mass substitutions into GOALLINE. After a quick snap JD runs untouched down to the 2 yard line followed up seconds later by the manliest blocking you've ever seen to score the touchdown and win. The FSU fans are stunned. We are stunned. The world is stunned. OMG we are awesome!
North Carolina comes to town. For all of the detractors of the 2 point stance for run blocking, I merely cite this game. We won 52-7. We rushed for 324 yards. ESPN commentator Lou Holtz has to say on national TV that "these two teams don't look like they're in the same league." It's still one of the most brutal beat downs I've ever witnessed. We man-handled them.
We travel up to Wake Forest and we look...bad. Wake is leading 17-7 going into the 4th quarter, setting up for a field goal to put it away...and then GAINES ADAMS takes it back for a TD! After a long TD by CJ and another for good measure, we come out of there looking like we'd have made it to 100 if they let it go another quarter.
After a few more game we're up to #12 and have #13 Georgia Tech coming to town. ESPN has for the first time ever, announced that Gameday will be in Clemson for the game. The build up to the game is amazing. The day itself was something like magic. The crowd on Bowman field was as far as the eye could see. Clemson soaks up the national spotlight like we belong there. The game comes around and the team brings out the all purple. The crowd is unreal. Our offensive line...is unreal. Koenning has proven that he knows how to shut down Calvin Johnson and he does it. Zero receptions. We DOMINATE...and then...this happens...twice. Davis tweaks his shoulder, but we're all sure he'll be fine.
After the game...utter insanity. We are officially back. The college football world has taken notice. We look like a championship team...except for that freaking loss to BC. We're CLEARLY going to win the ACC, but we have to travel up to VT on a Thursday night after coming off of this high. Most of the college football world decides to reserve judgement on crowning us a real contender until after that game. If we win, we're probably going to the BCS. We're going to win.
We lose. Badly. 24-7. VT is our daddy. Davis shoulder is hurt much worse than expected and he goes out early in the game after driving right down the field for an early score. Proctor is sailing screen passes 5 yards over Spiller's head. Bud Foster has figured out Rob Spence and his approach to stopping us would be used by every other team we played.
Then we lose to Maryland at home 13-12. By a miracle known as CJ Spiller we manage to get by NC State in overtime.
Spurrier brings the chickens into Death Valley and as good as Koenning was at stopping everybody else, he has no answer for OBC. Spiller and Ford break long runs for TDs...but then on the final drive, we begin to march on the back of forgotten senior running back...Reggie Merriweather. On 3 runs he gains 23 yards. Death Valley is alive chanting "Reggie! Reggie! Reggie!"...what happened next is what I firmly believe was the beginning for the end for Tommy Bowden...he pulled Reggie and replaced him with an injured James Davis. We were immediately sacked and then Jad Dean, to put an exclamation point on his year, missed the field goal. Tommy later claimed he couldn't hear the 80,000 people chanting "Reggie" over his headset.
Wake Freaking Forest won the division, went on to beat GT in a rousing 9-6 victory in the title game and eventually lost to Louisville in the Orange Bowl. Wake Forest. WAKE FOREST won the ACC before we did.
To add insult to injury, we went from contending for the national title...to the Music City Bowl against Kentucky. We all assumed at least we were going to get an easy bowl victory. After all, Kentucky had the 105th ranked rushing defense coming into the game and we had both Davis and Spiller. Naturally, Rob Spence realized this distinct advantage...and passed the entire game. No really, here's the box score. Davis had 8 carries, Spiller 5. Proctor, on the other hand, threw 39 passes and used his Dantzler like ability and cheerleader melting looks to carry the ball 9 times. Davis average 6.6 yards / carry. Just writing this paragraph still makes me angry. We lose...to Kentucky...and it was so bad that it felt like it was on purpose.
After going from "BCS bound" to losing 4 of the last 5 games in a fashion that could only result in questioning coaching, the off season was not fun on the board.
Man those Shoeless highlight videos were awesome. As therapy, many of us simply watched up until GT on repeat and purged the rest of the season from our minds. In fact, just thinking about them I decided to upload a few to Vimeo. The password to watch these is 'gotigers'. Here is UNC | FSU | GT and as a bonus Calls vs BC
The only think that we had to look forward to was the arrival of future messiah/quarterback...Willy Korn.

2007

The aftermath of the end of the season was not pretty and the Devil's Playground was in full effect. Sure, we had Davis and Spiller as well as Korn coming in...but our contract locked us into shoes that were going to cause everyone's ankles to break. Our practice turf had issues. The 2 point stance was to blame. Spence was too predictable. We play too conservative. Too many bubble screens. Why don't we ever throw deep to these guys? What's the deal with Spence's spread it around formula...just feed the talent the ball man! At least our defense is good.
Prior to signing day, Spence turned down offers from the Oakland Raiders AND Nick Saban for their offensive coordinator positions. There was a mixed reaction. Some people took it as validation that he was as good as he was supposed to be.
As signing day approached, we found some solace in another stellar looking top 20 class. We had Willy Korn committed for 2 years coming in, Landon Walker, Jarvis Jenkins. Some guy named Chad Deihl who everybody swore we had to take to get Korn and Stanley Hunter. Do these coaches know NOTHING!?!
There was 1 signing day surprise. A WR by the name of Markish Jones signed...two LOI's...faxed the second...then changed his mind again and the ACC had to make a ruling.
I honestly don't remember much about the off season before the 2007 season. The way the season ended left a bad taste in everyone's mouth after we saw how good things could be. Mostly, people were excited about Korn coming in, having the Labor Day night game against FSU in Death Valley to open the season, Davis, Spiller and Ford. We were all extremely confident in Koenning getting the job done...but there were doubts about pretty much everything else. This Dabo guy had been a great recruiter, so that was a plus but overall it was just a strange offseason to see so many reasons to be optimistic mixed with so many reasons to be pessimistic. We lose 3 very good offensive linemen on top of it with Bennett and the Fry's too.
We open the season 4-0. We take down FSU in the Valley to start the season, Davis and Spiller rush for 150 yard, Harper looks efficient. Then we roll over a couple of cupcakes (although Furman shuts down Spiller....while Willy Korn appears and throws what would go down in history as "the prettiest incomplete pass ever") and then thwomp NC State 42-20. We're BACK!
We lose to GT 13-3 in Atlanta. It's one of the most atrocious games ever played. Spiller rushes for 2 yards on 9 carries. Davis rushes for 60 yards. Harper is 17-39 with an INT. We miss FOUR field goals, have a punt blocked AND fumble on a kick off return. It is...bad. The prior year our kickoff coverage was terrible and when Burton Burns left for Bama, Andre Powell was hired as his replacement largely because fixing kickoff coverage was his specialty. That part was good...everything else...not so much. Many rumblings about the need for a special teams coach appear...it's okay though. It was just a bad game.
In the week building up to the VT game, a rumor begins to circulate that the Hokies are going to walk down the Hill before the game as a show of respect after the shooting spree on campus that left 32 people dead the prior April. That rumor creates a whole bunch of chatter from supporters of the idea to detractors. It turns out to be entirely baseless but it was a huge distraction coming into the game.
VT comes into Death Valley and spanks us. It's one of those games where there was just this ominous feeling before kickoff even happened. The Hokies return an INT for a touchdown, a kickoff for a touchdown and a punt for a touchdown...in the first half. It's 31-8 at halftime. Offense for the most part played fine. Defense for the most part, played fine. Special teams was the most atrocious thing that anyone's ever seen in the history of football. Tommy insists we actually do practice special teams after the game. All that's left to be said at this point is...
The board is a digital disaster area. That's really all that can be said. Despite slowly getting back on track after that game, having lost those two the way that we did just leaves a sour taste.
Despite all of that though, we end up winning the next 4 games convincingly. 70 points over Central Michigan, a 2 TD victory over Maryland in which Davis guaranteed the win and then back to back 40+ to 10 victories against Wake and Duke. We are 8-2 with BC coming to the Valley for an Atlantic Division title game. Winner advances.
The BC game is a defensive struggle until the 4th quarter when Matt Ryan puts them up 20-17 with under 2 minutes to go. BC's defensive front has been stalwart, but we have a speed advantage at WR and nobody can figure out why we haven't attempted to throw deep the entire game. We finally heave a deep ball to Aaron Kelly to win the game, win the division and exercise all of our demons...it hits him right in the hands...and in the play that sums up the Tommy Bowden tenure better than any other...he drops it. One. Play. Away. BC wins the division. We don't. Again.
The Spence questioning is on full tilt after that one. Nobody can figure out why he wouldn't go deep with Ford. Instead of stretching them out he kept on keeping things close to the line with screen after screen.
We get right with a win over SC at the roach the next week...so at least we don't have to hear from them all off season.
To close out the season we take on Auburn in the CFA Bowl where we end up losing in OT. Davis and Spiller look great. Harper...does not. We exit the year with a bunch of what ifs, wondering if we're ever going to do anything of substance in our last year with both Davis AND Spiller together...
The thought process exiting the season is simply this: Korn will surely win the starting job in the off season and then we're going to just win it all in 2008 in Davis senior year. Early prognosticators think we might be preseason top 10 and we're looking forward to getting some great exposure in a national kickoff game against Alabama next year. They weren't very good this year, but people will still thinking beating them is a big deal because they are an SEC team...

2008

The year started off...awkwardly. After the one play away spiel had worn off and we'd had yet another disappointing finish we were looking to have a great year in 2008. We had a solid recruiting class projected, Davis, Spiller, Korn and Ford. Expectations were that we would be preseason top 10...and rumors started circulating that Tommy was entertaining an offer from Arkansas. The chatter on the board was very divided. On the one hand, there was a group of people who were pretty sure that Tommy was never going to get it done. On the other hand, Tommy had rebuilt us from a bad place, fought for facilities, created a dignified image for the players and our program and put together a pretty solid staff. If he left people wondered if all that progress was just going to be lost. Tommy was tired of the speculation over his job though, so he used the Arkansas pull to leverage a new contract with a fat buyout to end speculation for recruiting sake. Opinions remained divided, but we marched to signing day.
Signing day came and went with another solid class that included Andre Ellington, Jamie Harper (of fumbles the promised first carry fame), Dwayne Allen, Kyle Parker (expert of Eskimo football), Jon Richt (Mark Richt's son) and the nation's top recruit Da'Quan Bowers.
Spring and summer were filled with discussions of Korn vs Harper. Would he overtake him? Tommy must be doing something right if Mark Richt trusted his son here. The crazy potential of James Davis and CJ Spiller. How this was finally going to be THE year.
It went by in a rush and before we knew it, we were in Atlanta for the kickoff game against Alabama in Nick Saban's second year. They were unranked coming off of a 6-5 season. We were preseason #10. We were loaded with offensive skill. Our wise defensive coordinate did publicly say that all of Bama's players drive Escalades...so...there was that.
I was at the game and before kickoff, their crowd outclassed our crowd. From the pregame band routine it was very clear that Bama was on a different level from us and that was a foreign experience since it's usually the impression that we gave to other teams. It was unsettling.
From the time the game began, 3 plays in you could see we had no chance. We were completely over matched at the line of scrimmage. Their offensive line made our defensive line look like a practice sled. All the speed and skill in the world won't overcome a physical mismatch. CJ tried by returning the opening kickoff of the second half...but we got dominated on national TV. We rushed for ZERO total yards on 14 attempts. They rushed for 239 on 50 attempts.
The aftermath of that game brought a new level to The Devil's Playground. Tommy had just bent the school over a barrel to get a new contract prior to getting absolutely manhandled on national TV. Not only was this not the year, we went from thinking we were finally close to seeing EXACTLY how far away we really were. We didn't even belong on the same field with elite teams. It didn't matter who started at QB with a physical mismatch of that degree. People were rightfully ticked off. Somewhere, in the expanse of the internet, @blue62 was willed into existence.
The team tried to get it out of their system and move on. They won the next 3 games against Citadel, SC State and NC State before Maryland came to Death Valley...
The Maryland game can only be considered an implosion. Davis and Spiller ran for 193 yards...in the first half. We were up 17-6 and halftime. And we lost, 20-17 after getting completely shut down in the second half. Maryland's players famously said "If we come out and hit them in the mouth, they'll fold." And fold we did. Everything on the board was just one huge blur of bad as nobody had any hope that our once promising season was going to turn into anything we'd want to remember.
#21 Wake Forest hosted us in our little Grove of Horrors the following week and even after an open date we had one of the worst offensive performances that has ever happened. We lost 12-7 that day and that game would mark the end of the Tommy Bowden tenure. People were done. Ready to quit watching. Ready to quit showing up. What's the point of all this?
Over the weekend there was a news conference in which Tommy stepped down and Terry Don Phillips named...wide receivers coach Dabo Swinney as interim? With a legitimate shot at the job? What the heck is he thinking? Name Koenning man!
Dabo started making waves immediately. His first act was to fire Spence and name Billy Napier OC. He named Korn the starter at QB and WK did this weird practice routine where he had to go and gives high fives to everybody that came off the field. Harper commented in the press that Bowden "Got what he deserved."
This strange mixture of respected former players on the board started publicly giving their support to Dabo and seemed a lot more confident than anybody else that Dabo was a truly legitimate candidate to win the head coaching job at the end of the season.
On a 3 day turnaround, we had to play GT...and we lost...but something seemed different about the team. Maybe it was the offensive line doing this innovative...I think they called it a THREE point stance? We all just assumed that if 2 was good, 3 must be better. Dabo entered the game and kissed the rock in a now famous entrance. Korn started and was knocked out of the game by the 3rd series. Dabo started the first Tiger Walk 2 hours before the game to a huge turnout.
Now it was time for an open date to try to get things right. During the down week we heard a lot of things about emphasizing toughness, more hitting, less finesse during practice. If we were going to lose a game it wasn't going to be because the other team was tougher than we were. Open Date University didn't know what hit it.
In the build up to the game at Boston College, the BC Gridiron Club announces the O'Rourke-McFadden Trophy will be given to honor the relationship between the two schools. CJ Spiller would win the inaugural award after rushing for 55 yards on 8 carries and 105 yards on 6 receptions, leading us to a 27-21 victory over BC. The game would also be our first victory over Boston College since 1958. For the team that had set our standard for outworking us in the trenches, getting that win was huge. I can't find a picture of CJ with the leather helmet.
The board focused on the coaching search. Was Dabo really being considered? What other names were out there? Gary Patterson was the crowd favorite. Troy Calhoun was often discussed as well. A very large swath of people insisted we get a "proven head coach" rather than a promising coordinator or somebody similar. Another swath of correct people reminded them that coaching success in one place doesn't guarantee success in another. Those people did not listen and to this day are still, very, very dumb.
The next week we traveled down to FSU in a game that not many people expected us to win, newfound toughness or not. There was a lot of build up before the game about whether Bobby was going to unleash the fury on us for firing Tommy. Dabo was a little freaked out just to do the on field pregame coach chat. The game had a lot of interesting story lines in hindsight. The game was played on Bobby's birthday. He and Joe Paterno were nationally being promoted in a race for all time wins. Christian Ponder at QB didn't yet realize his future wife would be much more popular than him. No word on whether Samantha Ponder's ever been introduced to Clipboard Jesus. The game itself was hard fought but FSU eventually pulled away for a 41-27 victory.
For Homecoming the next week we blew out Duke. Then traveled up to UVA in a defensive struggle. UVA was visibly keying on stopping CJ Spiller and our coaching staff ended up taking advantage by having him throw a touchdown pass propelling us to a 13-3 win. The game was on Raycom, so Spiller was most likely called a Cyborg Werewolf at some point.
Finally this season was approaching its close. Speculation about the coaching search was in full swing. A lot of strong voices for Dabo to get the job seemed to be getting louder despite a number of detractors. People started making a lot of comparison's to Danny Ford, which are still very good comparisons. South Carolina and Steve Spurrier were coming to town, leading to a lot of speculation that Dabo could end up getting the job if we won. In a shock to a lot of people, not only did we win we looked physically dominant doing so, rushing for 184 yards in a 31-14 win. At the end of the game on Senior Day, James Davis got to say goodbye as the stadium chanted his name after he rushed for 91 yards and 3 TD's in his final game in Death Valley.
Not long after, on Dec 1st Dabo was given the job. The board flipped it's collective lid and would continue to heavily debate the hire for about 3-4 years.
We got ready to play Nebraska in the Gator Bowl in a crazy close of the year. Lots of "leaks" came out of the athletic department. Rumors swirled that Koenning wasn't happy about Dabo getting the job and referred to him as "GOAT Boy" for some reason.
Jeff Scott was promoted from GA to WR coach while Billy Napier was put in place as OC.

2009

We played the Gator Bowl against Nebraska to open the year and lost 26-21. Never could get any offense going. Nebraska fans said we had the best defense they'd seen all year...so that was something. Jacoby Ford broke 100 yards at least.
In an unexpected turn, the board experienced one of it's biggest mega-threads ever when @appalachiatiger woke up in a hospital in Lebanon, TN and needed a ride. The Darcy thread eventually warranted it's own historical followup nearly a decade later. It was the stuff legends are made of.
Between the Gator Bowl and signing day, Dabo had one major recruiting battle to worry about...getting CJ Spiller to hang around for his senior year. CJ's mom had been begging him to leave since the day he signed, either trying to get him to transfer to Florida or to leave early for the NFL. CJ surprised everybody and announced he'd hang around one more year on January 15th.
With all of the coaching turmoil from mid season on, an otherwise loaded recruiting class dwindled significantly. Dabo managed to sign 12 guys in a class he would always call his Dandy-Dozen. 7 of the 12 were 4 star rated guys, including Tajh Boyd.
Going into the spring, Willy Korn was still fighting shoulder problems that had developed since earlier on. Kyle Parker won the job. Dabo and Napier worked to figure out what they were going to do with the offense. All that they knew was that they were going to make Spiller the focal point...and that they would.
The off season discussions shifted to positive for the most part. By and large, people were trying to give the Dabo experiment a chance. We all knew that Bowden's worst qualities were Dabo's best qualities, but we didn't know a whole lot else. People like calling him a cheerleader.
The loss to Bama was still a major focal point as we realized just how bad our lines were. People went far beyond 2 and 3 point stances or Dabo's emphasis on building toughness. At some point, a group of apparent cross fitters led by blue62 became completely obsessed with the term "functional strength" and made Joey Batson and the S&C program the target of all blame for faults in the lines for the next few years.
As the season approached, we got ready to begin a new chapter. Dabo appropriately opened his career with a win against long time Clemson WR coach Rick Stockstill and his Middle Tennessee State team.
The next week we went to Atlanta for a tough game against what would be Paul Johnson's best team. We ended up losing 30-27. After the game, this guy got famous for exactly how upset he was about the loss.
We bounced back from that with a blowout win against BC. Spiller would rush for 77 yards and take a punt back for a TD.
The next week, we had another poetic scheduling game. TCU and wanted coach Gary Patterson came to Death Valley on a humid and miserable day, ended up leaving with a 14-10 win. TCU would finish the year with an undefeated regular season, before losing to Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.
The Round Mound of Turtle Town hosted us the following week and beat us 24-21. Spiller took another kickoff back for a touchdown.
At this point we headed into the open date with a 2-3 record, 1-2 in conference coming off a loss to a team that had just lost THIRTY seniors. The "told you so's" were strong. Some folks are not All-In. Dabo was ready for the break to make some adjustments.
The next week, Wake Forest came to down. The same team we lost 12-7 to the prior year. We won 38-3. Spiller rushes for 100 yards and 2 TD's on 9 carries. We are mad.
We traveled to #10 Miami to play what must go down in history as the best game ever played for a 1/3 full stadium. The game is back and forth for 4 quarters and goes to overtime. Kyle Parker throws for 326 yards. Spiller rushes for 81, has 104 and a TD receiving and returns a kickoff for a touchdown. Jacoby Ford calls the final play...a play we'd never run before...and gets open for the winning TD in overtime. Dabo gets his first win over a top 10 team. It's crazy.
The board is quiet for now...people are All-In. We beat up on Coastal Carolina the next week before FSU comes to Death Valley for a Saturday night showdown.
The game is absolute insanity. We...rock them. Spiller rushes for 165 yard, catches another 67. DeAndre McDaniel intercepts Christian Ponder and calls his shot, leveling him with a hit that will give his kids nightmares. The stadium goes berserk. After we score as it goes to commercial break, somebody cranks up "We Will Rock You" in one of the most memorable moments I've experienced in the stadium. None of the videos do it justice, but this is the best I could find.
We finish out the conference schedule with wins over NC State and UVA. We have won the division...finally...in Dabo's first year.
We just have to travel down to Columbia against SC before playing in the ACC title game the next week. Spiller is sick. Literally, he has the flu. He tries to play anyway, taking back the opening kickoff for a touchdown. Shortly after that, after driving 50 yards down the field...Harper fumbles. They turn it into a TD. The next drive, we throw an INT. They turn it into a TD. The game tailspins after that and we end up losing 34-17.
We just hope Spiller can get well in time for the ACC Championship game the next week in Tampa. That's right, Dabo took us to a title game in Tampa in year 1.
The ACC Championship game against GT should have won CJ Spiller the Heisman trophy to cap his year. A closer than expected Texas vs Nebraska game that had BCS title implications absorbed the eyeballs on another channel. It was a dang shame because our game against GT that day is one of the best games I've ever seen played start to finish where we lost. By this point in the year, GT was an unstoppable force with their triple option. So was CJ Spiller. Neither team punted during the entire game. Spiller rushed for 233 yards and 4 TDs. Despite losing, Spiller was named player of the game during the post game ceremony. It was gut wrenching having him walk out of the stadium without that win. GT's win would be vacated 3 years later due to playing an ineligible player. One can only assume they were punished at a result of something UNC did.
Spiller does not get invited to NYC for the Heisman ceremony. He's not even in the top 5 finalists. He finished the season with 1212 yard rushing (12 TDs), 503 yards receiving (4 TDs), 755 kickoff return yards (4 TDs), 210 punt return yards (1 TD) and 1 passing TD for good measure. That tells you all you need to know about how worthless the Heisman trophy is as a measure of anything.
After the loss, we fell all the way to the Music City Bowl but at least went out with a win against Kentucky this time.
Year one of Dabo was in the books...and it was a heck of a year. We accomplished something we'd never accomplished under Tommy with the division championship and the offensive play calling looked great over the second half of the season. The loss to SC tainted it some, but overall things looked promising.

2010

As signing day approached, Dabo reeled in the #19 class in the country with 24 commits and nine 4 stars. The class was headlined by Martavis Bryant, Nuk Hopkins, Josh Watson, Tavaris Barnes, Bashaud Breeland and 213lb, 3-star, ATHLETE Vic Beasley among others. Martin "Yoda" Jenkins, originator of We Too Deep, was also a member of this class.
A tragic side story of the 2010 class was that of Jake Nicolopulos, who suffered a debilitating stroke during his senior year in high school. A few years later, New Spring church would produce a video of his story.
Over the summer, QB Kyle Parker was taken in the 1st round of the MLB draft by the Colorado Rockies with the 26th overall pick. Shockingly, he decides to return to play his senior season at QB despite the pick.
Going into the season, we really didn't know what to expect. Spiller (taken 9th overall in the NFL draft) and Jacoby Ford were gone. We didn't have a lot of experienced talent at wide receiver. We had two solid running backs in Jamie Harper and Andre Ellington but there were a lot of questions otherwise.
We opened up with wins over North Texas and PC to get warmed up before travelling to Auburn for a game against the Cam Newton led War-Damn-Eagles. Ellington rushed for 140 yards, Harper added 44, both running backs had over 40 yards receiving including an incredible diving catch by Harper in the end-zone. Dwayne Allen added 66 yards receiving and no actual receiver had more than 27 yards. The game went to overtime. Auburn kicked a field goal to go up by 3. Catanzaro hit a field goal to send it to double overtime...but there was a flag. We had to backup 5 yards and rekick. The 2nd kick hooked right and Auburn escaped with the win. The would go on to win the SEC, National Title and Newton the Heisman.
After that game's non-use of receivers, our big weakness was exposed and every other defense we played on the season would take advantage. The rest of the season was very up and down. We'd lose to Miami, UNC, FSU, BC and South Carolina finishing the season 6-6 without the offense looking like it had any sort of identify. Reports of Dabo and Napier getting into it during practice surfaced on a few occasions. Andre Powell was rumored to be more of an avid fisherman than a coach. We ended up going to Charlotte to play South Florida and looked as if we had no idea at all what we were doing on offense, losing 31-26.
The board had a lot of negativity. People calling for coaches heads, lots of "Dabo experiment failed" and "time to hire a proven coach" sentiments with some "functional strength" and "fire Joey Batson" sprinkled in. Eventually things turned slightly more constructive with the realization that we were a 1 dimensional offense due to the lack of depth at WR and focus shifted to the need to develop a consistent offensive identify.

2011

On January 2nd, Billy Napier and Andre Powell were fired.
On January 14th, Dabo went out and hired some guy named Chad Morris who was a high school coach 2 years before. Sure his offense put up big numbers at Tulsa and he was a student of Gus Malzahan's offense...but a high school coach? Bleacher Report published a fairly insightful piece on the hire.
Signing day rolled around and Dabo made national headlines with the #8 overall class that included FOUR 5-star signees: Sammy Watkins, Mike Bellamy, Tony Steward and Stephone Anthony. The class has 29 guys including Grady Jarrett, Charone Peake, BJ Goodson and some guy named Adam Humphries that a lot of people thought was a wasted scholarship. Martavis Bryant signed again after a brief stint at Fork Union.
From the day he stepped foot on campus, everybody could not stop drooling over the talent of Sammy Watkins. Further analysis of the The Chad's "power spread" offense seemed to be getting people excited, but there was still a contingent of posters who were completely stuck on the deficiencies of our S&C program.
The season was about to start with a pretty brutal stretch to open the season. We were going to play Auburn, FSU and at Virginia Tech in back to back weeks for games 3, 4 and 5. Most off season projections suggested we were going to consider it a success to win one of those games.
We win all of those games. No summarized writing is going to do these games justice. The Chad is amazing. Boyd is amazing. Sammy is amazing. Nuk is amazing. You can't stop Andre Branch! The Ellington guy looks like a better RB than Spiller (BLASPHEMY!!!). The board popularizes an acronym for Sammy that doesn't go away for a while. Dabo declares to the world that he can't think of a better place to end a streak, than Death Valley, SC baby! OMG we look good! 5 games in and we're ranked #8 in the country! Take that nay-sayers! Everybody is all in. Shoeless even makes a return after a 5 year highlight hiatus to celebrate the start of the season.
We win the next 3 against BC, UNC and Maryland. The Maryland game is the Sammy Watkins show. He absolutely takes over and brings us back from a 18 point deficit to win 56-45, throwing in a 100 yard kickoff return for good measure.
We are now 8-0 and have to travel to Atlanta to play GT in the national game at 8pm with a #5 ranking. The Chad's offense is pretty much unstoppable. The board discusses the merits of his math. Play counts, get off time, options on every play. We're obsessed. How can you possibly stop this offense!?!
Paul Johnson figures out how you stop this offense. You play ball control and let the hurry up contribute to wearing out your own defense. The game in Atlanta is a clinic. The Jackets finish with 39 minutes in the time of possession column. Every turnover and stopped drive is like a lost breath when you're suffocating. Ellington couldn't play due to an injury and both Howard and Bellamy had fumbles in our territory.
We still lead the division despite the loss and we can lock up the Atlantic for a second time under Dabo with a win over Wake at Homecoming. It's an ugly squeaker, but we pull it out 31-28. Something feels off.
Because of the way things work with automatic berths, the next two games against NC State and South Carolina that we played were essentially meaningless in terms of our post-season destinations. We played like it too. We went to Raleigh and got trounced 37-13, then went to Columbia and lost 34-13. Our defense looks like it can't make adjustments and we hear rumors that the fast pace of the offense is getting the blame.
While we were getting ready for the title game, Spurrier took a jab at Dabo and Dabo responded famously with "The Rant". You can Tweet that.
We limped into the ACC title game in Charlotte for a rematch against now #5 ranked VT. Did we get lucky earlier in the year? What was going on with the team? Were there just injuries that we needed to get over? Closing out a year that started so strong with such a wimper and yet still having a shot at the conference title just felt weird. Prior to the game, 5 star RB Mike Bellamy had to be sent home from the team hotel after a violation of team rules (allegedly smokin' some drugs in the hotel room).
None of it matters. We are the Hokie Daddy's. Dwayne Allen dominates and we run #5 ranked VT out of the building 38-10 to win the ACC for the first time in 2 decades. We're going to the Orange Bowl!
The loss to South Carolina puts some dirt on the title as their fans run around yelling about how they're ACC champions during the off season. We don't care. We're going to the Orange Bowl.

2012

The national hype machine that has arisen around our program is crazy. We're going to play a good West Virginia team in the Orange Bowl and from a national media perspective, you wouldn't even know the Mountaineers were in the game. Everything was about Boyd, Watkins, Hopkins, Ellington, Allen, Dabo, Branch, etc. You'd be hard pressed to find anything even mentioning WVU much less giving them a chance. Even our fans started to notice how much disrespect WVU was getting coming into the game and it made us more than a little bit uncomfortable.
For some reason, the Orange Bowl game is on a Wednesday night 3 days after New Years. It's the single worst scheduling of a premium bowl game that has ever happened and a lot of fans can't make the trip, despite it being our first BCS appearance.
The game started out as a shootout, with each team scoring on it's first two possessions. We went up 17-14 on a field goal before they scored again to make it 21-17. After driving all the way down to the 1 yard line, Ellington is stripped at the goal line and they return the fumble 99 yards for a touchdown to go up 28-17. After adding another fumble, two interceptions and a complete inability to adjust to what they are doing...we get embarrassed on national TV in a 70-33 loss. It was 49-20 at halftime.
Jan 12, Kevin Steele was fired as DC and the search for a new coordinator began.
Jan 13, Mike Stoops is hired at Oklahoma to become the co-defensive coordinator with Brent Venables.
Jan 13, Brent Venables is hired to become the new defensive coordinator at Clemson. Oklahoma fans claim to be happy to get rid of him. BV famously uses the term "it's nut cuttin-time" at some point and our fans love him. The hire makes immediate sense because he's spent years working along side the fast paced offenses of the Big 12. Having a guy who knows how to run a defense without making those kinds of excuses seems like a perfect fit. Dabo famously asked him the first question: can you stop the triple option? He can. Thanks Oklahoma...we'll take him. Have fun with Mike Stoops.
Signing day rolls around and we land the #14 ranked class including nine 4-stars. The class is headlined by Shaq Lawson, Chad Kelly, Travis Blanks and Carlos Watkins and some 3-star offensive lineman by the name of DJ Reeder...
Kelly made a pre-signing day splash by talking trash to Cole Stoudt via twitter before even setting foot on campus. He was right though, he was destined for that 2nd team job.
The season came around and we were rightfully jacked, aside from the cross fit brigade that continued to talk about how we were going to get dominated as soon as we played a team with a great strength program. Everybody wanted to see what the BV defense was going to look like. We were excited for year two of Watkins and Hopkins and we were all set to open the season against Auburn in the Georgia Dome.
Open it we do. Ellington absolutely shines and we come out of the dome with a 26-19 win. Then we cruise through our next two games to a #10 ranking before travelling down to FSU to take on the 4th ranked Noles. But something has been wrong with Sammy and the coaching staff hasn't really said what that was. Despite some creative play-calling, FSU is just too stacked and they end up winning 49-37.
We comfortably win our next 8 games, but FSU has the tiebreaker and wins the division. Aside from Auburn and FSU, we haven't played another ranked team all year and nobody is giving us even a little bit of redemption for that Orange Bowl game.
#13 South Carolina comes to Death Valley riding a 3 game series win streak...and they beat us again 27-17 extending it to 4.
FSU wins the conference and we're sitting on what felt like the most worthless 10-2 season that's ever been in the books. Auburn wasn't even ranked anymore, so we had 10 wins without a single one coming against a ranked team, before we landed in a Chickfila Bowl matchup against 9th ranked defending national champion, LSU.
Prior to the game, the functional strength brigade was All-In on watching us get dominated. This would be it, they insisted. LSU was the biggest, baddest buncha dudes on the field and they were going to embarrass us on national tv just like Bama. More humiliation to follow what we experienced last year. If we lost this game, this would be a 10 win season that essentially meant nothing in the eyes of the sports world. Blue62 could not stop talking.
On New Years Eve, we kicked off in the Georgia Dome for the game that would ring in the New Year. The whole country was going to ring in the year and watch our game. Two plays in, Watkins runs up the middle and suffers an injury that takes him out of the game. We are so screwed. But the defense holds. Again...and again...and again. It seems like LSU can't buy a first down. We're not just getting off the field...we are dominating. Malachi Goodman is an unstoppable force. We hold them to not 1, not 2 but EIGHT straight 3-and-outs. LSU's defense is stout and not much it working but they have no answer for Nuk Hopkins! The fast paced offense is more than LSU's defenders know how to handle and the physical specimens have to result to faking injuries just to get a rest on the final plays. Finally, with time winding down LSU needs a first down to put the game out of reach...but we hold...again. After 3 plays, we are buried in our own territory with Boyd facing a 4th and 16. LSU's defense is smothering...and then...this happens.

Boyd squeezes a pass into the smallest window imaginable to extend the drive. Two more passes and we're inside field goal range with 2 seconds left. The always clutch Catanzaro nails it right down the middle! WE WIN!!!! We're 11-2!!! Joey Batson is the man! Our defense is the talk of the night as we hold LSU just over 200 yards on the night. These Tigers are for real as the game validates not only our season but the entire progress of the program as a whole under Dabo. The nightmare of last year is purged. Nuk finishes with 191 yards receiving and 2 touchdowns to set the record in the Dome and goes on to dominate in the NFL.
Happy New Year Tiger Fans!
Somewhere, far in the distance, one can only assume that this happened to blue62.

2013

Heading into signing day we carried a lot of recruiting drama with us. At one point, it seemed we were recruiting an entire school around Loganville, GA due to this one recruit by the name of Robert Nkemdiche. He wanted to come to Clemson but mama wasn't having it...and by it I mean any contact with our coaching staff for some reason. He ended up committing to Ole Miss...which seemed odd to a lot of people because nobody wants to go to Ole Miss. Oh well. Our coaches kept recruiting this other guy from his school by the name of Wayne Gallman. Some linebacker that our coaches thought could play running back. He was a 3 star and despite a few knowledgeable folks saying we were lucky to have him, there were a few people on the board who swore he was just a take to try to get RK. They probably saw great pass blocking skills.
Signing day arrived and we carried our baller status to a recruiting class that doesn't even require name dropping. It's a lot of names associated with a lot of wins.
It seemed strange, but somehow Ole Miss ended up going from the #40 class the previous year to the #7 class this year...does that seem odd to anybody else? No? Strange. Anywho....
The board was a happy place that off season and we carried a #8 ranking into a home opener against #5 UGA. Rivalry renewed. UGA would bring the RB tandem of "Gurshall" to town to kick off the season against the tandem of Boyd at Watkins. It was a showdown that had a lot of sell to it...and sell it did. College Gameday was in town to open the season and decided that they needed to capture the essence of The Most Exciting 25 Seconds in College Football. Even Georgia had to take a peak.
Boyd and Watkins ran wild in a heck of a game. Tajh threw for 3 TDs and ran for 2 more. Early in the game was just exchanging big plays shot for shot. In the end, we pulled it out to shoot up to #4 in the rankings before steamrolling through our next few games like an unstoppable force. On October 19th we were 6-0, ranked #3 and all set to host #5 FSU in a game that would have national title implications.
College Gameday came back to town for the 2nd time that season. Bill Murray showed up as the guest picker and body slammed Lee Corso. We were jacked up.
The atmosphere before the game was absolutely electric. This game was not only going to decide the division, but on the current trajectory it was probably going to determine if either team was going to play in the national title game. Before the game, we didn't realize that FSU was bringing to town one of their best teams of all time. When they walked out after beating us 51-14...everybody did. FSU would go on to win it all that year, making it look easy in the process.
We steamrolled through the rest of our games until we came to the game in Columbia against #10 ranked South Carolina. Somehow, the game is tied going into the 4th quarter despite the fact that we have turned into a turnover machine. The chickens end up getting 2 touchdowns in the closing period to come out with the win. We had 6 turnovers that day compared to none for them...and only lost by 2 touchdowns. Boyd threw 2 INTs. Sammy threw 1 INT. We added 3 fumbles for good measure. We had no business losing that game...but we did...to extend the streak to 5.
Despite the loss, FSU was going to play in the title game which meant that the Orange Bowl got to pick another team from the ACC to replace the champion and tapped us to take on Ohio State and Urban Meyer in the final year of the BCS.
This would be only the second time we'd played against Ohio State, with the last time being Danny Ford's first game and Woody Hayes last after the punch cost Hayes his job. The build up to the game resulted in some pregame campus pranks. A Hayes statue on their campus ended up with a sign hung around his neck saying "Woody Punches Like a Sissy!" with retaliation on the Tillman statue in the form of "Charlie Bauman had it coming!"
The bands even liked the matchup because tOSU band had a Youtube hit due to their dancing Michael Jackson formation. Our band was also having some fun that year with an animated Nintendo tribute.

2014

The craziest thing about this Orange Bowl...was that Ohio State somehow kept it close. We put up almost 600 yards of offense. Braxton Miller decided QB wasn't the place for him anymore after this game. The most offense that those guys had early on was from nonsense penalties. Sammy, Martavis and Tajh absolutely showed out in their final game and left with our first and last BCS bowl win. Dabo took the opportunity to remind people that we were the only team in the state of South Carolina to ever win a BCS game. He also took the time to remind people that we'd gotten our tails handed to us on that very field 2 years before and that we were 22-4 since that day. For anybody who was counting, West Virginia was 11-13 since that game. Still worth watching the highlights.
We marched on to signing day to ink a class that was headlined by a guy named Deshaun Watson, who was already enrolled. We didn't know what the post Boyd era was going to look like, but we did know that it was going to be interesting with Chad Kelly and this Watson guy battling it out. Rumor had it that Steve Fuller had even given his blessing to let Watson wear number 4.
The spring was interesting as rumors about the QB battle between incumbent Stoudt and Kelly were coming out. During the spring game, Kelly lost it after getting pulled on a series and chewed out our coaches on the sidelines. That same weekend, he'd hit 2nd runner up for Miss America, Ali Rogers car and chewed her out in front of his buddies. Ali worked for Dabo. The two incidents combined were not okay and Kelly was kicked off the team. He eventually ended up at Ole Miss despite being caught threatening bouncers at a bar that he was about to go leave and come back with an AK-47. We really missed out on that guy...
The 2014 season and the Deshaun Watson era was about to begin...

And the rest...as they say...is history.

DW4 plays as a true freshman and despite suffering an injury looks like an absolute freak of nature from his very first pass. The big debate on the board is when he's going to overtake Stoudt. DW4 shows Spurrier how you lose to a 1 legged man in an ass kicking contest, summarily ending "the Streak" and starting the one we're on now. Oklahoma gets pasted by Venables #1 ranked defense. The Chad takes over at SMU and the world's toughest QB in Brandon Streeter gets hired to replace him as QB coach, while Tony Elliot and Jeff Scott co-opt the OC gig. Boulware engages in offseason trash talking after ESPN tries to promote Oklahoma's RB. We make it to two title games in a row, leaving Oklahoma and Ohio State's remains in our wake. Lose the first one in an epic game against Bama. Refocus and ride a magical season, a lot of determination and probably some divine intervention into the greatest championship game that's ever been played...and won.

Honorable mentions that I wasn't sure where they fit on the timeline:

@johnhugh appears on the board and becomes an Angry Orchard spokesperson.
An entire system of Potato Post of the Week in terms of both tracking and ratings appeared. At one point it got big enough that people were talking about building a Chrome plugin to make reporting Potato Post's more efficient.

2017

September 16 - Gamecock's Very, Very Bad Day
Jake Bentley...American Sniper
There were 63 Riggs level IPTAY donors in '17.

2018

February - Clemson ranked #1 brand among college football recruits

jeffcoat · Jul 11, 2017