Isn’t it at least ironic that of the 4 teams that didn’t use the portal to acquire players the 2 service academies are both ranked for the first time since 1960 and Clemson is in the Top 10. I’m an advocate for the portal but you’ll never hear the talking heads point that one out.

Seventy-one minutes had gone by last Friday in Louisville and those that were following along with Clemson’s game against the Cardinals were just dumbfounded. The Tigers, which host Queens University on Tuesday at 7 p.m., were dominating in every facet beyond the scoreboard. Inexplicably, we were down 2-0 and lost our MVP Joran Gerbet to an injury right before halftime.

Seven minutes later, to quote the great Pharrell: Never dreamt I’d speak the phrase, now what the f___ just happened.

First, it was Wahabu Musah with his first career goal. Thankful he was ruled onside as I think Titus Sandy Jr.’s ball was going in anyway, but Musah now has his first goal and assist in his last two games.

Four minutes later, James Kelly does what a striker does and – for lack of a better term – just finishes, after being on the field for all of 30 seconds prior to the goal. Right place, right time for his third goal of the 2024 campaign.

Less than three minutes after Kelly’s goal, our Ghanian Messi – Ransford Gyan – has the vision of Neo to see the keeper in a horrible position through traffic and one touches a ball through it all to find the side netting.

Just like that, Clemson (7-2-2) is up 3-2. And for the second straight game, our Cardiac Cats win an ACC game 3-2 when it looked unlikely, if not impossible.

Before Clemson scored these three goals, Coach Noonan made two interesting substitutions. With 23 minutes left, he put Terry Watson in for Mason Lamb on the backline, but Watson moved to centerback and Lukas Magnason moved to left-centerback where Lamb has played in Adam Lundegard’s red card absences. In three years at Clemson, Watson had only played in six games for a total of 85 minutes. Lamb had a bad turnover a few minutes before, but I’m not certain that’s why he made the move.

Watson has speed and Louisville kept trying to beat us on a fast break like their second goal. His speed, while putting him in a one-on-one situation, would hopefully negate that.

At the same time, Paulino Paz came in for Arthur Duquenne at left wingback. Paz, the freshman from Bolivia, had averaged just over 22’ of play time in his last four games – two of those being against Loyola (Md.) and Liberty.

Paz played the No. 6 (pivot) spot and Noonan moved Antonio Illuminato out to the left side. Down 2-0, Noonan changed the formation to a more traditional 3-4-3 out of possession – the wingbacks gone for wingers. Had to take the risk at the back as it didn’t matter if Louisville scored more if we didn’t score at all. In possession, it was a 2-5-3 as Sandy Jr. pushed up the right side.

Obviously, it worked as the next 11 minutes or so produced three goals.

The last two games – and really all season – haven’t necessarily been pretty, but have been absolutely gritty. We get a little reprieve as we welcome Queens (No. 171 in RPI) and USC Upstate (204) to Historic Riggs Field the next two Tuesdays, before hosting Syracuse on Oct. 25.

The elephant in the room, however, is the health of Gerbet. It looked muscular (hamstring?), but this is pure speculation. Hopefully, our man @toby_corriston can get an update and that it isn’t a lengthy absence. Fully expect to hear he is 'day-to-day', as that's the phrase all coaches have seemed to latch onto.

Clemson should get Lundegard back, which again: the Tigers GAA with him in the lineup is 0.699, which would rank 10th in the country; without him, it’s over two. That should help solidify the squad if Gerbet is out.

Clemson was able to get two huge ACC wins without our captain in the back, and we now sit third in the standings at 4-2 in the conference. We play two more ACC games versus Syracuse (1-2-2 in ACC play) and at Virginia Tech (1-3-1).

If the season ended today, we’d host Louisville in the first round and the winner of SMU-NCSU in the quarterfinals. Semifinals and Final are in Cary, N.C. If chalk takes it, we’d get our rematch with those Stanford punks in the semis.

But, first thing is first, take care of business versus Queens University (3-6-2). The Monarchs have been outscored 18-10 on the season and have just 33 SOG in 11 games. Caio Brandao has four goals and two assists to lead Queens. Quick sidenote, he played at Montverde Academy in HS, so if he impresses Noonan during the game tomorrow, he may get a call.

Illuminato replaced Gerbet in the second half. The graduate student from Cardito, Italy is a transfer from Drexel, where he was an All-CAA first-team selection last year after scoring five goals to pair with eight assists.

So far this season, Illuminato has three goals and an assist for the Tigers in 548 minutes over 11 games. Certainly the Italian, who scored the game-winner against UNC, is proving to be another ‘hit’ for Noonan in the transfer market as he is tied for second most goals on the team. The hope is that he doesn’t have to fill in for Gerbet for too long, but he’s certainly been capable for the Tigers this season.

The Prick of the Game probably deserves to be center ref Matthew Thompson, but I’m going to go with Louisville ginger keeper AJ Piela. This guy was doing his best Jordan Pickford and wasting time from the opening whistle and every save was overly dramatic after he got the ball.

Act like you’ve been there before. And also thank you for your terrible positioning on our three goals. Was a big help.

Go Tigers! Beat Queens!

Columbia? Just had a large deer jump out in front of me and damaged my car.

lol would be funny....
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Just back from Pensacola, FL where wife and I went down to see our son (2018 Clemson grad) graduate from Navy pilot ground school. He has to report to Corpus Christi for primary by today. We were not allowed to attend his OCS graduation due to COVID, and wanted to support his journey.

Wife and I spent a couple of extra days there going to a couple of beaches (Pensacola and Navarre), as well as meeting my son for some good food around there on several occasions.

Anyway, the graduation was held in the Naval Aviation Museum. There was about 40 grads. Before the ceremony, the CO came around and talked to the parents attending (probably about 10 families all told). He told me he had been in 28 years and was a helo pilot. We talked about my dad flying the Huey in Nam. He seemed to really care about his charges. After the ceremony, our son gave us a tour of the museum. An amazing place, with a lot of history, and some incredible aircraft on display. Not sure if it was planned or not, but after the museum tour, we went out to the airfield and got to watch the Blue Angel's practice their show. They will be Rome, GA this weekend, and I only can hope they do a fly over for the FSU game. I have seen the Blue Angel's before, but never that close. All I can say is OMG! The skill, the precision, and the nerves it must take to perform the way they do is unimaginable.

I have some great pics and videos of the ceremony, the museum, and the Blue Angel's show, but I have tried everyone's suggestions to post pics on TI, and have never had any luck. Sorry about my lack of dexterity on the site.

We are very proud of our son as he continues his journey, so I thought I would share with the TI Clemson community. Sometimes life puts in perspective that some games just mean more than others.

I guess they went after him again. Breaking news...

My motive?

To give Clemson an opportunity to stand tall in this age of NIL.

I have never supported the concept of NIL.

College athletes are taken well care of while students.

But I will not stand around and watch Clemson be ambushed by rivals, other schools in our conference or nationwide schools without me trying to give Clemson a fighting chance in this infernal circumstance that has tarnished college athletics.

The ambush is hitting us hard Tigers. It's time to fight it back.

Im a little concerned that we may end up with the FSU treatment at the end of the year because our strength of schedule is so weak. We havent beaten any team with a winning record so far. UVA could be the first one but they will end up with a losing record most likely. We still have Pitt, Louisville and SC to play. All we can do is focus on 1 game at a time and put ourselves in the conversation. I wouldnt be surprised though if Clemson, Miami and SMU are all undefeated in the ACC at the end of the year. Not sure which 2 would make it in but I would be concerned if I didnt with a weak schedule.

I must be missing something because it feels like it doesn't really level the playing field. We are allowed to spend IPTAY money (up to $21M) on players after this passes, but what happens to the big donor collectives?

It just seems like it just shifts the curve up higher and those with deep pockets will still be able to pay more than everyone else. Again, as the village idiot, I must be missing something.

Thanks!

in regards to facilities and one of the most innovative teams with recruiting to where we are now? I understand that NIL and IPTAY are 2 different things and I’m admittedly naive about how all of this works. I’m just trying to gain an understanding of how we can be so well positioned financially for facilities but not NIL. If we have alumni that are willing and able to give to make us competitive on one end then why not the other? I know we don’t have the alumni base that a lot of our competitors do, but it seems that we should have enough to be competitive with them. I’m just trying to understand how we seem to be so far behind when that’s never been the case. Thanks in advance.

This guy has a bunch of realignment information usually and is followed by Neff. Is this a big deal?

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Should have beaten Bama and LSU.

Seems much cheaper. Talk about value.

Discuss amongst yourselves ...

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Release from Clemson this evening:

CLEMSON, S.C. — Ian Schieffelin (Atlanta, Ga./Grayson) and Chase Hunter (Atlanta, Ga./Westlake) were tabbed preseason Second Team All-ACC on Tuesday by media at the league’s annual preseason media day, which was held in Charlotte last Thursday.

In addition, Clemson was predicted to finish fourth in the ACC. That is the highest preseason prediction for the Tigers since 2010 when they were picked to finish third. The last time Clemson was picked fourth in the preseason poll was 2008 when they finished third.

Schieffelin and Hunter were named to the second team along with Jamir Watkins (Florida State), Baye Ndongo (Georgia Tech) and Ishmael Leggett (Pitt).

Schieffelin is coming off a season in which he earned the ACC’s Most Improved Player award after averaging 10.1 points and 9.4 rebounds. It was the second time a Tiger has won the award (Jaron Blossomgame, 2016). He finished with 340 total rebounds – the sixth-most in a single season in program history.

Schieffelin totaled his 10th and 11th double-doubles of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds against New Mexico and 18 points and 11 rebounds against Alabama. With his 11th double-double, Schieffelin was just the second Clemson player to record double figures in double-doubles in a season since 2008-09. Hunter Tyson did it last year with 16, but that is the only other player to do it since Trevor Booker had 13 double-doubles in 2008-09. Schieffelin also had 17 double-digit rebounding games last season.

Hunter returns for his sixth season after he led the Tigers in the NCAA Tournament with 17.8 points, 5.8 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game. He finished with 20 points and six assists against Baylor. It was his third 20-point game of the year and second in a row after a game-high 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the floor against New Mexico.

Hunter became the 46th 1,000-point scorer in Clemson history against Louisville (January 30, 2024) and has 1,228 career points entering this season.

Dabo has given you the keys to Clemson’s NIL funds for the 2025-2026 season with three directives:

1) Keep as much of the current team together as possible
2) Keep as much of the current recruiting class together as possible
3) Use excess NIL funds to sign uncommitted high potential recruits out of high school (primary plan) or immediate difference makers from the portal (secondary plan).

You have $14 million to play with.

Who are the 15 most important players to keep off the current roster? How much of that $14 million will it cost to keep them? Are you spending 1/3 of that to ensure Klubnik, Williams, Wesco, Moore, Terrell, Parker, and Woods are back next year?

Are you prioritizing winning in 2025 above all or keeping the roster stocked for 2026 and 2027 (meaning are guys like Olson Patt Henry and Ricardo Jones in your top 15)?

How much of that goes to keep Jacobs, Davidson, Watford, Adams, etc? Are you making another run at Davis and Campbell? Setting aside $2 million for portal targets?

There seem to be a lot of opinions on here that Dabo is doing things the wrong way. Let’s see how you would do it.