As have been pointed out on these boards by Cris and Company as well as normal posters, these are indeed the golden years of Clemson football. Given how easy it is to fall out of that elite status, we should all be appreciating this time…
Being the person of questionable morals that I am, I find that these great times are greatly enhanced by the woes of South Carolina. The saltiness of their tears at their own problems coupled with their frustration at Clemson’s rise have made for some truly great posts on FGF. And since the XT commitment to Clemson, things have been even more entertaining. There have been several posts on here remarking on how the meltdown on this commitment is way out of proportion to what it would normally be. As a person who frequents the FGF page, I’ll agree that the reaction is much larger than I would expect. Sure, there’d normally be a fairly lengthy thread or two saying how “he’s not that good”, “Clemson cheated”, “if he doesn’t want to play for USCjr FU”, you know the usual. However, this is not the case. The mods over there have posted several rumors (XT playing the USC coaches and being a spy for Clemson being the most common), and the fan base seems crazier than usual. Why is that? I’ve got some ideas and observations…
First, you have to realize where they are as a program. After being at their best ever under Spurrier, their fall from being a really good football team has been rapid and complete. AND this happened on the watch of the same guy that got them to their peak. So they are a bit Schitzo about Spurrier right now. After being pretty much ditched like a bad prom date, they couldn’t hire a coach that was even close to the top of their list. Revisionist history aside, coach boomboom was absolutely not their 1st or 2nd choice (and most say substantially further down the list). Their program is probably the 4th best job in their own division and while the SEC East has been in the tank for probably 5 years, they haven’t been able to take advantage of that. They KNOW that UGA, Tenn, and UF all being down at the same time isn’t something that happens very often and they are missing out on their chance to win some division titles. Their level of talent is WAY down. They are a mediocre team in a BAD division, and that 5 year streak is getting further and further behind them. Add in the total joke that the Clemson/USC game was this year, and you’ve got a program on the rocks…
But you have to have hope right? There’s got to be a way to right the ship and get back to that level they were under Spurrier, right? So they are doing what they can to support that. You go all in with your coach. He’s now the best coach ever and he’s going to bring them to the promised land. That’s a good move on their part. BUT, there’s simply no way they are going to turn things around overnight, things are just too bad for a good player or two to fix it. So you have to buy in to the notion that it’s going to take time to rebuild the program. That’s very reasonable as well.
Now you have to add in the fact that your recruiting brand is really bad right now (ESPECIALLY compared to your rival’s). Elite players simply aren’t going to travel to your school in big numbers. So again, you have to do what you can and recruit a bunch of 3-star local guys that can hopefully help you out with a couple of year’s development and concentrate on bringing in a great player or two. So you claim that you are “locking down the state” and are going to outwork everyone. Your players are going to be scrappy and play out of their heads.
All of the above is reasonable (and not to put too fine a point on it, it’s also all they can do). But when you are placing your hopes in the construct above, you have a very weak foundation to sustain your hope. It’s pretty hard to stay hopeful when you are bringing in 3-stars and your main competition (UF, UGA, Tenn, and Clemson) are all recruiting at a MUCH higher level. That brings them to two sources of hope… coach boomboom and getting a few star players. XT basically embodied that program’s hopes for this class. Boomboom was outworking the competition to hold on to the hometown great player! How many other 5-star guys did USCjr have a shot with? The HOPE was that XT could talk some of his fellow blue chip talent to take a visit.
So not only does your only elite player not commit to you, he goes to your chief rival. That essentially sinks your plan to “lock down the state” and outwork Dabo in recruiting. So what do the USCjr fans hope for now? They got NOTHING and the less delusional fans over there know it. So while losing out on a good player would be a bummer for us, I think that it was a DAGGER to the heart of USCjr's hopes to rebound and become a contender next year. That's why you are seeing that reaction... XT was apparently a USCjr fan and they had a LOT of influence with the people around him. He was the "foundation" on which their program was going to rebound, and most fans considered him already committed. These are dark days for them my friends, dark days.
Being the person of questionable morals that I am, I find that these great times are greatly enhanced by the woes of South Carolina. The saltiness of their tears at their own problems coupled with their frustration at Clemson’s rise have made for some truly great posts on FGF. And since the XT commitment to Clemson, things have been even more entertaining. There have been several posts on here remarking on how the meltdown on this commitment is way out of proportion to what it would normally be. As a person who frequents the FGF page, I’ll agree that the reaction is much larger than I would expect. Sure, there’d normally be a fairly lengthy thread or two saying how “he’s not that good”, “Clemson cheated”, “if he doesn’t want to play for USCjr FU”, you know the usual. However, this is not the case. The mods over there have posted several rumors (XT playing the USC coaches and being a spy for Clemson being the most common), and the fan base seems crazier than usual. Why is that? I’ve got some ideas and observations…
First, you have to realize where they are as a program. After being at their best ever under Spurrier, their fall from being a really good football team has been rapid and complete. AND this happened on the watch of the same guy that got them to their peak. So they are a bit Schitzo about Spurrier right now. After being pretty much ditched like a bad prom date, they couldn’t hire a coach that was even close to the top of their list. Revisionist history aside, coach boomboom was absolutely not their 1st or 2nd choice (and most say substantially further down the list). Their program is probably the 4th best job in their own division and while the SEC East has been in the tank for probably 5 years, they haven’t been able to take advantage of that. They KNOW that UGA, Tenn, and UF all being down at the same time isn’t something that happens very often and they are missing out on their chance to win some division titles. Their level of talent is WAY down. They are a mediocre team in a BAD division, and that 5 year streak is getting further and further behind them. Add in the total joke that the Clemson/USC game was this year, and you’ve got a program on the rocks…
But you have to have hope right? There’s got to be a way to right the ship and get back to that level they were under Spurrier, right? So they are doing what they can to support that. You go all in with your coach. He’s now the best coach ever and he’s going to bring them to the promised land. That’s a good move on their part. BUT, there’s simply no way they are going to turn things around overnight, things are just too bad for a good player or two to fix it. So you have to buy in to the notion that it’s going to take time to rebuild the program. That’s very reasonable as well.
Now you have to add in the fact that your recruiting brand is really bad right now (ESPECIALLY compared to your rival’s). Elite players simply aren’t going to travel to your school in big numbers. So again, you have to do what you can and recruit a bunch of 3-star local guys that can hopefully help you out with a couple of year’s development and concentrate on bringing in a great player or two. So you claim that you are “locking down the state” and are going to outwork everyone. Your players are going to be scrappy and play out of their heads.
All of the above is reasonable (and not to put too fine a point on it, it’s also all they can do). But when you are placing your hopes in the construct above, you have a very weak foundation to sustain your hope. It’s pretty hard to stay hopeful when you are bringing in 3-stars and your main competition (UF, UGA, Tenn, and Clemson) are all recruiting at a MUCH higher level. That brings them to two sources of hope… coach boomboom and getting a few star players. XT basically embodied that program’s hopes for this class. Boomboom was outworking the competition to hold on to the hometown great player! How many other 5-star guys did USCjr have a shot with? The HOPE was that XT could talk some of his fellow blue chip talent to take a visit.
So not only does your only elite player not commit to you, he goes to your chief rival. That essentially sinks your plan to “lock down the state” and outwork Dabo in recruiting. So what do the USCjr fans hope for now? They got NOTHING and the less delusional fans over there know it. So while losing out on a good player would be a bummer for us, I think that it was a DAGGER to the heart of USCjr's hopes to rebound and become a contender next year. That's why you are seeing that reaction... XT was apparently a USCjr fan and they had a LOT of influence with the people around him. He was the "foundation" on which their program was going to rebound, and most fans considered him already committed. These are dark days for them my friends, dark days.
