Booing characterizes a maturing fanbase

The first time I remember hearing the Boo Birds at Clemson was during the Ken Hatfield years. I remember thinking as an early 20-something, “this is new.”

As a kid, I was taken aback not because I disagreed with it, but rather it was something I’d simply never experienced. I’d heard it on the telly with other teams, whether college or NFL or baseball or whatever, so it wasn’t like it was totally foreign to me. I’d simply never heard it at Clemson.

This past Saturday as Clemson headed into the locker room trailing Troy 13-16 at halftime, the Big Black Flock took flight once again and let the team have it.

Maybe it had an effect, maybe it didn’t, but you bet your ass it was heard by the coaches. Clemson then went on to rip off a whopping 30 points (which included four touchdowns, not shitloads of field goals this time mind you) in the second half to seal a 43-19 win.

Talk about a tale of two halves. Another bipolar Clemson team? If history’s any indicator, yep.

Then game’s end comes and we’re treated to the usual coaching interviews, blah blah blah, but in this case it was reported that defensive coordinator Kevin Steele, offensive coordinator Chad Morris and offensive line coach Robbie Caldwell had some colorful opinions on the booing. Needless to say, they didn’t like it and that is putting it nicely.

Head coach Dabo Swinney, on the other hand, opted to take his usual bullshit moral highroad and said that he didn’t need the fans’ input to tell him Clemson sucked in the first half.

Oh Dabo, you elitist you. But don’t worry, coach, that’s just that crazy five-percent crowd. Must’ve been a loud five-percent because their boos accounted for 95 percent of the sound in the stadium as your team trotted into the locker room.

It's been written in the Clemson beat media that the booing was aimed at taking a knee in the last seconds of the half. Please, it was aimed at the entire team for their so-called performance of the entire half, not just one play. Look at it this way; do you think the Birds would have taken flight if Clemson still took the knee yet was up, say, 27-16? I’ll let you think on that one.

Here’s a fact of big-time sports: there’s absolutely nothing wrong in booing. Nothing at all. It absolutely does not damage the psyche of the players unless they’re dumpling soft and can’t...oh wait... Anyway, does not damage the players’ psyche which is the argument held by many of the Tigers’ fanbase’s leading enablers.

Could it be possible that the fans are tired of getting fed recruiting hype preseason after preseason and, come gameday, the reality is nowhere close? Nope, not a bit.

I’m not saying the typical flimsy reason for it being okay is because everyone does it. Rather, a fanbase who isn’t afraid to boo a shitty product is one sign of a maturing fanbase. Why? Because they now have standards, and high ones at that. But that’s only one sign. Intelligence is another and Clemson’s fanbase still lacks in that category.

I love it when a coach goes to this school or that and says, “The fans are great! They’re very passionate, the best in the nation and we wouldn’t have it any other way!” Then they get pissed when these same passionate fans boo them when they shit out a pathetic team. Well, guess what, genius? A fanbase that boos is...here it comes...indicative of a passionate one. It’s impossible to have a passionate fanbase who won’t boo when you fuck up. What do you want, one that will pat you on the head, tell you everything will be okay and Jesus is in control and put a gold star by your name on the chalkboard?

Obviously we’re not talking about fans like that of many pro teams who go there only to bitch and throw stuff. I’m talking about fans who release the Flock from the birdcage when it’s warranted.

And you bet your ass going into the locker room with a halftime deficit to a Sun Belt team warrants it. And you’re a nadless shithead if you think it doesn’t.

If Caldwell, Steele, Morris and Swinney take issue with booing, they best not go to the NFL (assuming they even have a shot in their ass to begin with). At least not to Philly or Oakland. Because if they think Clemson fans are asspains wait'll they get a load of certain NFL fans. What's more, wait’ll they get a load of the NFL players they’ll be coaching.

If Swinney’s going to make the players tougher, perhaps he and his staff should set a better example. Pissing and moaning over bitchy fans, who ironically are paying for their bloated paychecks, won’t do anything but turn them against you. Pissing back is a losing venture at other places.

Maybe he should say something like what I said above, “we have very passionate fans and booing comes with the territory. It happens with all passionate fanbases.”

See how easy that was?

The Hatfield era was when Clemson’s fanbase sprouted its first pube. Unfortunately they’re still at peach-fuzz level two decades later and haven’t fully grown into a zero-tolerance, no-bullshit group. After all, this is the same nutless bunch that allowed Bowden to hang around and hang around for almost a decade only to give Terry Don Phillips the opportunity to hire a total downgrade, then fans give this downgrade two years to get it over the hump at which point he hands Clemson its first losing season in 12 years and second straight loss to South Carolina only to give him another two-year pass like the eunuchs they are.

But at least booing was a start.

Thank god booing is something fans continue to do when the team fucks up. And in this era of Clemson football where the average fan clearly is resented and viewed as a necessary evil by the athletic department and university, that’s a good thing.

Time for Direct Action

So I was reading this column in The Guardian (UK) a while back about a direct action group there called UK Uncut and their fine work in attempting to fend off Austerity measures taken by the British government to get its economy back in check. This Austerity has swept Europe and has resulted in protests all across the continent, namely in France, Spain and the UK.

(An American group has appropriated the name, US Uncut, to fight American Austerity, and I’ve obviously appropriated it here as well for our purposes.)

In reality the Conservative and Labour Parties are essentially doing in England what US politicians in both parties are doing here: squeezing the middle- and lower-classes dry and slashing public spending while funneling piles of cash to Wall Street and other corporate fatcats in the form of tax avoidances and to the four wars we’ve started (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen).

From the Guardian column:

Campaigners dressed in doctors' coats and armed with fake blood are planning to close 30 high street banks on Saturday in the biggest direct action to date against proposed changes to the NHS.

More than 30 groups across the country are expected to occupy major high street banks, turning them into mock hospitals and setting up "operating theatres" inside to draw attention to the banks' role in creating the deficit.

 * * *


Clemson fans have talked, bitched and moaned ad nauseam for several years now. Not that I’m trashing them; the university has earned every bit of criticism levied against it.

The hiring of the inexperienced Dabo Swinney after Tommy Bowden’s dismissal over more qualified candidates like Virginia Tech’s Bud Foster and, as rumor has it, TCU’s Gary Patterson, the virtual holding athletic director Terry Don Phillips at gunpoint to build an indoor football practice facility and training table after years of him poo-pooing on the ideas, the havoc reeked inside Jervey walls by sociopathic boors such as Katie Hill, the lashing out at fans by Swinney early last season when things were clearly heading south only for him to justify the vitriol against him as he ended the season on a losing note...there is so much wrong at Clemson you just shake your head.

But it may be time for the bitching and moaning to manifest into direct action.

The most effective way to bring change at Clemson is quite simple: withhold your monies. Fans who cancel their IPTAY memberships and season tickets will send a message, because the only thing president Jim Barker and the faux-academian, corporate tools like him understand is money. So you hit him where it hurts most - his wallet. Problem is Clemson fans historically are rubes and will gladly give this pathetic university their money in a way no different than the elderly woman who gives her entire social security check over to big-tent carnival evangelists. In both cases it’s a blind, religious adherence to a warped dogma.

A year ago there was a billboard movement started, but the guy charged with creating it plundered the coffers and the agenda went nowhere. While that is a blow, that should not have stopped the movement. In the spirit of our brethren across the pond, here may be some ideas that would pick up where that left off:

Duck Calls: Available at any Bass Pro Shop or other redneck store, these can be used during games when the team starts to screw up or just flat-out wilt. Instead of booing to voice your displeasure, use one of these bad boys to remind Swinney just how many quacking ducks are in the fanbase. Moreover, booing may be interpreted as being aimed at the players, who are only following orders. Given his slap at the fans last season when he referred to them as “quacking like ducks”, the duck call is unquestionably and directly aimed at Swinney, and only Swinney. There’s no way a duck call can be interpreted as being aimed at players given historical context. They range anywhere from $15 on up to $70 or so. (Keep in mind if y’all go this route collectively and use these during games, Clemson will likely come up with a rule forbidding them inside the stadiums. Okay, fine, but you can still use your own voice by going “QUACK!” And make sure it’s nasally. They can’t prohibit you from bringing your larynx.)

Motor Oil: In honor of Swinney’s inauguration back in ’08 when he said that Clemson didn’t need an overhaul but only an “oil change”, then proceeded to win the Atlantic Division title in ’09 (thanks CJ!) before handing Clemson its first losing season since ’98 and first back-to-back losses to South Carolina since the early ‘70s, the use of a quart bottle as a prop is only in order. Perhaps when you’re in Death Valley and Clemson is losing (or looking shitty winning) to a lesser team again, just hold an empty container of Quaker State, Valvoline or whatever to remind Swinney of his dipshittedness. Like with the Duck Calls above, this show of displeasure can’t be aimed at the players; this is all on Swinney.

Pair of Dimes: To say TDP made a shitty hire in Swinney is an understatement. Words can’t really capture the utter imbecility of that move. Since then TDP has been preaching to give Swinney more time, as his so-called “paradigm” is 4-6 years for a coach regardless that the writing on the wall screams poor hire from the start. You can use real dimes, obviously...somehow...but to make a bigger and more public statement at the game or in your tailgating environment, I suggest cutting out two really big cardboard circles and paint a giant silver dime on each. And again, you can proudly hold these up when Clemson is aborting a winnable game as a clear and direct shot at TDP’s moronic hiring philosophy. You can even do it when you catch Swinney signaling plays like he’s done in the past or if you know he’s meddling in the offense (which will be evident).

Straight Jackets: Like the quacking ducks thing, Swinney also took a shot the fans when he said that some of them are “crazy”. Well, if you’re one of the “crazy” ones then lob it back in Swinney’s court - wear a straight jacket into the stadium during gameday. You can optionally add the phrase “5%” to the back (or front). This will make a statement, no doubt.

Wings: When TDP took the AD job, he said during his press conference, “I am going to show you a little about my organizational skills, because I am going to start to wing it. My notes are in the car.” Well, he wasn’t lying, as his decisions to this day and his answers to interview questions feel winged and dodgy. In honor of this, cardboard cutouts of angel's wings or something like that and brought to the game. Make them about 6-8 inches large then affix them to a stick or something. When Swinney screws up, hold these up proudly as a shot at TDP, because he was probably winging it when he made the dumb decision to hire Swinney to begin with. When security approaches you and accuses you of being disruptive, start fanning yourself and say “I can’t have a fan on this hot day?” You can also use the stick mount for the Pair of Dimes.

Gene Stallings masks: Very simple here - find pictures of Gene Stallings, cut out the face and add affix a rubber band to it, then wear this mask during games, tailgating, at Tiger Walk, etc. Because as you know, Swinney used Stallings as a campaign prop to get him this job, so it’s only fitting that we ensure Swinney feels reassured that Stallings is still by his side in spirit.

Spinning Tops: Buy 20 of these things then dump them at the front door of Sikes Hall to represent Barker’s bullshit magazine top-20 goal. If you can get them all spinning, great, as that’ll represent how much this corporate tool has spun statistics and metrics to manipulate Clemson up the rankings. On each one write some metric or statistic Clemson has manipulated to climb the rankings (classroom size reductions, eliminating majors, etc). Or you can box them up and ship them to Barker but a public display of sarcastic unrest if more effective. Shouldn’t have to pay more than $2-3 for each.

Keep in mind those things that can be used during the games aren’t exclusive to game use. You can use them when tailgating, and if you really want to send a message you can use them at Tiger Walk. Imagine a radical faction of fans at Tiger Walk as Swinney passes by, and he’s berated with the sounds of duck calls and has to see Pennzoil bottles raised in the air by people wearing straight jackets.

(Wait, how can anyone hold anything up while wearing a straight jacket? Well, you’re reading this blog so that means you’re smart, which means you’ll figure it out.)

So there you have it, some ideas for direct action. Some may be lame but all will grab attention, and I’ve accounted for the retarded Swinney/TDP/Barker triumvirate in this list.

Comical, perhaps. But it’ll get attention. Of course, I’m sure some of you are wanting something more intense I’d guess, as I’m sure some of you nutjobs are probably considering something insane like painting TDP’s car all orange and then write in white the words “solid orange”, “competitive” and “paradigm” on it or dumping off a herd of goats at Swinneys’ house. Well, you’re not getting it here.

Clemson's penchant for blowing early leads

In light of the basketball team blowing leads against North Carolina in the ACC Tournament and again against West Virginia in the NCAAs, I'm reminded that Clemson's football team has a huge problem in this area as well, and it goes back a ways.


Let first define and early lead: having one in either the first or second quarter. With normally-functioning football programs with championship-caliber coaching and an actual supportive university, this kind of thing is capitalized upon. Momentum is established and rarely, again with good football teams, is that momentum taken away.


But at Clemson, it's not rare - it's pretty damn common. At Clemson, early leads cause anxiety and stress, because we all know that an early lead only translates to plenty of chances to blow them. So let's go through, year by year, and showcase yet another wart on the Tigers' collective backside:


2010 Blown leads, early or not


vs. South Carolina: Clemson jumped out early to a 7-0 lead within two minutes of 1st quarter; lost lead eight minutes later, never scored again and proceeded to lose 7-29.


@ Florida State: 10-3 advantage entering second half; lost lead in 4th quarter, never scored another touchdown and proceeded to lose 13-16.


@ Boston College: 10-3 advantage entering second quarter; lost lead in second quarter, never scored again and proceeded to lose 10-16.


vs. then-No. 16 Miami: 14-7 advantage soon after second quarter began; lost lead just over a minute later and proceeded to lose 21-30.


@ then-No. 16 Auburn: 17-3 advantage entering second half; lost lead with under four minutes to go in third quarter and proceeded to lose 24-27 in overtime.


**Among Clemson's seven total losses, five were where Clemson blew an early lead (in either the first or second quarter). (Clemson never had a lead against USF nor UNC at all so they're not listed as blown early leads above.)


Before I go any further, let me make you aware of something - in the lists above I've included all instances where Clemson lost after having a lead at some point in the game, whether an early lead or they finally gained a late one. I write this because if I didn't showcase late leads, a lot of you numbnuts out there would whine and bitch and use it as some sort of retarded excuse to discredit facts as so many of you are prone to do.


So there are three tiers of losing at Clemson: 1) not having a lead at all (which is not in the lists above), 2) blowing late leads and 3) blowing early leads. The lists above detail both late and early leads but our focus here is early leads. Let's continue.


2009 Blown leads, early or not


vs. GT (ACC Title Game): 7-3 advantage entering second quarter; lost lead inside two minutes of second quarter and never gained another lead until 6:11 to go in the game when the Tigers went up by one point. Lost lead again at 1:20 mark in regulation and proceeded to lose 34-39.


@ South Carolina: Jumped out to early 7-0 advantage via C.J. Spiller's opening kickoff return; lost lead about nine minutes later, never regained a lead, and proceeded to lose 17-34.


@ Maryland: 13-3 advantage up until 4:32 mark in second quarter; lost lead with 35 seconds left in the half and proceeded to lose 21-24.


vs. then No. 15 TCU: 3-0 advantage at 8:21 mark in first quarter; lost lead about five minutes later, regained 10-7 lead in second quarter but lost lead again just inside fourth quarter, and proceeded to lose 10-14.


@ GT: Didn't get a lead until 11:33 in fourth quarter when the Tigers went up 27-24; lost lead six minutes later and proceeded to lose 27-30.


**Among Clemson's five total losses, four were where Clemson blew an early lead.


2008 Blown leads, early or not


vs. Nebraska (Gator Bowl): 21-10 advantage in under five minutes into the second half; never scores again, loses lead with 1:40 left in third quarter and proceeds to lose 21-26.


@ Florida State: 10-0 lead up until about six minutes into first quarter; loses lead with 4:16 left in first, regains lead at 8:17 mark in second quarter, loses lead again at 1:25 mark and proceeds to lose 27-41.


vs GT: No lead until 2:16 mark in third quarter when Clemson went up 17-14; lost lead with 5:22 left in game and proceeded to lose 17-21.


@ Wake Forest: Grabbed 7-3 advantage with seven seconds to go in third quarter; lost lead at 5:28 mark and proceeded to lose 7-12. (NOTE: This was Tommy Bowden's final game.)


vs. Maryland: 10-0 advantage entering second quarter; lost lead with 10:25 to go in game and proceeded to lose 17-20.


**In Clemson's six total losses, three were where Clemson blew an early lead. (Clemson never had a lead at all against Alabama so it's not listed as a blown early lead above.)


2007 Blown leads, early or not


vs. Auburn (Chick-fil-A Bowl): 7-3 advantage entering second half; lost lead about four minutes into third quarter, regained lead at 11:24 mark in fourth, lost lead three minutes later, regained three-point lead in overtime but lost lead on a Kodi Burns scoring run, proceeding to lose 20-23.


vs. Boston College: 10-3 advantage entering fourth quarter with Atlantic Division title on the line; lost lead a minute-and-a-half later, regained lead at 5:28 mark but lost lead again with under two minutes to go, and proceeded to lose 17-20.


@ GT: "Whopping" 3-0 lead in just over a minute into first quarter; never scored again, lost lead at 5:05 mark and proceeded to lose 3-13.


**Of Clemson's four total losses, three were where Clemson blew an early lead. (Clemson never had a lead at all against VT so it's not listed as a blown early lead above.)


So in short, over the past four seasons (and I included Bowden's last years intentionally so you Dabo Dipshits won't think I'm beating up only on him), Clemson has lost a grand total of 22 losses. Of those 22, 15 of them were where Clemson had a lead in the first or second quarter then proceeded to blow it. That's 68 percent, and this two-thirds-plus leads-blowing crap has cost the Tigers wins against arch-rival South Carolina (twice), an ACC championship, an Atlantic Division title, bowl games and a win over an ensuing national champion on their own turf.


Face it: there's absolutely no way in hell Clemson will ever get over any humps if they can't maintain early momentums for any significant length of time. And because these early leads aren't all that large to begin with (most are only 10 points), there's no way you can expect your defense to keep any good offenses out of the endzone while your offense sits on the rock and plays conservatively to run out the clock. As if you can magically speed up 30 or 45 minutes of remaining gameclock that much to keep a measly 10- or 14-point lead. Please.


If this trend continues, will Swinney lose his job? Probably not, because as long as Terry Don Phillips is running the athletics department (into the ground), Swinney will be there. Swinney is TDP's golden child, and to fire Swinney is an admission of failure by TDP, and he's way to proud for that. But with Swinney at the helm, you can count on blowing early leads and continue Clemson's fine tradition of "WTF" losses.


Swinney can scold the fans countless more times for being quacky, crazy and irrelevant, and he can ban media access to this person or that all he wants. But the continues losing will happen because, well, he's Dabo Swinney - a former real estate agent who thinks he can actually talk his way out of losing.

Swinney’s media lockout good and bad, but why?

By now many of you have heard of Dabo Swinney's new media policy. Among its tenets are...

1. Swinney will no longer do one-on-one interviews with local media, including radio.
2. No media access to assistant coaches.
3. Only the coordinators will be available to media.
4. Freshman players won’t be available for interviews until week of the first game
5. No media access to grad assistants, strength coaches, player development coaches, and so on.

Now, I’m told by my bullshit “sources close to the situation” this isn’t the brainchild of athletics director Terry Don Phillips, nor SID Tim Bourret. This is all Swinney.

I can understand a few of them. The ban on assistant coaches is a good one, I think. Assistants are way way way too busy recruiting and coaching to worry about media access. If I were a head coach, I’d rather them focus on recruiting than half-and-half between that and interviews. Sure, former running backs coach André Powell had a foot-in-mouth moment when he said that backs André Ellington and Jamie Harper decided who would play and when during games, and that was beyond stupid and irresponsible as a coach. But there is a bigger issue I think.

Same thing with the grad assistants, strength coaches, development coaches, and so on. They’re so far down the totem pole I’m not sure there would be any meat on that interview’s bones.

I do think the restriction of access to incoming freshmen is a good idea, too. Those youngsters are too busy acclimating to a new life, independence, an academic environment and so on, in addition to football responsibilities mind you, to have to worry about media interviews and what to say and how to say it and when. I’m sure many of them would love an interview; they’re in the spotlight. What campus celebrity wouldn’t love that? But there are more important things for them to be concerned with initially. And, this access is only temporary. After their cherry is busted during that first game, they’re open to the media.

I’m guessing those freshmen’s parents like that too.

What’s baffling, though, is that Swinney is self-imposing a ban on the media, and stranger it’s only the local media.

After coming off Clemson’s first losing season in over a decade, first back-to-back losses to the South Carolina Gamecocks in 40 years and him scolding the fanbase multiple times during this past season (quacking ducks, crazy five percenters, message board fans being irrelevant), the timing of this can’t be considered as mere coincidence. Swinney utterly failed Clemson in 2010, and this particular media restriction smacks of humiliation and unwillingness to face the music.

Sure he's admitted failure, that it's all on him. But it's easy to take full responsibility when there are no real consequences, isn't it? As long as Phillips is there, Swinney's job is safe wins and losses be damed. So Swinney's mea culpa is light and airy at best. He's also doing this in the comforts of a press conference, where he's not being thrown fastballs and the questions pretty much controlled. Throw in there that Clemson's local beat media has been a rather nutless bunch ever since I can remember, and it makes for situation that's an all-out joke.

Furthermore, if his scoldings of the fans have alienated him from them, this only alienates him more. No radio interviews translates into no call-ins from fans during the broadcast, I’d think, which means even more disconnection from the fans.

One thing that suckered many fans in to him was his likeability and openness. After all the hideous “accomplishments” he’s achieved this past season, it’s easy to think that Swinney is now skulking into a corner hoping that time will pass and fans will forget the atrocities he’s committed in light of the program's top-10 recruiting class. As if Swinney can actually coach and develop these fine athletes to be better than they are. Please. And don’t think that fans are letting him off the hook. Swinney's enemies in the fanbase seem to be on the rise.

Not only is Swinney alienating himself further from the fans, but now he’s alienating himself from the local media. Not the national media, mind you. Probably because he feels the national humps don’t know (nor care) about Clemson enough because their livelihood doesn’t depend on the school and therefore they’ll likely be more distant, and thus nicer, to him in interviews. The local media knows him all too well, warts and all, and Swinney doesn’t want anyone with a mirror holding it up in front of him.

A while back I saw ESPN’s “30 For 30” on Southern Methodist's glory years back in the 1980s, a time the Mustangs were hell on wheels but were brought down by scandal and were subsequently put on probation, including the death penalty. During that segment legendary announcer Brent Musberger said something like “when the local beat media turn on you, you’re finished as a coach”.

If that’s true, then Swinney has indeed laid the groundwork to be skewered by everyone from Bart Wright to Travis Sawchik to Larry Williams. The only way out of it is to have a humongous season this year, and humongous doesn't mean nine goddamn wins; it means at least 10 regular season wins, an ACC title and an Orange Bowl win. If he loses or continues on with Tommy Bowden's 8-win tradition with all that talent, the media will have a field day. I know I will.

And after inexplicably driving a 10-win talented team head on into 6-7 last year, what do you think will happen in ’11?

Clemson fans officially enter Austerity

If you’ve read The Guardian (UK), NewStatesman (UK) or Le Monde (France) the past year, you likely noticed a catchy new europhrase to describe all the economic collapses and other malgoings-on in places like Spain, Greece, Ireland and, when it comes to university education and specifically tuition hikes, The Realm.

“Austerity”.

Which basically describes a period of widespread and enormous hardship. And with the release of Clemson president James Barker’s blog where he and university board chairman David Wilkins endorsed failed athletic director Terry Don Phillips and failed head football coach Dabo Swinney, many fans, especially the long-time ones, will begin enduring said hardship.

“Cut the hyperbole; it’s just a game silly!”

Wrong. When you’re talking about fans who’ve spent thousands of their hard-earned dollars each year on IPTAY membership dues, season ticket purchases and tailgating paraphernalia, it’s no longer a game. It’s an investment. And some people spend tens of thousands of dollars each year on games.

Thinking people who view it as “just a game” don’t spend that kind of coin. Unless they’re naive, which many Clemson fans are unfortunately.

No pun intended, but while the HSAS at Clemson isn’t at red alert, it’s a damn solid orange. I shouldn’t have to remind fans of the failures of Phillips, Barker or Swinney (okay, I’ll throw you a bone - Bowden extension then firing him six games later then promoting in experienced receiver coach to head coach, manipulating classroom metrics to climb a magazine’s abstract ranking, meddling in Billy Napier’s playcalling which directly causes offensive failures, respectively), so when university brass endorses this clear string of failure, it sends a clear message to the fans.

“We don’t care and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

They believe this because they know that Clemson fans not just among the most loyal in the nation, but they are so to a big fault. They know many fans have this religious worship of everything Clemson, or that they’re addicted, and they know these fans will pony up their money no matter what. It makes no sense but the fans nor the administration cares.

What the university is to fans is what a televangelist is to the poor elderly. It’s sickening and wrong, but the duped masses “believe” anyway.

Hell, there are many fans who have zero faith in the university, the athletic department and the football program but they still toss Clemson their salad anyway. It’s ridiculous and pathetic. Talk about a bunch of rubes.

In the end, you’ll see Clemson’s fans continuing to shovel money at their addiction, incorrectly thinking that to not give money is the worse alternative, Clemson football will continue to go 7-8 regular season wins with no ACC titles and a quaternary, quinary or senary bowl per year and then reward its bad head coach a contract extension for stability purposes. There will be an outcry, then Clemson will sign a top-15 recruiting class, the fans will rejoice, spring ball will come and Swinney and company will laud the players’ efforts (as if he really is capable of accurately analyzing players), fans will buy into it, summer comes and we hear more hype, fall comes and fans discover that this or that freshman is tearing it up, the hype goes through the roof once again until...

The season starts and Clemson, as normal, looks barfy right out of the gate. Seven to eight regular season wins ensues, no ACC titles...well, you get it.

The cycle starts once again and fans, particularly those who’ve been around for decades, have been stuck in it.

But this time there is no hope of change. Or at least positive change. Because he is his golden boy, Swinney is going nowhere as long as Phillips runs the athletic department, and as we now know from Barker and Wilkins, Phillips is going nowhere as long as Barker is there. And Barker is going nowhere.

The failed status quo is firmly entrenched at Clemson, and the fans and players, believe it or not, will suffer the consequences. Fans will give their money and time for naught, and the players will suffer because they will not be properly coached and developed, much less prepared for the NFL, the dream of many top high school prospects.

Firing off e-mails to the board or the president won’t do. Putting up billboards won’t change a thing. Bitching on message boards is pissing against the wind.

I’m not even certain stopping your contributions will change anything. But at least you won’t be wasting your money any longer.

And at this point, that’s the only way Clemson fans can exit their austerity.

It's over - Max Lennon has won.

Last rumors we've all heard on the possible departure of Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips don't offer any resounding hope for athletics, particularly football.

After the past few weeks of hearing of TDP being on a hot seat, that the university board of trustees have taken keen interest in Phillips' leadership for the past year or two, Phillips is out by year's end, and all that, we're now hearing that university president James Barker is not only not going to force Phillips out but that Phillips left the meeting with Barker encouraged?

It's almost a law of physics at this point: whatever encourages Barker and Phillips should be discouraging to fans.

At this point, as fans you have to be solidly in the fifth stage of grief: acceptance. How anyone can still get pissed over the endless stream of poor decisions made by athletic department officials and university brass? This has been 25 years in the making when then-president Max Lennon launched a war against Clemson's nationally-vaunted football program with his “academics will never be subordinate to athletics” manifesto.

But that was then, and this is now. And the mediocrity will....check that, let's not call this phenomenon at Clemson “mediocrity” anymore. This is failure.

Sure, Clemson posts non-losing seasons in football, as the administration is clearly not playing to win as much as they're playing not to lose. But when you have the facilities Clemson has, the fan support, the money (it's there, y'all, Clemson is solidly in the black), the recruits, the tradition and so on and you continue to fall short every single time, that's failure. Because failure is determined by what resources you have available to you and what success is defined as being (ACC title), and when you can't be successful in a terrible football conference with SEC-level resources, you're a failure. Plain and simple.

Laziness, frugality, unjustified arrogance, complacency, visionless, just-another-day-at-the-office – this is the energy at Clemson right now. Abject carelessness and resentment toward anything football by university leadership has been so strong for decades that it's spilled over into all other sports. Clemson athletics has had a significant overall drop in ACC championships, swimming and diving programs have been dropped, and an all-time low morale lives inside Jervey walls as verbal abuse by one or more athletic officials has been widely reported.

How Death Valley still stuffs 70,000+ most autumn Saturdays amazes me. If this were any other school whose fans cared about athletics more than the administration, you wouldn't have near that number.

But at Clemson, you do. And it's because fans have long had this religious loyalty to football, and religion can be a very blinding entity. I direct you to the followers of Muslim extremism and wacko Christian evangelism for evidence. But I do know one thing - you don't make some earthly entity or person (like a coach) into a god, and then follow him into hell. Nor do you don't allow yourself to be put into a position to where if you are considering not giving to Clemson anymore that the university or its henchmen guilt you out of it by convincing you that if you stop giving then you'll be taking food out of some “poor” player's mouth. That just makes you a dumbass and you deserve to get taken for a ride by the carnies at Clemson University if you're this stupid.

How else do you explain why 70,000+ show up every autumn Saturday after spending thousands of hard-earned dollars (in this economy no less) on IPTAY dues, season tickets and tailgating paraphernaila to watch a chronically-failed football program at work? It's religion and that's what the university is counting on. For you to be so blindly loyal that you continue to giving these carnies dollar on top of dollar and they continue to do the same failed things they've always done. They're taking you for a ride – you just haven't realized it yet.

Perhaps it's time for you to wake up a bit out of your drunken stupor from that orange kool-aid bender you've been on for 20 years. Perhaps you should consider other outlets for your entertainment, or pursue some other life path that won't lead you into failure for once. Cut bait and move on from fishing in the same spot that hasn't given you a bite in years.

In other words, if the university doesn't care about athletic success and ACC championships in football, why should you? As a fan you can't do anything to overcome poor leadership. The boosters can't even do that. Clemson's proved it for years.

If you're still worried that if you stop giving then you're turning your back on “your kids”? Don't worry, Clemson graduates numerous people every year, they'll be more than happy to take your spot and loyally feed those starving players in your absence.

Because after all, there's a sucker born every minute.

Fan departures and the hypocritical pumper backlash

So I perused a Clemson fansite and came across this 25-year-old guy whose only Clemson football experience is the dreaded Hatfield and West years. To wit: he never experienced what a championship Clemson team.

You know about message boards, right? Those whose posters coach Dabo Swinney referred to as “irrelevant” in his post-game press conference after the inexplicable loss to Florida State? The third swipe he’s taken at fans this season?

Dude went on to say that he’s quitting his Clemson patronage after this season because he’s sick of it.

Gotta say, I’m impressed with the forethought and wisdom in this young man, as he is seeing the writing on the wall at such an early age, a wall scrawling that people twice his age have yet to realize.

It is indeed disheartening, discouraging, and every other dis to be a Clemson football fan nowadays. No conference title in almost 20 years, no 10-win season, no BCS bowl invite, nothing. It’s become a waste of time, energy and money for many fans, and this 25-year-old has accepted this fact at such an early age.

Gives you a glimmer of hope that those of his age aren’t all a bunch of Jersey Shore-watching, Facebook-posting, Halo-3 nerdberries.

There were some who understood his pain but, as expected, there was a backlash from the Pumper commune.

“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

“Calm down.”

“While you’re at it cancel your subscription.”

“Take all those fair-weather fans with you.”

Those are a few of the comments. The fact these come from the Pumpers is funny on many levels.

Funny strange, not funny ha-ha.

First, the pumpers are largely the group that bitch and moan about the “haters” dividing the fanbase with their negativity. Yet when a fed-up fan decides to quit on Clemson, which I understand completely, they launch into said fan, effectively dividing the fanbase themselves with their negativity.

But the haters largely direct their negativity toward Swinney, Terry Don Phillips, James Barker and the board of trustees. These morons, on the other hand, direct their negativity at other fans and, in sleight of hand fashion, at the players with their “we don't have the talent we think we do” crap. So, who is dividing the fanbase more?

Second, I’ve noticed after an inexplicable loss, which are many, when the realists launch into Swinney, TDP, etc then the pumpers come out and say something like “it’s just a game.” But when a fan such as the guy above realizes it is just that and gives it up, the same pumpers launch into him for not being a true fan like them. They basically bid a nasty farewell by saying “good riddance, we don’t need fans like you!”

But I thought this was just a game, right? If it’s just a game, then why are you getting all riled up over a fan who decides this so-called “game” is no longer worth his time and resources and decides to live life differently?

To the pumpers, it is just a game when Clemson loses. But when Clemson wins it is the start of something “special”. And when a justifiably disgruntled fan departs, these same people label him as a bad fan.

The pumper crowd rears its duplicitous head when fans decide to take direct action instead of pouring money into a failed program and burn a candle by their bedside hoping for the best as they do. It’s like the pumpers want the whole of Clemson’s fanbase to be just like them - a throng of rubes who are continually taken on a ride by the university’s marketing and public relations arms. To dutifully eat the same old shit sandwich the university feeds them and like it out of some warped moral obligation to “the kids”.

Clearly, Clemson’s fanbase is still divided into two distinct camps - the “true” fans, a.k.a. the pumpers, and the realists, a.k.a., the haters. Who knows the percentage of each but judging the message boards it appears slightly in favor of the realists but not by much.

But it’s rather like Congress. Sure one party has a majority, but there’s still enough of the minority party to be obstructionist and bring everything to a halt.

Until Clemson’s fanbase gets to about three-fourths of one side or the other, you’ll have this infighting but the infighting will continue regardless if the underachievement continues. Hopefully the future three-fourths will be those with a brain and clear vision and will see the deplorable state the football program is in and demand (not hope for) change.

But forget all this verbose bluster - I thought it was just a game?

We've definitely seen enough

See post below...

Don't blame me for being ahead of the curve.

Swinney proves he’s immature

First it was the “quacking like ducks” insult, where he basically told fans to shut up about their complaints of a noon kickoff. Okay, fine. We’ll let that slide.

Then came the recent comments where Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said that there’s about five percent of Clemson’s fans who are just crazy because they expect more than they’re willing to give (huh?) and expect this team to show up each week and win every game.

The nerve!

If he thinks that’s crazy, wait’ll he stumbles across one of those nutjobs who demand a full-blown ACC championship.

I could be overlooking one, but by my count that’s twice since the season started that Swinney has lashed out at fans.

So let’s get this straight:

1. His offenses are predictable...at the line of scrimmage by opposing defenses,

2. His defenses have largely been inconsistent since the beginning of the year,

3. He’s hellbent on starting an injured quarterback who’s head is more in Major League Baseball and won’t be here next year instead of a highly-talented guy who has gotten zero meaningful snaps this year and can change the complexity of a game by his mere presence,

4. He neglected to give the rock enough to his top producer (coincidentally the ACC’s top running back) the first part of the year while giving it to a back that dances the night away or throws it to receivers who can’t catch...

But it’s the fans who are crazy?

Well, maybe they are crazy. But unlike Clemson’s head coach, they aren’t stupid.

Regardless, the question in my head about this whole thing is this: who exactly does Swinney think he is, that he has somehow earned the right to scold the fanbase? What heights has Clemson ascended under him to justify his arrogance and condescension?

Atlantic Division title last year? Is that the mountainous ‘height’ you’re referring to? The title he not so much won but rather he fell ass-backward into because of a shitty division and he wouldn’t have been able to do that had it not been for C.J. Spiller? You talking about those lofty heights?

If he was a winning coach, I can understand the ego. But he's a loser.

Here’s a fact - Swinney hasn’t done squat to justify mouthing off to a very justified fanbase who is about as equally pissed with him as they are with Terry Don Phillips and James Barker. Yeah, Phillips and Barker are the core culprits but Swinney is screwing up in his own right. Alienating a rabid fanbase who pays your salary is always asking to get canned.

But maybe he won’t get sacked. It is my belief that Swinney’s job is safe and secure as long as TDP is there, and Swinney knows this. He knows that the fans can’t fire him; only TDP can do that. So perhaps that’s why Swinney feels comfortable lashing out at fans; there are simply no consequences.

Just as a pre-emptive measure, no apology from Swinney, should it be forthcoming, should be accepted. Keep in mind this isn’t he first time he’s been snarky at fans. He'll do it again.

No, he gets no forgiveness. Not for his attitude, and not for his failing the football team, the university and most importantly, the fans who pay hard-earned money in this deplorable economy to pay his unjustified salary. Inexcusable behavior should never be forgiven.

Swinney’s leash is much longer than you think

I read all the time about coach Dabo Swinney not having the leash that Bowden had. That he’s not going to get 10 years or whatever.

Come on. Given who the athletic director is, what makes you really think this?

That if the losses pile up and no ACC titles are won this year or next that athletic director Terry Don Phillips will, magically, see the writing on the wall and take appropriate action at that time? If you think this, you don’t know TDP.

Well, I don’t know him either. Personally. But we’ve all read plenty about him to know that Swinney is his golden child. And in any workplace, golden children enjoy a high level of job security that is not afforded to others.

If you’ve ever worked for a typical family-owned business, you know what I’m talking about.

Before Swinney was anointed Clemson’s messiah, TDP clearly exuded a rapidly decreasing level of confidence in former coach Tommy Bowden. What began as a head-shaking disappointment in Bowden after Clemson’s Music City Bowl loss to Kentucky in ’06 ended up with TDP being fed up after losing to Alabama, Maryland and Wake Forest in mid ’08. Phillips fired Bowden (let’s face it, Bowden didn’t voluntarily resign) after the Wake loss, which was four years too late, and immediately promoted Swinney to interim head coach, saying Swinney, somehow, would be auditioning for the permanent gig.

All this did was give TDP a path to make Swinney the permanent coach, as it’s clear that Swinney was TDP’s choice all along after Swinney was chosen amid a sham of a national coaching search by TDP where he reportedly interviewed former Oakland Raider head coach and USC offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables, Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster and a few others far more qualified that Swinney. Clearly all Swinney had to do to get the job was what Bowden did - beat South Carolina. And beating a stiflingly mediocre Gamecock program somehow seems to be enough to hire and fire at Clemson. Talk about standards.

“But, but....Danny (Ford) didn’t have any coordinator or head coaching experience before being hired and look how that worked out!”

Really? You really think lightning is going to strike twice for Clemson? But okay, I’ll play - but here’s a difference between pre-head coach Ford and pre-head coach Swinney...

Ford clearly coached up successful offensive lines, as highlighted by the Bostic brothers who went on to much NFL success (Joe was with the then-St. Louis Cardinals while Jeff was one of the legendary Hogs (offensive linemen for the Washington Redskins).

Swinney, on the other hand, has fielded chronically failed receiver corps while being their position coach. Dropped passes, which still haunt Clemson today, were prevalent as early as 2006 under Swinney's watch. Moreover, none of his receivers have really excelled at the next level. Chansi Stuckey, who was cut from the New York Jets soon after Rex Ryan took over, is now with the Cleveland Browns. In his fourth year as pro, he’s never started. Tyler Grisham, who I always liked as I thought he was arguably their most reliable receiver and athletic as hell with some of those crazy catches he made, was cut by the Steelers only to be resigned to the practice squad. Jacoby Ford, who is talented and fast, is third string with Oakland. In short, Clemson’s receivers under Swinney are largely not drafted, and what few are end up third string at best or cut within a year or two.

Unlike Ford’s offensive linemen, Swinney’s receivers are undeveloped and unprepared for the NFL. This is not a shot at Clemson’s former players, they are and were talented men. But even the best players look to their coaches to make them better, and Swinney can’t.

Anyway, because Swinney’s hire was 100 percent hunch on TDP’s part, as there is no measurable reason to justify his promotion, there clearly is a level of office politics going on at Clemson. And where there is politics, you can throw out any logic that would ordinarily apply to a given situation. And Swinney’s hire reeks of politics, period.

Because TDP has hung his hat on Swinney, he will hang on to him as long as he can to prove that he isn’t an idiot. Because to fire Swinney next year or the next will be an admission of failure by TDP. And he is way too foolishly proud to admit failure.

To reiterate, to say that if the losses pile up and no ACC titles are won that TDP will come to his senses, should there be any, admit his mistake and fire Swinney is simply not believable. If winning titles was important, Clemson would have hired an upgrade to Bowden instead of going the cheap and lazy route by promoting a position coach who’s players have historically stunk. So let’s not apply logic and common sense to what goes on at Clemson. It’s tempting but it would be incorrect to do so.

I will say that the only way Swinney will get sacked by TDP is if the boosters put ungodly amounts of pressure on him and threaten to withhold monies and other strong-arming techniques to force change. But one thing I’ll never believe is that TDP will fire Swinney on his own free will, even if the situation demands it.

Outside of booster pressure, as long as TDP is at Clemson Swinney’s going nowhere. So that leash is much longer than you’d think.

It’s clear: Swinney is no upgrade from Bowden

And he’s certainly no reincarnation of Danny Ford. If anything, he looks more like Tommy West or Red Parker every day.

* * *

It’s been a while since I wrote/ragged on Clemson’s self-inflicted spiral into football irrelevancy. I was contemplating not writing anything at all; Clemson football has been exposed as a big bowl of head-shaking ick and everyone knows it. Even the apologists and excusers and members of the “I like Dabo but...” crowd see it but they are just too ball-less to face it full-frontal because they ignorantly think that to criticize Clemson or, god forbid, Dabo Swinney is akin to blasphemy. But I figured what the hell.

In the beginning when Swinney proclaimed that all Clemson needed was an oil change, tire rotate and balance, whatever it was he said to sell some legitimacy into his head coaching campaign, he clearly implied that it wouldn’t take long or much to put Clemson over the hump. This has clearly been proven to be snake-oil by the former insurance salesman, as since Swinney took over mid ‘08 Clemson has not looked a lot different from Tommy Bowden’s teams in the win-loss columns.

Lopsided losing record (only one win) versus ranked opponents is the tell. If that doesn’t scream same-old same-old I don’t know what does.

And don’t bring up winning the Atlantic last year to justify his hire. They didn’t win it as much as the rest of the division lost it. Clemson fell ass-backward into the ACC title game, period, and it was more due to C.J. Spiller, now with the Buffalo Bills, than Swinney.

And don’t quantify his enormously average to below-average record by conveniently removing his interim season. That his ’08 audition doesn’t count since he was ‘bailing water’. It does in fact count, and it should. If it didn’t count, it would have played no role in his hire. But he was hired because of his water-bailing, so it counts. The moment athletic director Terry Don Phillips said that Swinney's interim period was his audition for a permanent position was the moment it counted. You can’t have it both ways.

Last year Clemson began the season dirtying their diaper, the crown jewel of that poor excuse of football is losing to a putrid Maryland team that finished 2-10. Clemson lost three of their first five but, by definition of inconsistency, inexplicably went on a hot streak won their next six. Again by definition of inconsistency they inexplicably lost the next two, one to a South Carolina team that was on a skid and had a poor offense, the other to a Georgia Tech team in the ACC title game that they should have, by then, known how to beat.

This year will be more of the same at best. After “tuning up” against two patsies, they blew it against an Auburn team they had a 17-3 halftime lead on, and again against Miami, who is another in a long line of warted ACC teams. Not to mention Clemson’s third straight loss being to a North Carolina team that was missing scads of starters. None of these three teams are really good teams. Just because Clemson loses to a team doesn’t make said team good.

Some good “tune-up” games do for Clemson.

And don’t hand me any crap about how Clemson “played hard” and fell short. We heard that refrain for years under Bowden. Five years from now no one’s going to give a crap how Clemson lost. The only thing that will matter is the black and white: whether they actually won or lost. The ends count, not the means, and Clemson is currently perched at 0-3 against teams with a pulse.

Every team has problems. It doesn’t take a beat journalist to validate our belief in this. But the truly great teams overcome their problems and win in spite of them. Clemson, on the other hand, succumbs to them every single time.

But with Clemson, it’s like a weekly musical chairs of Achilles Heels. One week it’s the linebackers. The next week the linebackers do fine but the line skids its pants. The following week the line does fine but the kicking game costs them a win (or tie, in Auburn’s case). If not the kicking game, it’s the passing game led by a broken quarterback. If not the passing game, then turnovers. Then back to the linebackers and the cycle begins again. It’s endless.

It’s pathetic that Clemson’s entire staff has such little control over the team that there is a new obscure, ass-biting problem each week. Good head coaches have a firm, solid grasp of their team, and Swinney clearly doesn’t. Not only has he lost his grasp of the team, but if what I’m hearing is true that more than one player was laughing and joking it up during the final ticks of the clock, I wonder if he’s lost his players. And when a coach loses his players, it’s over. But that may be a stretch right now but it’s the first thing I thought of when I heard about the laughing and joking on the sidelines. Throw in there that over the past few weeks certain coaches have wised-assed to media or fans (Andre Powell, Kevin Steele, Swinney), and you have a coaching staff that not only has no grasp of the team but also is desperate as they can't take hard questions nor provide legitimate solutions.

So, what will be Clemson’s waterloo next time? Special teams coverage? Turnovers again? Or will they (gasp!) actually win? Even if they win, will they look all warted up doing it? I do think Clemson will win. I really don’t know why, I just do, maybe it’s because I haven’t had my Seroquel yet.

To compound this, Swinney seems to be sounding a bit, well, Bowdenish, in that he’s come up with a mantra for losing: “correctable/fixable mistakes”, in hopes of keeping the fans gassed up on false hope.

Funny, Clemson had “correctable mistakes” weeks ago after they lost to Auburn. Were those mistakes corrected before the Miami game? And if they somehow were, what new “correctable mistakes” cropped up that the coaches didn’t anticipate? I direct you to the ‘grasp’ paragraph above.

“Correctable mistakes”. Make note of this Clemson fans; this will be a common catchphrase from Swinney throughout his tenure, just as “oil change” was in his ’08 campaign and “one play away” was for Bowden as now we’re led to believe by Swinney that Clemson is one correction or fix away.

I wonder how long it’ll be before Swinney begins using “fifty percent of all the teams that played Saturday lost”.

“But, but but....Swinney wasn’t the one on the field! This is the players’ fault!” Really, how dumb are you? Are you so stupid to think that it’s not the coaches’ job to prepare the team for play, and then ensure the team plays as prepared? This isn’t the NFL with grown men in their mid-20s to mid-30s who are (physically) mature and being paid millions. These are late-teens to early 20s, and they are not mature enough yet to prepare themselves accordingly. In college, the coaches are crucially responsible for prepping the players, unlike in the NFL. Nebraska coach Bo Pelini once said that when the team wins you credit the players, and when it loses you blame the coaches, and that’s how it’s gotta be. And when a team loses as much as Clemson has, especially against ranked teams, you have to question the legitimacy of Swinney’s hiring.

This all said, this really isn’t a Swinney bashfest. Well, maybe just a little given his penchant for oil changes and correctable mistakes, but the fact is Swinney just took a job offer. Much like one Ken Hatfield a million years ago. Can’t blame Swinney for taking it but that doesn’t exonerate the fact that he’s clearly in over his head. This cluster of a program falls squarely on Phillips, James Barker and the Board, and partially on Katie Hill, the Queen to Phillips’ Sleepy/Dopey combo dwarf. Although they didn’t create this (this foundation was laid out by Max Lennon and Bobby Robinson), Phillips, Barker and Board just built on it. Which is why Swinney is in this pickle to begin with.

* * *

In his post-game interview after the North Carolina debacle Swinney stated, “Sooner or later you’ll bust through.”

Sooner...or later? Given your “oil change” sales pitch, ‘later’ is not an option, coach Swinney. You yourself took that off the table from the beginning. Of course it doesn’t surprise me now you’re using it to save face.

But I do agree that Clemson football is only in need of an oil change to get over the hump. Too bad Swinney is no mechanic.