What on earth is FSU going to do about a Tight End against Clemson?

How many questions are allowed on the Bobby Bowden Call-In Show? I’ve heard the same exact ones for 10 years now.

Drew Weatherford will throw three TDs or three INTs. I don’t know which yet.

Will FSU wear all-white to start the season, if it is indeed a “Purple Out”?

Should I start a DSOW column? If so, how long before the owner gets mad about it?

Can Gary Cismesia make a big kick?

Why do coaches always say the “competition was closer than people think?” What if we thought it was close?

Bonus Non-FSU One:

Why is Comcast allowed to continue to rake over customers with ridiculous rates on DVR service?

By Bill Kristoph

This is the final Know Your Tigers before the big game. I’d like to send out a big THANK YOU to Willy Mac at DannyFordIsGod.com for answering my questions thoughtfully and honestly throughout the “Know Your Tigers” series. He and Chili are a pleasure to work with, they consistently crack me up and know how to have fun with the blogosphere. And in case you didn’t realize it by now, the Noles visit the Clemson Tigers Monday night, 8pm on ABC. If all goes well, I’ll be watching it in HD! It’s not as good as being there, but it’s a satisfactory 2nd place.

Incidentally, “Know Your Noles” can be found on DFIG right now.

With all of the optimism at Clemson to open the season, and the feeling that the Tigers have FSU’s number, why do I see a lot Tiger fans aiming low with predictions of an sub 10-win season?
This is mainly do to the fact that we can finally compete with FSU, but we still aren’t good enough to be in the upper echelon. According to Tommy’s “All of the pieces have to fit, then you have to be lucky on top of that” theory, we just aren’t clicking on all cylinders. If you ask us though, we’ve got most of the pieces in place and with a little effort from the sidelines we could fill in those spots this year and look to be stellar next year. We’re still either really young or really inexperienced at some key spots (OL, QB, TE, even DBs, though they did put up a good fight with Duane Coleman and CJ Gaddis last year.)

What the hell is Tommy thinking by keeping Willy Korn out of the starting lineup for the FSU game?
Korn has superior talent. Period. But Harper has been in the system longer and there was a reason we recruited him. He was a stellar QB in high school and probably should have started some games last year over Proctor at the end of the season, or at least should have gotten considerably more playing time. Korn is still so young and we can respect Bowden’s decision not to immediately throw Korn to the lions. Both will play and Bowden will probably follow suit of what Florida did last year. It’d be best to ease Willy in to the starting position. Ultimately, Cullen knows he is playing long enough to let Korn mature and get experience.

Okay, okay so Cullen Harper is starting QB. That’s bad enough, right? Who is he throwing to?
Again, the guy is more talented than Proctor was and Proctor had no trouble going making good passes against the Seminole defense last year. Now, receiver-wise we look to be ok. Rendrick Taylor possesses big man size and strength comparable to a large NFL receiver, although he’s had some injury troubles. Jacoby Ford… Well, there’s just no catching up with him on a football field. Tyler Grisham has freakish speed and is one of the best slot receivers I’ve seen at Clemson. I’d even go as far to say he’s better at this point in his career than Airese Currie was. Lastly, he may be skinny but Aaron Kelly has got it all. Jumping, speed, catching, big play ability. He’s definitely our fade to the corner of the endzone guy.

Has Clemson solved their special teams issues? FSU has named their first Special Teams Coordinator in Bobby’s 32 years as head coach, is Clemson taking it just as seriously after last years horrific showing week-in and week-out?
Honestly, we have no idea. No mention of it in the CUAD updates at least. Everything we have heard isn’t good. Our team has a walk on kicker, a walk on punter who has been known to shed tears like a girl, and our Parade All-American kicker out of high school that set the SCHS record with a 63 yard field goal… but has had injury and laziness problems. We can only hope that other teams overlook this when they prepare for us, but it’s doubtful it since it was a figurative turd in a punch bowl last year.

Who replaces Gaines Adams? How will Clemson pressure Weatherford into making bad plays and / or being knocked to his rear end most of the time?
As hard as it seems to believe, we’ve reloaded as opposed to replaced this year. Ricky Sapp, Phil Merling, Kevin Alexander, and Kwam Williams have all stepped up and had stellar preseason/summer sessions. In fact, the entire defensive line just looks scary.
Clemson has started to change from a Linebacker School to a Dline School over the past few years.

Bonus Questions:

How do you feel about Tommy Bowden Is God’s blatant trademark infringement of Danny Ford Is God? Are you planning to sue like the Coke and Coke Zero guys?
Who are we if we can’t take a joke? Seriously, it’s a good blog that doesn’t really react to on field related issues, but rather more
Clemson fan opinions. Unoriginal name, yet it’s kind of fitting that they named it that. But seriously, if we ever see that guy downtown, we’re gonna punchisize his face.

Is the Garnet & Gold color scheme for DFIG ready to go after the Noles beat the Tigers?
Yeah, but it’s probably all for not anyways. Nice orange and purple layout yourself, pal. Good luck come Monday, and for the rest of the season. Hope the ACC turns out to be an exciting conference this year.

Here’s my annual primer on what has changed regarding the rules for NCAA football.

Limit the playclock to 15 seconds after a TV timeout
I get the feeling we’ll see some burned timeouts until coaches get used to this one. FSU is notorious about messing this one up throughout the season.

Kickoffs moved from the 35-yard line to the 30-yard line.
I read an article about this being a bad move due to increased injury potential. It’s football, every play is a potential to be injured, even if a player is standing on the sidelines. I think this is a good move for the excitement of the game and for the fans. Hopefully FSU’s special teams are up to the challenge.

Reduce charged team timeouts by 30 seconds
This isn’t a bad thing really. Coaches need to move it along at times.

The clock start on the snap after a change in possession, as opposed to the 2006 rule which started the clock when the referee signaled the ball ready for play.
Thank God. That was the dumbest / worst rule invented and did nothing but give more advertising time to the television stations.

Play clock is started when the ball is handed to the kicker by the umpire on all free kicks.
It’s good incentive to kick the ball off quickly. It should have minimal effect on the actual game.

Limit instant replay reviews to two minutes to decide to overturn or confirm the ruling on the field.
We’ve all seen this before, but inevitably some reviews will go longer. I’d rather the refs get the call right and take an extra minute or two than to mess it up because they are under a time constraint.

I heavily endorse the following YouTube clip.

By Bill Kristoph

I’ll go ahead and get Florida State’s Chief Osceola out of the way and not count him as #1 since I’m heavily biased. I particularly like when Chief Osceola dismounts Renegade against Florida. It’s a special event, double the fun if he hands the spear to an actual member of the Seminole Tribe as he has lately.

#5 Michigan’s Touch The Banner Entrance - Hail! Hail!!!!! Go Blue!!! Wooooo!!!

#4 USC Song Girls - Thank you CSTV for covering them. I’m sure there was a national title game going on or something when this aired, but really, who cares when it’s the USC Song Girls? (Yeah Pete, it’s the “athleticism” of them. Right.)

#3 Clemson’s Hill Entrance - Admit it, it’s exciting. It might even be the most exciting 25 seconds in a Clemson football game. I hope to see it in person one day.

#2 Virginia Tech - Team Entrance via “Enter Sandman” - I’m biased, I love the song. Blacksburg looks electric when the Hokies come out to Metallica.

#1 Texas A&M’s Midnight Yell Practice - 40,000 crazy Aggies practice cheers the night BEFORE the game. That’s awesome!

By Bill Kristoph

A thread over at The Rant made me think of some of the traditions that I personally think are kind of weird or, for lack of a better word, dumb. Without further ado (and with Video Evidence):

#5 Florida - Gator “Chomp” - I could easily go after Mr. Two Bits here, but frankly as corny as that tradition seems, the Gators get into it and love it. I can respect that. What I can’t stand is the fact that as the Gator fans “chomp” the band plays Jaws music. Jaws was a shark, not a Gator. Find some better music and I’ll take you off the list.

#4 - Wisconsin - Jump Around YouTube video evidence that Wisconsin is too close to Canada and it’s “take 10 years for the American fad to arrive” tradition.

#3 - Any School Running Through Fire Extinguishers - Welcome to High Schools folks. For this example, we’ll use the Miami Hurricanes.

#2 - Virginia Tech - Hokey Pokey - No seriously, they play the hokey pokey, just watch.

#1 Ohio State - “Dotting of the I” - This is my personal least favorite college football tradition. First of all, they are the Ohio State Buckeyes. Not the Ohio Buckeyes, and although I understand that they are in the state of Ohio, there is an Ohio University. It’s like FSU spelling out Florida without the State. What’s the point? And they get really psyched about it.

So tell me what you want, what you really really want… more Clemson Spice Girls?

FSU Offensive Coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, named his starting QB for the Clemson game, and it’s none other than Drew Weatherford. Weatherford impressed Jimbo Fisher by doing the little thing right during two-a-days. Let the arguing between Seminole fans begin yet again.

The latest brain dump from me…

Would it be possible for Jimbo Fisher to bring back the mullet from his playing days?

Why do we never have a kicking coach, when our kickers are all psycho by the time they leave?

How do guys like Dennis Dodd continue to have a job? Do they believe the crap that they spew?

Same thing for Mark May. Does he do it because he’s paid to get ratings?

Is Lou Holtz too old for speech therapy?

Am I getting cranky as I get older?

Someone should get Xavier Lee a stuffed animal, it might keep him from sulking.

How many coeds does Kirk Herbstreit bag in a college football season?

Which Tiger is cooler, the Auburn Tiger or the Clemson Tiger?

Why do fans from any southern school make fun of other schools’ fans wearing jorts? We ALL have jort wearers.