Posted by NoleCC

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.