The son of friends of ours with whom we tailgate in Oxford got married in Connecticut in July so I coerced my wife into going up a day early and driving from LaGuardia to Boston. I over paid a broker for tickets to see the Red Sox and As. I think I paid $160 for the pair of tickets in left field, which were behind a huge I beam that supported the upper deck. All totaled, we spent about $500 for the tickets, hotel, and an extra day on the rental car for a less than memorable event.

My wife's brother, who is the most obnoxious Yankee fan in the southeast, told us that we should have known that Fenway is an awful venue.

I hope that this Saturday's game helped to prove: A. the most difficult position in sports is QB and B. Charlie Whitehurst was wildly underrated.

I know it was just one game and I hope, like all Clemson fans, that Proctor will improve and do great things in '06, but his tentativeness and mistakes showed how much talent, ability and mental toughness it takes to be a successful signal caller at the collegiate level. Charlie also made his fair share of mistakes, but I feel that he was not given enough credit for the unbelievable career he had. Because of spectacular Freshman and Sophomore years he was put on a pedestal. I know that he had a mediocre Junior year, but he did play through a torn labrum his Senior year that 95% of QBs would not have been able to play through, especially if they were risking their NFL career and millions of dollars. He did this because he wanted so badly to help the Tigers win. With the exception of the Ga Tech, B.C. and South Carolina games, his play was above average and sometime spectacular. There was no one in the country I would've rather had directing the 2 min. drill against Miami. Charlie made throws in that drive that some NFL QBs would struggle to make.

We all forget, but if Whitehurst doesn't come in and finish his Freshman regular season 3-1, then we would have had a new coach and STILL be in a rebuilding stage right now. He had a spectacular soph. year, which included the unreal 4 game stretch to end the year. He was always calm and never rattled. He wanted the football in big situations and was even much more mobile than anyone game him credit (as seen by his running away from Miami LBs). Here are a few more things about #6 that some people somehow overlook and have led to his career being extremely underrated:

4-0 against So. Car.
2-1 against FSU (the only Clemson QB to beat the Noles in ACC play and he did it twice)
2-1 in Bowl games including a thrashing of #7 Tennessee
Above 135 QB rating as Soph and Senior
Extremely durable 37 consec. starts, only missing snaps against A@M and Duke his senior year.

I hope that there are many more fans out there like me who appreciated the effort and talent that Whitehurst brought to Tiger Town. I just only heard those that complained about his few bad games and never praised the extraordinary performances that we came to expect. I will admit that even I was frustrated that Charlie didn't quite become the Heisman caliber QB that it looked like he was capable of. But that is not a reason to think that he did not have an amazing career or that he will be sorely missed this season. I will always be a huge fan of what "Chuck" did to help bring Tiger football back to prominence.

I enjoyed reading your worksheet from the FAU game, and hope you will continue to post it throughout the season.

Although the game was never in question, and FAU was completely out-manned, I was somewhat disappointed in our performance. First, I hated to see four turnovers, and second, I agree with you that we allowed too many passing yards.
The defensive secondary was a concern coming into the season, and although they played a decent game, I would have liked to see us totally shut down the FAU offense. Then again, FAU did not gain many yards until after it was obvious they were out manned, which makes me think we just lost interest.

My second concern is losing Anthony Waters, who just looks like the ultimate competitor...he could have rode off on the cart, but refused, and went off with the help of the medical staff. He is a great competitor, and I think we will definitely see him on Sundays next year. I think it is going to be hard to replace him, but hopefully his passion for the game rubbed off on some of the younger players.

Lastly, the fact that we are upset in how we played despite beating a team 54-6 tells me we should scratch the doormats from the schedule, and replace them with
UGA, Texas A & M, or some other team that would represent formidable competition. We beat A & M last year by a point with a last second field goal, and I think we were all more excited by that game than this last one. I know playing lesser opponents is more lucrative for the university, and the coaches like to have a warm up game before they begin conference play, but I think both the players and fans would get more enjoyment from playing a higher caliber opponent.

Go Tigers!

Thanks for the hard work. Enjoy the blog and the show when I get to listen

several things if you don't mind...

1. You need a podcast of your show. My schedule and location do not allow me to listen to the show. An archive where I could download the past shows would great. Football is here and I need my Walt fix.

2. FSU/ Notre Dame are both over rated. Both games were lousy. Both teams have questions on the o-line. If not for their coaches the games could have easily gone the other way. Coker and Gailey never adjusted to what their opponents were doing. Both winners came out with a revamped game plan and took over the game.

* Miami and FSU cannot line-up and win on talent alone anymore (Well not every Saturday)*

3. Best Game Day coaches when it comes to adjusting on the fly? The several I think of is Grobe, Carroll, Friedgen and Wiess. Walts input is always appreciated.

4. What in the world has happened to Rod Gardner? He went from 1st round draft ticket to first class ticket out of league in a few short years. He could not even make the receiver challenged roster of the Packers?

I understand your time is precious and gratefully appreciate any questions you have time to address.