Tuesday August 21, 2007

The New Beginning

The New Beginning
Sometimes nothing feels better than just starting over. I think that is one of the great things we have in life. We have the ability to wipe the slate clean and just start all over.

We can do it in a video game very easy as I found out when playing Call of Duty with my 16-year old son. The bullets don’t hurt and war is much easier when you can hit the restart button.

We can call “do overs” in the backyard basketball game which can emulate life. In golf we get mulligans. Man it is nice to have a little insurance when you know the water hazard is much less of a hazard with a mulligan in your pocket.

Even the most popular religion in this part of the world tells us to repent and we can be saved and even born again. It feels so good to know that salvation is that close.

I was driving through campus yesterday as downtown Clemson was blocked off because of the Welcome Back Festival and found myself thinking about the new beginnings that were going to take place here on this campus in the next few days. It kind of reminded me of the New Year’s Eve scene in the movie ‘Forrest Gump’ when the girl claims New Years is so good because you can start over (too bad Forest said she tasted like cigarettes).

In the spirit of starting over and new leases on life I think I can try to have a New Year’s resolution in August because of the academic calendar’s.

This year I will not live week-by-week with my favorite sports teams. I will wait until the proper time to judge my teams’ performance and my coach/manager’s future. I will not let the high and lows affect the way I feel about the season as a whole because I am 39 now and I have experienced the pain of getting too high or too low based upon the latest game. I have pledged this before but this year is different. Unlike the diet I promise each New Year I think I can do this one.

I am a huge New York Yankee fan and can attest to the low feeling in 1978 when the Yankees were 14 games behind Boston before Bucky “Bleeping” Dent cleared the Green Monster to cap the unbelievable comeback. This year I was one of the idiots that called for Joe Torre’s head when the Bombers were 14 ½ games back on May 29th. It was premature to think the season was over then and I regret it now.

I have also lived through the expectations getting out of hand. Please don’t remind me of the Red Sox comeback from three games down in the American League Championship in 2003. I hope I have learned from the lesson.

At Clemson we have lived through both ends of the spectrum also. Consider:

*1980-Some Clemson fans were calling for Danny Ford’s head before the South Carolina when the Tigers came into the contest 5-5 and the Gamecocks had a Heisman Trophy winner on their way to a Gator Bowl. Some Tiger fans claimed Ford was too young for the job and he was not prepared to take over the reins that were forced up him less than two years before. They claimed Ford won only on the talent Red Parker and Charlie Pell brought in and Ford looked unprepared. We all know Willie Underwood played the role of Superman in the upset of the Gamecocks which might have propelled Clemson to a national championship run the following season. What if the fans that wanted Ford out had had their way? What if the administration at Clemson did not let the entire season play out? Would Ford be in the Clemson Hall of Fame today? Would we have won the national championship?

*2003-Georgia whipped Clemson 30-0 and I was outraged. All we heard about in the pre-season was how tough the Tigers were because they practiced the running game more. All for a lousy shutout in the opener. I thought maybe it was time for a change but thank goodness the running game did benefit. Ask South Carolina and Tennessee how Chad Jasmin felt that season.

*2003-Later in 2003 Wake Forest had thumped the Tigers 45-17 and many Clemson followers believed Tommy Bowden was gone. The decision was already made some claimed. Thank goodness the decision was not made or the decision was changed. The 26-10 pounding of Florida State set off a four-game winning streak that included impressive wins over Duke, South Carolina and Tennessee. The program looked like it was back on track and Bowden’s future was not in question after the season.

2004-A four-game losing streak at the hands of Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, Florida State and Virginia had the doubters back out but a win in the Orange Bowl against Miami and another thumping of the Gamecocks answered the detractors once again.

2006-Ranked 10th in the country and coming off one of the most impressive days in recent Clemson history (Georgia Tech and ESPN Gameday) the Tigers were on Cloud Nine. Things could not be any better in Tigertown. Finally the program was back to where we all wanted it to be. Crash! Losing four out of five to three less talented teams had the doubts back in place. It felt like the 2003 ALCS all over again.

I have learned. The highs are that high and the lows are not that low. So if Clemson does not beat FSU on Labor Day I will try to look back at the 2003 Georgia loss on opening day as a blueprint for my reaction. If the Tigers come out 2-4 I can always look back on 2004 and not get bent out of shape. If they start out 7-1 I promise not to start thinking BCS because I lived through the 2006 collapse.

I have learned that the season is long and should be judged as a whole and not as 12 individual lives. My stomach can’t take the highest of highs and the lowest of lows wrapped into an eight day segment. Beat Miami and then lose to Duke eight days later would kill me. So I promise I will not think this is a national title contender of the Tigers pound Florida State and will not step on my bottom lip if they get pounded.

All I want to see is solid, consistent performances. I want to see progress. I want to see the program moving forward. I want to see smart players making smart plays. I don’t have to see 55-yard field goals but I would like to think that extra points and short field goals are gimmes. I don’t have to see offensive performances like we saw against Georgia Tech but I can’t watch another Blacksburg type performance either. Defensively I don’t need to see a shut out but I do need to see less than 901 yards over the last two games.

I promise to be consistent in my support of Clemson and Tommy Bowden and I hope they will provide me with the same consistency. This New Year’s resolution will hopefully last until midnight Labor Day which would beat my old diet record.

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