Morning musings - 2009 Music City Bowl and Clemson's ascent

Aug 14, 2021, 10:52 AM

Good morning everyone! It's my first few weeks starting my new position in Lima, Peru, and my dogs, cats, and wives are still in Barranquilla finishing up some things there at our summer home. Anyway, suffice it to say, I have had some spare time this weekend.

I rewatched the old 2009 Music City Bowl versus Kentucky which was Spiller's last game last night and this morning. It was the end of Dabo's first full year of head coaching. Man, did he look young back then but not messing around either and screaming at some kids when they messed up. I noticed a few things about our team then and compared them mentally to our teams now.

Parker really held back the offense. He was a functional QB but had a #### poor demeanor more than anything else. He was constantly pouting at teammates and throwing a lot of inaccurate throws. I mean, it's ok to hold your teammates accountable but you better be doing your job well before you start complaining about what they are doing.

The defense was decent too. We had Bowers, McDaniel (who was the best defensive player on the field by far), and decent LBs too. In my opinion, Conners was wayyyy underrated. It was just a solid defense all around. Despite having guys like Bowers, the DL was the noticeable difference from today's teams but I would argue that our secondary was every bit as good in 20009 as this year.

The offense had a great TE in Palmer and super RBs (Ellington, Spiller, and Harper). We had Ford at WR but not much after that. As I said, the QB play really got us started upgrading from Parker to Boyd. Also, we have beasts at WR though I think Ford would have found somewhere to start on today's team.

Anyway, my two cents. Sorry for the long post.