CU Medallion [18901]
TigerPulse: 100%
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Joined: 2003
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On This Date: 1991 (14)Clemson- 41 South Carolina- 24
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Nov 23, 2023, 11:56 AM
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11/23/1991
Columbia, SC
GRIND-'EM-OUT TIGERS BECOMING AIR CLEMSON
By Larry Guest of The Sentinel Staff
Orlando Sentinel
COLUMBIA, S.C. — There's a good chance the Clemson Tigers scheduled to play California in the Florida Citrus Bowl may have to be paw-printed for positive ID. Once the Tigers start flinging the football around on New Year's Day, few sweatsock scholars will readily accept this is the same ground-pounding, Ohio State South kind of team we've all come to know and love.
Disbelievers will be peeling back those orange jerseys expecting to discover "Property of Seminoles" or "BYU ATHLETIC DEPT" stenciled on their pads. Even fewer will believe this is a team coached by strait-laced Ken Hatfield, he of the Air Force and Arkansas wishbone image that he is in danger of destroying.
"No, I don't think I could ever destroy that. People have their minds made up about that," Hatfield mused when Clemson's 41-24 victory over rival South Carolina ended with the Tigers wearing yet another 200-yard passing button and Hatfield wearing a pair of Mickey Mouse ears. "Actually, the people who know me know when we've had great receivers, we've done this."
What made it so noteworthy on Saturday is that the Clemson game plan focused on the run against South Carolina, which has proven so ineffective stopping the rush in recent weeks. When Clemson passes for 231 yards by accident, you give the order for pawprints.
Credit Clemson senior quarterback DeChane Cameron, who has become almost as exciting as a Victoria's Secret catalog, and sophomore receiver Terry Smith, tagged recently by Sports Illustrated as a lock first-round NFL draft pick if he came out early.
Also slip a little credit to Rick Stockstill, a former Florida State quarterback and former UCF assistant who now coaches the quarterbacks at Clemson. Insiders say he is slipping bits of FSU flamboyance into the Clemson playbook, though Stockstill modestly laterals the credit to his star pupil, Cameron.
In the process of merely keeping the Carolina defense honest, Cameron hit 12 of 14 passes and Smith caught 5 for 117 yards and a TD to underscore his shocking role as the Atlantic Coast Conference's leading wide receiver. Clemson's having the leading wideout in the ACC is enough to launch an investigation.
Rival schools certainly tried to sway Smith elsewhere, reminding him during the recruiting process that Clemson historically throws the ball around as if it were a manhole cover. "But I showed the coaches here I could catch the ball, so they started passing more and more," said Smith. "Now they have confidence in the passing game."
That confidence was there in the fourth quarter Saturday, when pesky Carolina was trying to mount a comeback. On third-and-long at the Carolina 25, Hatfield called Smith's number and the gifted lad pulled off a circus catch for the sealing touchdown. The play came just as three Central Florida characters - Mickey Mouse and Florida Citrus Bowl committeemen Bob Matheison and Bob Moore - emerged on the Clemson sideline.
In no time, Mickey and the Clemson tiger mascot were cavorting and Clemson cheerleaders were clad in mouse ears in anticipation of their upcoming Orlando junket. All of the cheerleaders - and therein lies an odd twist.
You see, Clemson (8-1-1) completes its regular season this coming week in something called the Coca-Cola Bowl in Tokyo. Actually, it's a regular-season Duke-Clemson game lured by Japanese promoters, who control the manifest for the wide-body charter that will carry both teams and their official parties to the Orient. The promoters approved the bands and dance teams, but redlined the cheerleaders. The female cheerleaders will make the trip - listed as "dancers" on the manifest - but the guys will be left behind.
Cracked Bob Bradley, Clemson's semi-retired SID/legend: "I told them they should go down to New Orleans and learn how to dress like women."
Chase Nichols, a male Tennessean on the Clemson cheer squad was philosophical about the snub. "We've pretty much accepted it by now," he said, "but we hate to see them go off without us. This just means we'll be really looking forward to Orlando."
The only masquerading on that trip will be handled by the team itself, the old grind-'em-out Tigers who are just a post pattern or two from becoming Air Clemson.
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