Re: Hill Watch...1 day!!!

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1 year ago, 2021: The biggest news story of the year in the

Sep 4, 2022, 8:11 AM

US for 2021 happened only six days into the new year, as there was an attempted Insurrection at the Capitol in Washington. You can try to sugarcoat it and call it something else, but that won't make it any different. Joe Biden had won the Presidential election, and to say President Donald Trump took the defeat badly would be like saying the Grand Canyon is just a little hole in the ground. Trump did any and everything he could trying to get the election results overturned, and when that didn't work, he advocated the attempted government takeover by force. The jury is literally still out on what the repercussions of those actions will be.

A massive cargo ship, the Ever Given, gets wedged sideways in the Suez Canal, disrupting the world supply chain for six days. NFT's (non-fungible tokens) burst onto the scene in a big way. Several versions of Covid vaccines are rolled out and made available to all adults in the United States, but still, debates raged on about either their effectiveness, or possible unwanted side effects. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson all jockeyed for headlines in what is called “The Billionaires Space Race.” Privately funded and developed space programs became a commercial reality.

In the ACC, Clemson faced the reality of star players lost to graduation, as well as several lost to this new “Transfer Portal”. Nine players transferred before the season began, and eight more would leave before the pivotal fifth game, to save their year of eligibility. But, the Tigers also had several players return as “Super Seniors”, taking advantage of an extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to Covid.

Fan expectations remained high as ever, as DJ Uiagalelei took over the reigns at QB, replacing No. 1 Overall NFL Draft pick Trevor Lawrence. Lawrence had been taken by the Jacksonville Jaguars, who would later also select his running mate, Travis Etienne. The Jaguars had hired Urban Meyer as their new Head Coach. So, hope was running high in Jacksonville as well. If only they had known what lay in store for them, they might have stayed in bed the whole season.

The ACC Champions for 2021 were the No. 13 (7-1, 11-3) Pitt Panthers, led by super-senior QB Kenny Pickett. He too had taken advantage of the extra year of Covid eligibility, and returned for the bonus year to try and raise his NFL draft stock. This worked out quite well for him. Pitt bested No. 16 Wake Forest 45-21 in the ACC Championship game, but ended their season with a disappointing 31-21 loss to No. 10 Michigan State in the Peach Bowl.

The DJ Uiagalelei era at Clemson got started on the national stage, as the No. 3 Tigers faced off against the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs in the season opening “Duke's Mayo Classic” in Charlotte, North Carolina at Bank of America Stadium. The game was a defensive slugfest, with the only touchdown being a Christopher Smith 74 Yd interception return for a Georgia score just before halftime. The teams each got a lone field goal in the 2nd half, to make the final score 10-3 Bulldogs.

The Clemson home season got started with a 49-3 gimmee game over SC State. The Georgia loss had only dropped us to No. 6 in the rankings, but when the team struggled mightily to defeat Georgia Tech only by a score of 14-8 at home in the next game, we were demoted to No. 9 for a road matchup with NC State. Uiagalelei and the rest of the Clemson offense was struggling to find any sort of production, and NC State pulled out a 27-21, 2OT win over the Tigers, which dropped us all the way down to No. 25 in the rankings.

Brent Venables had a lot of talent on defense, and we needed all of it to win with the noticeable lack of any consistent production from the offense. We struggled to survive Boston College at home, winning 19-13. Now out of the national rankings altogether, the defense bailed us out again, 17-14 over Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. But, on the road at Heinz Field against No. 23 Pitt, facing the experience of Kenny Pickett, the luck ran out, with the Panthers prevailing 27-17.

That loss seemed to jolt the Clemson offense into some increased production, as 30 would become a popular number. The Tigers took out Florida State 30-20 in the Valley, defeated Louisville 30-24 in Kentucky, upped it to 44-7 against Uconn at home, and even took out a No. 10 ranked Wake Forest team 48-27 in Death Valley. But, none of it looked easy, even when it showed up on the scoreboard. The win over Wake got us back into the rankings at No. 23.

The Clemson struggles had University of South Carolina fans giddy with the expectation that this would be the year they would end the Clemson winning streak over them. But, the Tigers throttled the Capons, scoring 30 points again in the 30-0 shutout in front of 79,897 fans at Williams-Brice, to lead the series 72-42-4, taking the 7th win in a row over the Gamecoots. The Dirtpeckers would have to take solace in the fact that their first year Head Coach Shane (Fivehead) Beamer had gotten them bowl eligible with a 6-6 record. This actually exceeded expectations for anyone not a South Carolina fan, because, as everyone knows, South Carolina fans will ALWAYS have unreasonable expectations, at least until the season actually begins.

Clemson would accept an invite to the Cheezit Bowl down in Florida, to face the Iowa State Cyclones of Coach Matt Campbell. Iowa State was only 7-5, and at 9-3, Clemson needed a win over them to extend the string of 10 win seasons. It was not a pretty game, but Clemson did just enough to come away with a 20-13 victory, and a final 10-3 record in a season that was certainly not up to normal Clemson expectations. But, the Tigers could be proud of the way they finished, winning the last six in a row to reach the 10 win plateau. This string got us a final No. 14 ranking in the AP, No. 16 in the Coaches Poll. All 2021 results below:

vs. No. 5 Georgia No. 3 (Duke's Mayo Classic) L 3–10
South Carolina State No. 6 W 49–3
Georgia Tech No. 6 W 14–8
At NC State No. 9 L 21–27 2OT
Boston College No. 25 W 19–13
At Syracuse W 17-14
At No. 23 Pittsburgh L 17–27
Florida State W 30–20
At Louisville W 30–24
UConn W 44–7
No. 10 Wake Forest W 48–27
At South Carolina No. 23 W 30–0 (Clemson leads the series 72-42-4.)

December 29
No. 19 Clemson vs. Iowa State
Camping World Stadium
Cheez-It Bowl
W 20–13

The right jobs finally came open for two Clemson assistants, as the coaching carousel had taken Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma, who returned Brent Venables to the fold to take his place. And, Bronco Mendenhall surprisingly stepped down at Virginia, and they chose Tony Elliot to succeed him. I wish all the luck in the world to those two, they served Clemson superbly while they were here.

Dabo Swinney showed once again that he runs things differently, as he promoted from within to refill both the Offensive and Defensive Coordinator slots. But, he did open the wallet to bring home a former Tiger in Nick Eason, to take the place of Todd Bates, who had gone with Coach Venables. The new season is upon us, there is cautious excitement around Clemson, SPOT THE BALL!

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Hill Watch...1 day!!!

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