Stark Raving Brad - November 23

Nov 23, 2023, 3:08 AM

So, chicken and egg..... which comes first? prove something - get Media hype and recognition? In the mega-entertainment world of college sports, it's not so straight-forward any more - or is it?

BBall fans are already starting to complain about not getting respect for the Basketball team - no AP votes and the like for a 4-0 team. I laugh. I'm sorry, but when you're old enough, you start to recognize patterns in other people's behavior, some plus, some minus.

In that vein would be people on here wanting to beattch because someone inevitably brings up the NIT loss to Morehead State in a negative light, but truth be told that's the last that anyone has seen us perform in a National venue. And it's not a good look. So how would one reasonably expect us to get the same respect as say a BBall team like Alabama that spent virtually all of last year in the Top 5? We shouldn't.

It's not bias. It's results.

I remember the 1981 Football season. We had to come from being unranked pre-season to climbing up the poll nearly one rung at a time over the season. Why? Because we had no national history way back when. It wasn't until we beat #4 and defending National Champ UGA in the 3rd game that we even got ranked. And even then we barely creased the Top 15 (#14).

It's not bias. It's results.

We were 5-0 before we made the Top 10.

We were 9-0 and with 2 Top 10 wins, but we were still only #2. We only got 7 of 68 1st place votes.

We were 11-0 and still #2, when we got only 5 of 65 1st place votes.

Even after we were 12-0, having beaten #4 Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, we only got 47 of 49 1st place votes in the Final AP Poll. Yes, we were National Champs, but it wasn't Unanimous.

Settling in at #3 was 10-2 Penn State, having beaten #1 Pitt and #3 UGA in the season finale and the Sugar Bowl respectively. They picked up 1 of the other 2 first place votes. Still, they were barely 4 games removed from having been whipped at home by #6 Alabama, 31-16, and yet got a 1st place vote over an undefeated team.

It's not bias (well totally). It's results.

Danny and the boys blazed that trail some 42 years ago, and little ol' Clemson went from being entirely lost on any Map to then being everybody's favorite Cinderella story. It was quite the heady time; and yet entirely different than 2016 or 2018. It had simply never been done before at Clemson.

And I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that the entire Dabo Swinney era in part has stood on the shoulders of that singular, yet still outlandish, accomplishment. Indeed, I think I've heard Dabo himself say something of the like.

Likewise, this year's Football team has been cut some slack simply because of the lineage to those three previous Championships, and rightly so. We didn't start this year unranked, indeed we were Top 10. This even as there were legitimate questions at key positions, and were coming off a couple of only "above average" years. But that grace period has its limits, and now it is time for this year's team to make its own mark. 9-4 is a dang sight better than 7-6, or even 8-5. In other words, it's nice that we've won 3 in a row, but there's real credibility that must be earned in Columbia, and then in whatever Bowl game we get. It's put up or shut for this version of Clemson Tigers. You either get it done, or you don't. Coach Swinney would be the first to point out that Danny and the boys for sure got it done.

It's not bias. It's results. Results like this coming Saturday in Columbia.

The Basketball fans should stop chirping and take note. They might learn a little something.

Welcome to Stark Raving Brad....

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Stark Raving Brad - November 23

Re: Stark Raving Brad - November 23

Almost perfect, DDR! Needs just a tad more waving of the arms...

Re: Almost perfect, DDR! Needs just a tad more waving of the arms...

Re: Stark Raving Brad - November 23

Re: Stark Raving Brad - November 23

Old Mike need a life.***

Re: Old Mike need a life.***

it's funny, I thought people came to TNET to read about Clemson

Re: it's funny, I thought people came to TNET to read about Clemson

When we're 15-2 or thereabouts I'll start whining about our rankin.

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