Appreciate the moment (Semi-long)

Jan 31, 2014, 10:50 AM

It just seems to me that a lot of people are taking our current string of success for granted, and I don’t understand why.

This is something to appreciate. To admire. I was born in ’92, so I just missed the “glory years” of the 80’s, but I hear about it all the time. How little old Clemson took down the likes of Ohio State, Penn State, Nebraska, West Virginia, and Oklahoma. I grew up with the likes of Hatfield, West, and Bowden (who did some good things, but could never quite get over that hump). I watched us squander opportunities for ACC titles year after year, because we were just “one play away” from beating the likes of a terrible Maryland or Wake Forest squad. And while I enjoyed the regular wins over South Carolina, I got tired of seeing us win 7-9 games every single year.

In just the past 3 seasons, I’ve seen a whole lot of good, and some bad to go with it. I’ve seen one ACC title, two division titles, we’ve won double digit games all 3 years, and we’ve had thrilling victories over the likes of UGA, LSU, and Ohio State. I also got to see us get blown out at home by FSU, blown out by WVU in the Orange, and I got to see the coots win 5 in a row for the first time.

I’ll take the good over the bad. Because something has happened in Clemson, and it’s all thanks to the current staff and the school’s commitment to the program.

The culture has changed.

We expect to win now. No more fearing the weaklings in the ACC. No more “Syracuse is a trap game”. We know we’re going to blow them out, because we’re better. How often were any of you confident in a Tiger team headed to play at Wake or Maryland in the Bowden days?

Another example of the changed culture. I’m pretty sure a lot of you would have sold your souls to land just one 4 or 5 star recruit. Now anytime we offer a 3 star recruit, some people demand to know why we’re offering such a lowly rated player. We’re loaded with so many good players, our only concern is who’s gonna actually get some playing time, and who’s gonna end up transferring.

The coots won’t win forever, and we will win our fair share against FSU despite their rise back to national power. We are on the right path, and I think Dabo can lead us back to the promised land.

One day, hopefully not soon, Tiger fans will look back and talk about this run like they talk about the 80’s now. The glory days are here. Enjoy it. Don’t take the moment for granted. Live in it. It won’t be here forever.

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because I do agree that we are on a different level than we've been on in a while. 2 games still define our season, but those games are not Wake and Virginia. There are no automatic Ls and swing games in our season mean the difference in going to a BCS game vs the old time begging for the Music City Bowl.

I do think we've seen a culture shift at least with the past group of seniors. Let me see 1 more year of not worrying about a trap road game and I'll be 100% with you that its a program culture change and not a class culture change.

But I'm tempered a bit in calling this run any sort of a "glory year" run because

1) we play more games now than before. So for us to have 3 10 win seasons in a row isn't as big to me as the years we only played 10 or 11 games. I think when I looked at it, these last 3 years have been middle 20s and then 10th or 12th in our all time winning percentage years.

2) Conference expansion has diluted the schedule. I think the ACC is down from where it has been, but more importantly we don't play everybody so we've missed out on some good matchups. (Same goes for every other conference that has expanded)

So there are a number of inflated records out there so its hard for me to judge. I'm waiting to see us just impose our will on someone good, and I just haven't quite seen that yet.

So epic run...no
glory run....not yet
really good run...yes
helluva lot better than the lost decade of the 90s to middle 2000s...absolutely.

Appreciate the moment (Semi-long)

When your only losses are to top 10 teams you're doing well

You mean that backup quarterback

Well said!

I remember a few things.

Re: Appreciate the moment (Semi-long)

Good Stuff!***

Bravo....good intelligent post.

I'm not disagreeing with you per se

Well stated and remember this:

Great post.....

nice post +1***

When I read a well-thought-out and crafted post like this,

Much appreciated.

Yeah

Re: Yeah

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