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FSU and Clemson share a gloriously weird tradition (link)
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FSU and Clemson share a gloriously weird tradition (link)


Mar 21, 2017, 9:22 AM

1. After a Florida State Seminoles win on the road as an underdog, a team captain — who gains the title of Sod Captain — selects a piece of enemy turf to uproot and bring back to Tallahassee.





2. It travels to FSU’s Sod Cemetery, where 100 pieces of foe grass rest, according to Seminoles.com. The latest: from 2016’s wins over Miami and Michigan.







3. The new addition soon receives a burial ceremony, complete with a speech and moment of silence.



4. It’s been a tradition since 1962, when professor and athletic board member Dean Coyle Moore told players to “bring back some sod from between the hedges at Georgia.” The Noles, still a young program that hadn’t accomplished much to that point, won and did some horticulture.




5. In 1988, No. 10 FSU traveled to the No. 3 Clemson Tigers. Trick play master Bobby Bowden broke out a “puntrooskie” to future All-Pro LeRoy Butler. While FSU’s punter acted like the snap had sailed over his head, Butler took the ball from a fellow blocker and ran to set up the deciding field goal. FSU took its sod, and 26 years later, reenacted the play at the Cemetery.




6. Clemson head coach Danny Ford was displeased with the play, the loss, and the grass capture. When the Tigers got revenge in Tallahassee the next year in another ranked vs. ranked game, Clemson took a piece of FSU sod. The first permanent headstone in Clemson’s Victory Graveyard was placed atop Nole grass.

7. The Tigers’ twists on the tradition: headstones instead of markers, a lack of foreign grass (other than 1989 FSU’s), and memorials of road wins over ranked teams, rather than favored teams. Clemson also adds its in bulk after the season, rather than one at a time, with 2016’s four (CU now lists 32, including 10 before 1989) highlighted by a super-sized National Championship headstone.







8. From the conversation about Clemson’s ceremony, I realized some fans weren’t aware Clemson had spun off and/or jacked (depending on your perspective) this Seminole tradition.
(One funny part: a couple FSU fans were mad about someone taking a tradition that is literally based on taking someone else’s stuff.)

It’s perfect, though. The two are division rivals now, though they weren’t even in the same conference in 1989. Clemson has also spent most of the past couple decades living in FSU’s shadow, but emerged over the last few years as a national power and worthy rival.

Only in a sport as bizarre as college football would two teams with so little history at the time (they’d only played three times before 1988, but 26 times since) end up playing annually, sharing a strange tradition, and building a serious rivalry on the field.

9. FSU appears three times in Clemson’s Graveyard, and five chunks of Clemson grass are in FSU’s Cemetery. Now that both are gonna be elite for the foreseeable future, more funeral plots will likely be changing hands between the two regularly.

10. The Noles have no reason to endorse Clemson’s sampling, and the Tigers don’t need anyone’s co-sign at this point, but it would still be fun to see the two acknowledge they have the same baffling, morbid, adorable ritual.

They should play for a rivalry trophy, like the Rusty Bronze Reaper’s Scythe (brought to you by Hardee’s), the Old Oaken Weed Whacker (of Death), or the Haunted John Deere Victory Tractor.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2017/3/21/14951884/florida-state-clemson-sod-cemetery-victory-graveyard


Message was edited by: jtiger1®


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Best Is The Standard


Dabo vs Jimbo


Mar 21, 2017, 9:35 AM

They could also call it the "The Backwoods Bowl" and play for a golden can of Busch Lite.

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Re: FSU and Clemson share a gloriously weird tradition (link)


Mar 21, 2017, 9:50 AM

Wish we could move Osceola's carcass from Fort Moultrie to Clemson.

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can you provide said link please! TIA***


Mar 21, 2017, 9:52 AM



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Re: can you provide said link please! TIA***


Mar 21, 2017, 10:12 AM

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/15145869/grave-stones-sod-cemeteries-death-remembrances-college-football

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Re: can you provide said link please! TIA***


Mar 21, 2017, 10:19 AM

http://www.espn975.com/rivals-fsu-and-clemson-both-use-graveyards-to-honor-big-wins-and-thats-perfectly-weird/

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Here you go (sbnation)


Mar 21, 2017, 10:33 AM [ in reply to can you provide said link please! TIA*** ]

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2017/3/21/14951884/florida-state-clemson-sod-cemetery-victory-graveyard

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Best Is The Standard


We're gonna need a bigger cemetery***


Mar 21, 2017, 9:53 AM



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Re: FSU and Clemson share a gloriously weird tradition (link)


Mar 21, 2017, 9:58 AM

There are a couple of games missing from the one tombstone that lists all the games Clemson won on the road versus a ranked opponent before 1989. Currently, there are 10 games listed on that one spanning from 1948 to 1986. Based on the criteria established at the time the tradition was born in 1989, shouldn't the following games be included as well?

First, some housekeeping...The AP Poll first ran in 1934 and it has run continuously from 1936. While the AP Poll currently lists the Top 25 teams in the nation, from 1936 to 1961 the wire service only ranked 20 teams.

1) 9/30/50 @ Missouri (Columbia, MO) - Mizzou was ranked #17 at the time by the AP and was a 13 point favorite, while CU was unranked. CU won 34-0.

2) 10/9/71 vs Duke (Osyter Bowl in Norfolk, VA) - This was not a post season bowl game but instead a regular season game between conference foes held at a different venue. Duke was ranked #14 at the time by the AP and CU won 3-0.

All other "road" games CU has won against ranked opponents, where a tombstone is not in place, relate to postseason bowl games (i.e. BC '40, Nebraska '82, Oklahoma '89, etc). There are 10 of those victories and based on the criteria when the tradition was started in 1989 did not qualify as a "tombstone game".

The only other game I can't figure out is the 9/1/12 game vs Auburn in the Chick-fil-a Kickoff Game in Atlanta. Auburn was ranked #25 by the Coaches Poll, but unranked by the AP. Of course CU won that one 26-19.

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Re: FSU and Clemson share a gloriously weird tradition (link)


Mar 21, 2017, 10:09 AM

Clemson leads FSU 7 wins- 5 losses over the most recent 12 games. And we play the Noles in Death Valley next fall. I see a trend getting stronger and longer.

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I don't like how they've lax'd the rules. Used to be Top 10


Mar 21, 2017, 10:12 AM [ in reply to Re: FSU and Clemson share a gloriously weird tradition (link) ]

was a requirement for any neutral site game.

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Cole @ Beach Cole w/ Clemson Hat


i agree with this. Because once you get to an elite level


Mar 21, 2017, 10:45 AM

seems silly to add a Tombstone for beating #25 Virginia Tech team with 4 losses

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Best Is The Standard


When was a Top 10 win the criteria for a tombstone?


Mar 21, 2017, 11:56 AM [ in reply to I don't like how they've lax'd the rules. Used to be Top 10 ]

I don't remember anything about that when the tradition started. The first one was the '89 FSU game and the 'Noles were ranked #16. Plus, of the first five individual tombstones, only one was against a top-10 team (#10 UVA in 1992). The first single digit ranking tombstone with its own stone was against #9 GT in 2001.

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We didn't start collecting Tombstones for Neutral Site games


Mar 22, 2017, 1:22 AM

until we beat Tennessee in the Peach and Tommy said a Top 10 opponent was Tombstone worthy

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We have a tombstone for beating a 6-5 NC State Team in 1997


Mar 21, 2017, 12:04 PM [ in reply to I don't like how they've lax'd the rules. Used to be Top 10 ]

The next year CU fired Coach West after going 3-8

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Neutral Site games only counted if it's a Top 10 opponent***


Mar 22, 2017, 1:24 AM [ in reply to Re: FSU and Clemson share a gloriously weird tradition (link) ]



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Re: FSU and Clemson share a gloriously weird tradition (link)


Mar 21, 2017, 10:39 AM

Should have gone with smaller plaques...ours is getting stupid

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We celebrate when No. 3 CU beats No. 23 VA Tech


Mar 21, 2017, 12:01 PM

We should not celebrate wins that are expected.

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Have to say, theirs looks better than ours. Gonna need an


Mar 21, 2017, 12:51 PM

upgrade, Dabo! Kood be big on recruiting.


Message was edited by: 76er®


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Wonder what they do when the opponent has an artificial turf


Mar 21, 2017, 11:28 PM

field?

For example, if they beat a ranked Boise State team on the road, would they take a cutting of the blue turf? :)

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