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110%er [6781]
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What Georgia and South Carolina can learn from Frank Howard
Jul 31, 2013, 3:33 PM
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BY Kyle King of DawgSports
While I’m sure my good friends at Garnet and Black Attack will disagree with this statement, I believe we all could benefit from following the example of Clemson. More specifically, we would do well to emulate Frank Howard.
Between 1930 and 1957, the Country Gentlemen began 28 straight seasons by facing tiny Presbyterian College at Fort Hill. The Blue Hose rarely managed to score the upset and Clemson usually beat P.C. by lopsided margins. (It was a coach of the Blue Stockings who gave Memorial Stadium the nickname "Death Valley.") The problem was that these glorified early-season scrimmages did little to prepare the Tigers for the more daunting teams on their slate.
Coach Howard’s 1957 club began the campaign by throttling Presbyterian 66-0. One week later, Clemson traveled to Chapel Hill to begin A.C.C. play and suffered a 26-0 setback at North Carolina. Before the game had even ended, Coach Howard had turned to one of his assistants and remarked, "I ain’t playing P.C. no more. Those guys don’t even know they got hit last week. That game sure didn’t help on this one here."
Frank Howard dropped Presbyterian from the Tigers’ schedule and arranged for Clemson to play three straight conference games to start the 1958 season. The Country Gentlemen won all three by margins of five, five, and eight points, respectively. The Orange and Purple went on to win the A.C.C. championship, earn a bid to the Sugar Bowl, and finish ranked twelfth in the A.P. poll.
You don’t have to have been accepted to the Vulcan Science Academy to be able to figure out the cause and effect relationship at work there.
The Tigers proceeded to open each of the next five seasons by playing road games against teams from major conferences, taking on North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1959, Wake Forest at Winston-Salem in 1960, Florida at Gainesville in 1961, Georgia Tech at Atlanta in 1962, and Oklahoma at Norman in 1963. Between 1966 and 1968, Coach Howard’s Clemson clubs played non-conference games against Alabama (thrice), Auburn (twice), Georgia (twice), Georgia Tech (thrice), and Southern California, of which eight were on the road. The Country Gentlemen went 16-2-1 in A.C.C. play in those three seasons.
The moral of the story is clear. Challenging non-conference schedules prepare a team for the rough-and-tumble free-for-all of league play. Opening the fall against serious competition provides focus to a team’s offseason and requires players to be ready to play from the first snap. This has been the unmistakable trend of the Mark Richt era at Georgia. Contrast this . . .
Read the rest here
http://www.dawgsports.com/2009/5/19/880602/why-college-teams-should-play
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Orange Blooded [4441]
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Excellent article***
Jul 31, 2013, 4:24 PM
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CU Guru [1321]
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If you think about it, a team will generally work harder
Jul 31, 2013, 4:31 PM
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in the off season (where the whole season is won or lost) when there's a big game to start the season. It's a natural reaction to put more into it, and when you work harder in the preseason, it naturally carries over to season workouts, which are merely to maintain the conditioning and level of play established in the off-season. It makes perfect sense. then you get guys like Saban who assumes the first game is against LSU at LSU. And so is the next game... And prepares like every game is against the best team in the country. It's hard to get that kind of work out of kids when a huge game isn't really there.
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All-American [555]
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exactly why i'm so confused we open versus the ACC.....***
Jul 31, 2013, 4:43 PM
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All-American [555]
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Re: exactly why i'm so confused we open versus the ACC.....***
Jul 31, 2013, 4:45 PM
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seriously.....this bodes well for UGA then..... 
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Orange Blooded [2418]
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All-American [555]
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Re: exactly why i'm so confused we open versus the ACC.....***
Jul 31, 2013, 5:12 PM
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i don't want to lose to anyone but just imagine this.....Uga loses a very close one to Clemson who then goes unbeaten only to face Georgia again in the national title game after the Dawgs run off 12 straight and win the SEC. Now that would be something else!
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Orange Blooded [2418]
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Re: exactly why i'm so confused we open versus the ACC.....***
Jul 31, 2013, 5:17 PM
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I was thinking the same thing SuperDawg.
You know how a couple of years ago, the media started talking up the Alabama/LSU rematch in the MNC game before they even played the first time? We (uga and clem fans) should do the same starting right now.
Hit twitter, facebook, forums everywhere and say.. "This could be a preview of the national title game"
Our primary goal? to get one of the announcers at the game to use that phrase.
We can call it Operation TigerDawg.
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Orange Blooded [2418]
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Re: exactly why i'm so confused we open versus the ACC.....***
Jul 31, 2013, 5:35 PM
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What georgia forum can I post this in superdawg to get the most dawgs on board? What is uga's version of tigernet?
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CU Guru [1142]
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Re: What Georgia and South Carolina can learn from Frank Howard
Jul 31, 2013, 5:43 PM
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Absolute truth!
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Orange Blooded [2772]
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I can feel the love!
Jul 31, 2013, 7:32 PM
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Not!
Curbstomp Jawja!!
Go Tigers!!
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