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YOUR BALANCE
Mickey Plyler's Blog: Where Are We?
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Mickey Plyler's Blog: Where Are We?


Oct 30, 2013, 9:51 AM

Where Are We?

Where Are We?
I get about 15-20 calls a day on my radio show about Clemson football.  I probably get 5-10 tweets and about 100-125 texts on our new text line concerning Clemson football.

The opinions vary from the sunshine pumpers that think Clemson still has a shot at a national title


Full Story »


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You don't even know what a sunshine pumper is, Mickey.


Oct 30, 2013, 10:08 AM

You are a sunshine pumper if you don't believe:

1. Dabo should be fired.

2. Dabo knows nothing about football he's a real estate salesman.

3. The only reason we ever won a game with Dabo is because of Chad.

4. Chad will jump ship at first opportunity.

5. Clemson will never beat USuCk again in our lifetime.

6. Football season is over when we lose one game.

7. You don't post at least three of the previous 6 on T-Net daily.

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Re: You don't even know what a sunshine pumper is, Mickey.


Oct 30, 2013, 10:28 AM

ClemsonTiger1988, Sarcasm?

To me, losing Peake was a huge blow to our offense. I only we could've seen the production this offense could have had if we had Sammy, Humphries, and Peak all lining up each week... not to mention Martavis filling in for "Third Down" Brown.

My only criticism about the Dabo Era is the persona of the team. Clemson seems like a very "nice" team. Outside of Vic BEASTley and a couple others, I don't see that "mean" streak that was there in the early 2000s and through the 80s and part of the 90s. I think Dabo has done a good job thus far: We're not losing to lower caliber programs, we're in the hunt for the ACC Atlantic Division every year, and we're a Top 10-15 program. But outside of not beating SoCar (which God help us if they win again this year), I don't see Clemson having that "swagger" that elite teams have. Maybe we'll get to that point soon, but I don't see it now.

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Re: Mickey Plyler's Blog: Where Are We?


Oct 30, 2013, 10:14 AM

Mick,

Agree with about everything that you said. I just don't understand the inconsistency over the last three games. Turnovers have had a lot to do with the poor play on offense. Can you, or anyone else, explain to me how the OL is so much worse than they were last year? We only lost Dalton Freeman from last year, yet they are continually getting whipped at the point of attack.

An example is when they had the ball first and goal at the two, then lost yardage on three consecutive plays and had to kick a field goal! That was just a simple matter of Maryland's DL physically whipping our OL.

IMO Robbie Caldwell is one of the better OL coaches in the game today, so why is our OL so much worse than last year after having lost only one starter? Help me understand.

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Re: Mickey Plyler's Blog: Where Are We?


Oct 30, 2013, 10:41 AM

I am no football officianato. I can tell you that the center is the biggest component of the offensive line. Every player has a role and the center has the biggest role. He accounts for D-line and any inside blitz calls. When you have an experienced center, you see better O-Lines. Dalton Freeman was a heck of an experienced center. He knew his QB tendencies and he studied defenses much like QB's did. It is why our O-line was so effective. Not to say his replacements aren't doing well. I can imagine how much better the O-line would be this year with experience at the center position? It shows in the red zone. Think about how our line didn't began to adjust to the Maryland rush until the end of third quarter. That was O-Line coaching and Offensive line coaching rather than adjustments on the fly.

Again, I am no expert. I do hear coaches talk a lot about breaking in a center and the importance of having an intelligent mind playing the position. I am not saying our guys aren't intelligent. I am saying that this should probably go under the tab 'inexperience.'

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Re: Mickey Plyler's Blog: Where Are We?


Oct 30, 2013, 3:10 PM [ in reply to Re: Mickey Plyler's Blog: Where Are We? ]

Didn't re-watch every play but I did see on the plays at the goal line a lot of the pressure came from where a guard would pull leaving a man unblocked, also they would have a bltiz coming from that same side so you had two unblocked players coming through the line. On one play in pacticular they had called a zone read run, Rod was moving left an the pressure was coming from the right and Tajh pulled the ball and then ran directly to the right into the defenders. I believe a lot of the problem is either tajh and or chad is not picking up the blitz or not making adjustments and I'm not convinced Boyd can successfully run the zone read.

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Re: Mickey Plyler's Blog: Where Are We?


Oct 30, 2013, 10:48 AM

If we finish the season with no trip ups, beat SC, and win the bowl game we will finish in the top 5 for only the second time in the history of our program (correct me if I'm wrong?) Still a lot to play for and an opportunity for a great season.

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Re: Mickey Plyler's Blog: Where Are We?


Oct 30, 2013, 10:56 AM

I'm going to bank on that assessment. I'm prediciting a FSU/Bama National Championship, which would leave us playing in the Orange Bowl against UCF. I think it can be done, but gotta take care of UVA, GT, and then SoCar... and Citadel of course, but c'mon, right?

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Re: Mickey Plyler's Blog: Where Are We?


Oct 30, 2013, 12:16 PM

So we should just ignore the fact that our weaknesses happen to dove tail perfectly with Sakerlina's strengths? Yes, because after all, emotion and "intangibles" win the most football games right? We should just ignore or sugar coat the fact that we have a QB who is easily rattled and an offensive line that can't consistently get a push against Maryland's second string D. And we should ignore or sugar coat the fact that Sakerlina's D line and crowd noise (and everything else for that matter) is worlds better than Maryland. Yes, I am seeing the err of my ways. Now I see, that Dabo's magic tennis balls will be plenty enough to will us to victory over a team that otherwise would be perfectly built to exploit our weaknesses. Thanks for seting me straight.

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More pretense from the chicken fan..........


Oct 30, 2013, 4:47 PM

you and Edisto/Bluecaddy should get married.

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Re: More pretense from the chicken fan..........


Nov 1, 2013, 11:59 AM

"Pretenses?" "Chicken fan?" What in his post was a pretense? Are you saying that our OL hasn't actually gotten worse? That they don't appear to lack quickness, mobility, aggressiveness, and overall athletecism? Really? Who's pretending?

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Plyler predicts Clemson never loses a game ever again. What's new...***


Oct 30, 2013, 2:45 PM



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Prior to the season


Oct 31, 2013, 5:00 AM

all I heard about on WCCP was how you could not be successful with "running back by committee." Let's totally disregard the success Clemson had in the late 70s and throughout the 80's with running back by committee. Sure we had a few star runners, but even then, part of our strength was that we could insert fresh legs at any time. We often led the league and were near the top in the country in rushing without having consistent 100 yd rushers.

This year we have several rushers who are averaging around 5 yds per carry, yet I consistently hear "we can't run the ball." It's not that we can't run the ball, we choose not to for some reason. We have gotten so one dimensional (meaning: Tajh runs, Tajh passes) that all teams have to do is key on Tajh. Even the stupid TV announcers recognize that when we have an open backfield, it is usually a called run for Tajh.

It's time we started mixing it up a little. How often do we call a run sweep to the outside? Even the plays where McDowell breaks to the outside, it usually starts as a run up the middle and he bounces outside after finding resistance straight ahead. I'm saying we should run the ball to set up the pass, but if the run is working, let's run it until they consistently stop it. Seems like the first resistance we get, we say, "oops, the run is not working, we gotta pass it every down." That lets teams put pressure on Tajh, and while he is a good runner, he should not be our go-to runner of first choice, just because he is too valuable to risk losing to injury by running as often as he does, especially with the variety of runners we have. On the James Turn(sp?) show this week, they discussed this, and James kept saying "so you think we should run McDowell 30 times a game?" I say no, but we should run some combination of guys not named Tajh Boyd 30 times a game. That would take some of the blitz pressure off Tajh and make him a more effective runner when he DOES run.

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