Wednesday November 22, 2006

Shoeless Fearless prediction for USC

Alrighty. Another week another Shoeless blog that nobody will read!! Woo!!

Well, maybe not this week b/c this is the big week you know.

This is the week that everyone within the borders of NC, GA and the Atlantic has waited for.

This is the week where one of either Clemson or USC prophetically announces “wait until next year”.

This is the week!

So let’s see. A couple of weeks ago Clemson looked like a team that couldn’t be beaten, a team that would not only contend for the ACC title but maybe even the National-- well… we blew that opportunity but there’s still a lot to gain in this season.

I had the privilege of helping interview some players and coaches on Tuesday, for the www.clemsonfootballdvd.com project (shameless plug), and one thing that stuck out to me was a Gaines Adams comment. When asked about the success of this season, he said that we are still only two games away from being 8-5.

That really hit me hard knowing how we started and what this means to these kids. 10-3 would be acceptable and the “new goal”; but 8-5 would not be a successful season and these guys know it.

You could also tell that the week off was much needed. I’m not really sure if it’ll help us enough to get back to our old ways (pre VT) but you never know. Hopefully the rest will get Davis, the OL and our Def back to 100% and ready.

If I had to pick the winner of this game and put $1,000 on it, I’d put the money on USC. I hate to say it, I don’t want them to win but here’s the way I look at it, if Clemson did lose… hey, at least I won $1,000 right?

Now to the prediction… I am not confident in a Tiger win. I would dare to say I think we are going to lose. Bye week or not, I don’t know if Spence will change his play calling enough to get it done this time. I don’t think we can expect to win if we have to rely on a big play from our defense every game. They are ranked in the top 10 nationally in 5 categories defensively and ranked in the top 20 in 1 one other. The only category on defense we are not in the top 20 or better in is Turnover margin... and that’s b/c the defense doesn’t really have complete control over that one.

Need a reminder of before the season turned… vs. FSU, GT and WF we had bad predictable play calling.. .we won but you can thank James Davis, Gaines Adams, CJ Spiller, and even Proctor (FSU) for those games not masterful play calling. However over the last 3 weeks the big plays have disappeared right.. oh yea except for the one CJ Spiller run vs. NCSU. Hmmm noticing a trend. As the big play goes, so do we.

Here’s the breakdown.

Our Defense is stout! Probably the best Clemson has had in 15+ years top to bottom and this is with 2 decimating injuries before the 2nd game. If you want to blame any game all year on the Defense you Sir/Ma’am, are a moron.

What’s that mean? It’ll come down to offense and the way we are coached it’ll probably mean more stress and gray hairs for most fans. If we get the big plays on offense and maybe one on defense we could very easily win in a romp. If we don’t it’ll be another 13-9 type of battle.

Will the week off help?

Will a “set” of Christmas “balls” be hung on a certain coach after Thanksgiving giving us a different offense?

It is completely up in the air this year. Nobody knows nothing. I ain’t got a clue and hopefully I will be wrong with my pessimism and the Tigers will make like the War Eagles and get the one for the thumb… but I just don’t see it happening.

Hey you know what they say about blind squirrels.

Write it down, take a picture, call your momma, eat at Joe’s… The Shoeless Fearless Prediction for this week is:

Clemson 9 South Carolina 10 much like the Maryland game, FGS not TDs do us in.

Now let’s recap last weeks games predictions:

As I predicted Clemson dominated the Bye week. I went 36-19 this past week making my overall record 271-87. I picked a few less games this week but still stayed close to my average on the year.

Weekly Records:
Week 1: 28-4
Week 2: 24-4
Week 3: 20-8
Week 4: 25-3
Week 5: 23-5
Week 6: 18-9
Week 7: 22-9
Week 8: 22-5
Week 9: 19-7
Week 10: 18-8
Week 11: 16-6
Week 12: 36-19

Overall: 271-87 Clemson: 7-4 (yes I’m included a win over the bye week b/c this is my blog!!)

Let’s take a look at this weekend’s games and I’m picking them all is I did last week:

BC 20 Miami 10
Northern Ill 40 East Mich 17
Kent St 20 Ball St 7
Ohio 45 Miami (OH) 10
Texas A&M 24 Texas 30
Cent. Mich. 12 Buffalo 0
LSU 10 Arkansas 42
Tulane 17 Tulsa 34
Oregon 30 Oregon St 32
W. Mich 10 Akron 12
Colorado 0 Nebraska 24
Air Force 45 UNLV 3
Fresno St 17 La Tech 10
Kansas 17 Missouri 21
Virginia 0 VT 23
Florida 31 FSU 32
North Carolina 3 Duke 0
South Florida 0 WVU 34
Syracuse 0 Rutgers 40
Cincy 12 UConn 3
UAB 13 UCF 17
Kentucky 0 Tennessee 22
Miss St 0 Miss 34
Oklahoma 34 Ok St 13
San Diego St 11 New Mexico 13
SMU 21 Rice 24
New Mexico St 0 Utah St 7
Louisville 43 Pitts 23
BYU 30 Utah 31
GT 32 UGA 23
Troy 18 MTSU 30
Boise St 40 Nevado 32
Ark St 14 LA Lafayette 13
San Jose St 15 Idaho 31
Arizona St 0 Arizona 17
TCU 34 Colorado St 31
North Texas 13 LA Monroe 3
Fl Intl 0 FAU 33
East Carolina 17 NCSU 13
Marshall 30 Southern Miss 44
Wake Forest 13 Maryland 12
Notre Dame 10 USC 23
Memphis 34 Utep 45
Purdue 50 Hawaii 65