Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will bury the body of a great man, Jarrett Ryan Foster.
I received the tragic news of the accident only minutes after taking place. I still, three days later, cannot believe it is true.

I have had the pleasure of knowing Jarrett for many years since about the age of ten. We are from the same hometown and our original connection was sports. My first memories of Jarrett are of a very confident and talented shortstop/pitcher in youth baseball. We were on different teams but I still could not help but admire the way his young teammates envied the way Jarrett did everything. From the very beginning I remember Mr. and Mrs. Foster cheering for their all-star son, and usually armed with the video recorder.

Jarrett comes from a very sports oriented family. Mr. Foster loves everything about every sport and had that influence on each of his sons. His brothers, Travis and Brian, were great athletes and excelled in each level of every sport they ever attempted. Mrs. Foster was at any sporting event her sons participated in and cheered and prayed for their health and success. Jarrett began his young sports career setting many high goals and expectations for himself. Jarrett was not as big or as fast as his older brothers but I would bet on his confidence and heart to theirs or any other great person.

We later reunited in high school where our real bond began. Jarrett was again a very confident and talented athlete on the junior high school football team. He also was the most popular guy on the team, and it would not take long to understand why. We would quickly bond to become inseparable and the best of friends. Our teams and high school sports careers were good yet not great, but our bond in friendship I consider legendary. We accomplished many of our goals at that point, but not all because Jarrett and I continued to raise our level of expectations for each other.

We would next take our separate journeys into college. We were neither highly recruited athletes in college but with encouragement from each other we decided to walk-on to our respected teams. Jarrett would continue to excel and become the captain and MVP of his college team. I felt that was an amazing accomplishment and I was very proud of my friend. At first I was a bit surprised of all of his collegiate accomplishments, but I quickly remembered all of the confidence and heart Jarrett possessed.

His post collegiate and professional career is well publicized and very impressive, I am proud of my friend.
Jarrett has been very successful in every aspect of his sports career but as well as I know Jarrett those are not his most satisfying accomplishments. The way Jarrett lived his life is by far the thing he is most proud of. Jarrett loved his family and was proud of where he was from. He loved his friends and cherished the great times we all spent together. Jarrett knows God and knows what is good.

Mickey,

I want to get out to see Willy at least once this season to see what all the "hype" is about. I have targeted the game against Mauldin High in Greenville. Since you are very familiar with high school football, I was wondering if you knew how they usually run their ticketing. Do you think Mauldin will sell tickets early to this game or the night of the game only - I am sure the crowd will be massive that night when the Greenville Clemson crowd finds out they can see the future of the program right here in Greenville. Any advice on how to make sure I get a ticket would be appreciated. Love the blog and the show!

That leaves you with CLEM & FSU. Here is each team's hardest 5 games in order (IMO):
CLEM: @VT -- @FSU -- @BC -- @WF -- GT
FSU: @MIA-- CLEM -- @MD -- BC -- @NCSU

I am tired of hearing people predict us winning the Atlantic Division with a 5-3 conf record. Just look at the schedule. I don't think we can win at 6-2 unless we win in Tallahassee.

Mr. Plyler, great job with the blog, I love reading it. I have a question regarding Clemson's running backs. It seems to me that our running backs in the past always regress after their initial season playing regularly. First it was Yusef who was supposed to be our main guy. He got passed by Duane Coleman, and Duane was supposed to be the next running back. The next year he got passed by Reggie Merriweather. Last year was supposed to be Reggie's year, but low and behold James Davis passed him. Why is this happening, is it the coaching? Also, are we going to see this happen again with James Davis getting passed by C.J. Spiller?

Question: do you think that there are certain teams out there that now matter who's coaching that team or who's on that team - they will only win only 6 to 8 football games a year...... or maybe catch lighten in a bottle once every 15 to 20 years and win 10 or 11 games? If so, where would put Clemson, SC, and UGa as far as expected win for each year?

Once again Thanks,