Thursday October 08, 2009

We Are Experts

We Are Experts
I don’t love college football. I love Clemson football.

Whenever Clemson loses a football game, I find myself bored watching the other games. It happened again last Saturday. Few things are worse than Clemson losing at noon and then me trying to pretend I care about the other games that day.

I pay attention to other programs. I casually pull for other programs from time to time. Tuesday night I hurt a little when Rock Stockstill’s Middle Tennessee team lost at Troy. I am happy for Burton Burns when his running backs do well at Alabama. I called David Blackwell to wish him congratulations when his South Florida defense held FSU to a single touchdown in the Bulls 21-7 win. But really, deep down, I those feelings fade pretty fast.

Yes, I am not a college football fan. I am a Clemson football fan. It’s worse in basketball. Shaka Smart’s Virginia Commonwealth team and Wes Long’s Queen’s College squad are two of the few that I will follow. I don’t love college basketball, I love Clemson basketball.

Before I get into my main thought I need to preface it with one other quick point. Since I could not care less about other programs, it used to drive me crazy to hear about how half of the teams lose every Saturday.

With those things stated, today’s blog is a commentary about criticism Dabo is receiving compared to his counterparts.

I really like Dabo and it hurts to watch him and his offense struggle in this 2-3 start. It was so much nicer when the honeymoon was still in effect. But I notice that no one is immune.

Bobby Bowden is under fire at Florida State. The chairman of the board of trustees says it is time for the head Seminole to retire. Here is a man that went 13-0-1 in bowl games from 1982-1995. He finished in the top five in the country 14 straight seasons from 1987-2000. The man won two national championships and 12 ACC titles from 1992-2005. He is Florida State football. Bowden turned a below average football program into the best program in the country in the 90s.

But the Seminoles have fallen in the last eight plus seasons and Bowden is fighting to keep his job and retire on his terms.

Like Bowden, Frank Beamer took over a program that was in shambles and had little history. Under Beamer, Virginia Tech won three Big East titles and three ACC championships. In the last five years the Hokies have won 51 games coming into this year. Yet Beamer gets ripped by his fan base about their offense. It has gotten so bad for the head Hokie that the last two years he has refused to take phone calls on his radio call-in show.

Phillip Fulmer won a national title at Tennessee and won 10 games the year before the fan base turned on him and had him ousted in Knoxville.

In the four years prior to his last season at Auburn Tommy Tuberville won 42 games. The fans turned and a 5-7 campaign cost him his job.

Bob Stoops hears it. So does Mack Brown. This year Jim Tressel heard it for the first time. His Buckeyes won 76 games in seven years before this season but sports talk radio, newspaper columnist and internet sites in Columbus, OH have hammered Tressel and his conservative offense.

If we are honest then we will recall the unrest with Danny Ford in 1980. Heck, I remember fans disappointed with Ford’s offense even in those years where the Tigers won 10 games.

For Beamer and Tressel’s fans, winning is not enough. They have to win pretty.

Part of me thinks it is society today. We play X-Box so we think we know more than the head coach and we need it to look impressive in the process. It’s obvious there are more avenues for more fans to voice their opinions and that is not a bad thing.

But for some reason we think we are all smarter now and are all experts in every field. Political talks shows and websites are filled with better answers than we are getting from current elected leaders.

Stock brokers now face competition from websites that offer day traders and chance to prove they are smarter than the pros.

I would have taken that pitcher out right before the next batter hit the three-run homer. I would have gone for it on first down. I would not have hired that coach or that offensive coordinator. I would have not sent the troops to that war. If I were Tiger Woods I would have not hit driver off of that tee box. The experts are always wrong and we are always right.

Dabo has to fix what is broken and he needs to do it fast. If he does not than this blogger and 80,000 others are smarter and are ready to take his job.

As a sports talk show host and a blogger, I am charged to give opinions. Some are right and some are wrong. But all they are are opinions. The only ones that are right 100% of the time are the ones that are made in hindsight. It is easy for me, callers and readers to say what we would have done after the fact because we have the results to consider. The hard part is making those decisions before the fact and being held accountable for the results.

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency

Prayer List
We have started a prayer list on the blog. Here are the guidelines:
*If you are offended by prayer or prayer lists then I apologize in advance. The blog is free and the prayer list will be on the bottom of the page so you don’t have to read it.
*If you would like to add someone to the list please e-mail me at mickeyplyler@hotmail.com
*If you want the reason for the prayer to be added to the name please specify in your e-mails.
*Please let me know when it is appropriate to take the person off of the prayer list

Those who need our prayers include:
Finn Brookover, Larry in Naples, FL, RTG-Pawsitive Tiger, Mary-Louise Pawlowski (John's daughter), Jo Ann Bachman, Frank Taylor, Kenneth Bryant, Pruitt Martin, Got igers and his family, David Rowland, Leonard Gillespie and his family, Jim S, Christine Hepfer, Daniel Rosborough, Amy Murphey, Jack Huffman, Nancy Winkler, Dr. Nancy Strom Morgan, John Reeve, Eileen Woodrum, Ethel Southard, Vinnie Brock, Jean-Pierre Bailey, Kaitlyn L, Delores Weaver, Eric Boessneck, John Bowers, Jimmy Ness, Susan Miller, Joyce Harley, Steve Proveaux, John Petrey, Chalmers Carr, Drayton Melton, Jeffrey Greene, the Hutto family, Sherl Drawdy, Caleb Kennedy, Ann Fallaw, Bob Pollock, Teresa O'Connor, Matt Jacobs, Mike Kingsmore.