All-In [49613]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 30357
Joined: 12/10/98
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Gird up thy loins, like a man: I will demand of thee, and thou will answer
Oct 29, 2023, 8:37 PM
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Yeah, it's been a while. But that game Saturday likely took a chunk of whatever time I have left on this planet, so ....
I texted a Wuffie friend (and yes, we can be friends with State fans, Tar Heels ...even Gamecocks!) to congratulate him on the win. In his reply, he said something I hadn't thought of.... "We've waited SO LONG to get a win like this over Clemson."
That struck me.
The whole football world has waited SO LONG for us to slip. Over the past decade, Clemson became the team that always got everyone's "A" game. That remains the case, even though we're clearly not the Clemson of recent years.
Remember how the basketball win in Chapel Hill was a mixture of joy and relief? That's what Miami, Duke, FSU and now the Wuffies are feeling. It's what the Capons felt last year.
Big, bad Clemson isn't so big or bad anymore. I think we all knew sooner or later it would come to this. Personally, I always felt it would come a few years down the road ... but here we are.
There's no small voice in the back of our opponents' heads anymore. No, "Well, how is Clemson going to beat us this time?"
There is, in short, no fear.
Some of this, I attribute to the Portal. The hybrid teams we're facing don't have the shared memory of being whipped by the Tigers. They know Clemson well enough to bring that extra effort, but they ain't skert. And when extra effort meets a lesser quality (and I think we can all agree that this offense is a lesser quality than the past) the result is what we've seen.
Can we become a feared opponent again? Sure, but it's not going to happen this year. It's going to require some seismic shifting of coaching and game philosophy, and that may well have to work through another year to settle out.
Right now, there are too many people who have suffered at the hands of Clemson football. They are craving for revenge. Nobody's scared of Clemson, not now. And without that fear gnawing in the back of their minds, we're just another football team.
The Almighty has commanded (Job 38) Clemson -- "Gird up thy loins, like a man. I will demand of thee, and thou will answer." As an eternal optimist, I'm betting a change is gonna come. After all, a Tiger that doesn't bring fear is little more than a striped kitten.
And that, I promise, will not be long accepted at Clemson.
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