Re: And that was mainly because we had an injured punter!***

being an outstanding example for all of us - no matter our walk of life or circumstances.

20 years ago - if I were to dream EXTRAVAGANTLY about Clemson football - I wouldn't have come CLOSE to dreaming about where we have been the last 5 years . . . not even close.

I've seen Phoenix & the Superdome & driven 10 minutes down the street to see MY TIGERS win the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP at Ray Jay . . . .

I've seen covers of magazines that are, honestly, becoming difficult to keep up with & buy and put someplace for safe keeping . . . BEFORE ? ONE Sports Illustrated cover that was the PINNACLE of everything Clemson sports related. NOW ? - commonplace.

I remember back in the day - before all this cursed "connectivity" and information overload - as a youngster - getting the Parade insert in the Sunday paper. There was one edition that was all about High School football and the top 100 stars - All Americans - top performers. And part of each kid's bio was where they were thinking about going to school. Some would have only one school, others would have 3 or 4 schools in their list.

I remember POURING over that crappy little insert, Sunday, after church - STRAINING to see maybe one or 2 or WOW-WEEEE - THREE of these top 100 kids that had Clemson even somewhere in their list - that my Clemson was even being CONSIDERED by this STAR high schooler.

And NOW - it seems - if there is a kid in the top 20 that doesn't have Clemson in his final 4 - we question WHY NOT ! ? ! ?

It is hard to believe where our little corner of ol' South Carolina has been lifted up to. Even if I was to dream EXTRAVAGANTLY.

Thank you Coach. For 1000 different things.

jgtiger

Legend [6890]

TigerPulse: 96%

Posts: 8296

Joined: 2000

in total agreement, Ive often told people the OB loss was

Jan 15, 2018, 9:10 AM

probably the best thing to ever happen to us, in a way.

My wife's family is from West Virginia, so when we go up to visit I am often poked at about the game from family and family friends. Of course with the success weve had along with winning the Natty coupled with the lack of success for WVU that is all but gone. All though every once in a while Ill still get someone mentioning that game. Recently, we were out with some of my sister inlaws friends and one of them asked if after that OB game I thought we would be where we were today, and he said this in kind of a snide/jealous sort of way. I said at the time, maybe I didnt expect this, but I knew we were on the right course, that things were changing in the right direction. As Todd Ellis would say, we were cycling in. We were a very very young team that year, and had just won the conference and had a 10 win season, neither had been done in quite some time at Clemson. I felt that with Morris and then with the hiring of Venables we were just going to get better and we were on solid footing for sustained success. He kinda snuffed at this and then I said, but if you want to know the bad part, atleast for you WVU guys, is that we would not be where we are today without that loss and that loss was the best thing that could have ever happened to those young players and our still young head coach who were the foundation blocks for our current success.

I said, that game taught us humility and take nothing for granted. You had a bunch of young bucks who had did all these things that had not been done for a long while at Clemson and they come into the OB and they are being told how good they are and how its only WVU and they cant lose and that they can do no wrong. The red carpet is being rolled out and they are being treated like kings. These kids are basking in it and thought they could just waltz in there and something was going to be given to them, and they got a very very very rude awakening and lesson in life. They did not know how to handle success, and that game gave them a crash course which they failed.

I then said, there was a silver lining to that game. This team was indeed young and a lot of these same players would return the next season and would have this memory to build on if they so chose. As we know now, they chose to not let that loss define them, and used it as fuel and motivation to give them the drive and work ethic to continue the success and persevere. They didnt win the conference but had back to back 11 win seasons and won 2 huge bowl games against LSU and the next OB appearance against OSU. They took notes and learned that things were not given and they learned the hard work and commitment necessary to sustain success. More importantly, they learned to handle that success.

So they took all these lessons, continued to recruit and plug away, and that is how we got to where we are today. The foundation was there that first year, but it was really set and solidified with that loss in the OB because it provided us with some of the most valuable lessons both a player and individual can learn in life. We learned from our failure, and learned to pick ourselves back up and persevere and overcome our short comings the next time around.

He didnt like this answer, as he wanted to believe what WVU accomplished was the worst thing ever to happen to us. He certainly didn't expect me to say that instead it may have been one of the best things to happen to our young (at the time) program.

Now reading this interview/article, it kinda backs up everything I said in the way Dabo coaches and his believe in how he runs his day to day life.

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New Story: Dabo Swinney: "If we are going to dream, let’s be extravagant about it"

Would not trade our guy for anyone. Thank you Dabo for

Re: Would not trade our guy for anyone. Thank you Dabo for

Rocky you're my new best friend! Even I couldn't have written this better!

I'm IN ! ! ! ! Does the swingset have a SLIDE, too ? ! ? !

Re: Would not trade our guy for anyone. Thank you Dabo for

Re: Would not trade our guy for anyone. Thank you Dabo for

Re: Would not trade our guy for anyone. Thank you Dabo for

Re: Would not trade our guy for anyone. Thank you Dabo for

Re: New Story: Dabo Swinney: "If we are going to dream, let’s be extravagant about it"

AMEN. If you can't take stuff from all this and apply it to

Re: AMEN. If you can't take stuff from all this and apply it to

Re: AMEN. If you can't take stuff from all this and apply it to

Re: New Story: Dabo Swinney: "If we are going to dream, let’s be extravagant about it"

Dabo if you ever leave I'm going to track you down like Tommy Bowden chased Davis down 85!!

Re: New Story: Dabo Swinney: "If we are going to dream, let’s be extravagant about it"

Re: New Story: Dabo Swinney: "If we are going to dream, let’s be extravagant about it"

Been part of many discussions and studies that speak this same attitude!

Goosebumps! Go Tigers!!***

Goosebumps! Go Tigers!!***

Re: New Story: Dabo Swinney: "If we are going to dream, let’s be extravagant about it"

And that was mainly because we had an injured punter!***

in total agreement, Ive often told people the OB loss was

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