This is it.

Oct 17, 2006, 6:00 PM

Folks, make no mistake.

This is the Hump game. This is our football version of Gettysburg, Alamein and Guadalcanal.

This is the proverbial Corner.

This is the fulcrum point for the program I think for the next ten years.

The whole country is watching to see if we are for real. We even want to know if we are for real.

If we win big things are happening. If we lose, people will say… “It’s just another Clemson team.”

This is the combination most hyped/ most national stature at stake game we've played at home since the FSU “rooskie” game. Most of our players weren't out of diapers then. It's been that long.

There will be legions of young men, Friday night football heroes, on the sidelines, in the stands, in their living rooms at home. Watching. Thinking about making a choice. Will they see something special, something they want to be a part of? For years to come? For the rest of their lives?

Will memories be made that inspire kids in high school around the country to want to learn more about just what it is that makes those hills so special? To experience that for themselves?

We know the writers and talking heads around the country will tune in. They can’t miss it – it’s Gameday. Corso will have the head. Herbie will pontificate. Orange painted faces all behind them. Screaming.

The television will show it all for them. The paws on Hwy 93. The Esso. Bowman, Tillman, Fike. The WestZone. The Graveyard.

The Ring of Honor. The Rock. The Hill.

If we win, I have no doubt we will go into Blacksburg and blow them off the map and win the Orange Bowl.

If we lose, we could ride the low into Blacksburg and lose that one and maybe another one.

And be just another Clemson team.

And that, we are not, and will not be.

No, for this is a different Clemson team.

Built not only on talent, but on character.

Players who are just as welcome in your homes on Monday and as comfortable in church on Sunday as they are on the field on Saturday.

Built by coaches, who not only scheme and coach, but who support and who care.

A group of people working together who care about each other, care about Clemson, and not only believe that something special can be done… but will be done.

Saturday, Clemson gets over the Hump. We turn the Corner.

The Blue Ridge yawns it greatness for all to hear, and the Tiger's Roar echoes across the land.

And we honor the ghosts of the past… Howard, Fuller, Davis, Kinard, Perry, Ford… as the heroes of the present stand on their shoulders and chart a new course... for years to come.

New heroes, a new history. Even better, even brighter, even bolder.

Even bigger.

Let’s go.

Fight Tigers, Fight ######, Fight, Fight, Fight!