Passion statement

I'm often amused and confused when I hear people say the expectations of Clemson fans are out of whack.

Through the message board and other interaction, I communicate with Clemson fans all the time. And I can't remember the last time someone said:

"It's been almost 30 years since we won a national title! What an outrage! This coach needs to get us to the BCS title game, or else!"

The more common refrain I hear is:

"It's been almost 20 years since we last won an ACC title. No excuse for that, and no reason we shouldn't be able to win an ACC title with some regularity."

The first statement would indeed be a bit much ... if fans actually said it.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the second statement.

Everything is in place for the Tigers to start sticking ACC title trophies inside a second-floor display at the WestZone facility.

One thing that cannot be overlooked here is fan support. Even though the Tigers repeatedly came up agonizingly short of getting to the ACC title game from 2005 to 2008, the faithful still flocked to Death Valley in droves.

That phenomenon was in danger of changing dramatically after back-to-back losses to Maryland and Wake Forest in 2008, but Tommy Bowden ... how to say this ... departed, and the fans kept coming to watch Dabo Swinney try to take the Tigers to a place Bowden could not.

The turnout was excellent for this year's opener against North Texas. And I was stunned at how many showed up for the scrimmage against Presbyterian a week later.

Even though Saturday's showdown with Miami is a noon game, the joint is going to be close to capacity and rocking. A lot of folks aren't happy about the noon start, but they'll be in their seats and lathered up by kickoff.

It's a big deal when you're filling up your stadium with regularity -- particularly during this pronounced economic slump. Clemson fans should be recognized and commended for their willingness to keep coming in such large numbers, even though the rewards have not always been maximized.

Because, well, it could be worse. Much worse.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Year 1 of the Jimbo Fisher era has been fans' reluctance to witness it in person.

Here is a photo that was snapped by The Orlando Sentinel's Andrew Carter just before kickoff last week, when the Seminoles were playing host to Wake Forest:


Talk about embarrassing.

Over the last couple of years, all that aluminum at Doak Campbell Stadium often was cited to prove that fans were tired of Bobby Bowden's act. Now, clearly there's something deeper at work here.

Sure, the spanking at Oklahoma had to have been disheartening for Florida State fans. But you can't tell me the joint would've been full Saturday had the Seminoles gone to Norman and won, or even put forth a more respectable showing.

I'd bet the rising costs of going to games, coupled with the weak economy, plays a big role in it. Fans have to shell out more to park, to sleep, to even have the right to pay for overpriced tickets. And a lot of these fans have less money thanks to tanked 401Ks, furloughs, layoffs or other unfortunate byproducts of the sputtering economy. Administrators at other schools should be paying close attention to what's going on in Tallahassee.

Let's look at the situation for Miami's home games. Even when the Hurricanes were great and playing at the Orange Bowl, the turnouts had rapid swings. They'd pack the place one week with Notre Dame or Florida State in town, then fill half of it the next week with a mediocre opponent visiting.

The problem has been magnified with last year's move to Sun Life Stadium, LandShark Stadium, Smirnoff "You've been Iced!" Stadium, or whatever the heck they're calling it this week. It's a long drive there for a lot of Miami folks, and the atmosphere mostly stinks.

Take last year. Clemson comes to town for a big conference game, and Miami is 5-1 and ranked in the Top 10. The atmosphere pretty much stunk. Clemson won 40-37 in overtime, and maybe the Tigers don't get out of there with a victory if the place is filled and loud.

Fan support matters, and right now Clemson and Virginia Tech are the only ACC schools with truly passionate fans.

Clemson has a lot going for it right now as it chases the very reasonable goal of bagging more conference titles, and the atmosphere at Death Valley is a big part of that.

Here's more on Florida State's attendance woes.

The attendance for the Wake Forest game on Saturday was 61,647. That was the “announced” crowd, keep in mind, and not the actual attendance, which likely didn’t come all that close to cracking 60,000. Either way, that’s the smallest announced crowd for a Florida State home game since 1992, when 60,127 gathered to see the Seminoles play Tulane in the second-to-last home game of the season. The capacity at Doak Campbell Stadium that season was 70,123. In fact, that was Doak’s first season at that capacity. Florida State added about 10,000 seats between the end of the ’91 season and the start of the ’92 season.

Here's an interview with DeAndre McDaniel in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Looking back at last year's Clemson triumph over the Hurricanes, it's amazing how much McDaniel's vital contributions were overshadowed by what happened at the end (Kyle Parker's rocket to Jacoby Ford for the game-winner).

McDaniel had the pick-6 early in the fourth quarter. And don't forget that his first-quarter interception was deep in Clemson territory.

So not only did McDaniel score points with his second interception, but he probably took points off the board with his first.

Here's what McDaniel has to say this time around:

“We’re going to be confident going out there. We feel like we can pick him off a few times,” McDaniel told me in a phone interview Tuesday. “We see that he’s kind of down right now, throwing interceptions. But we also know he’s a guy that has a lot of composure.

“He’ll sit back there and he’ll throw an interception, but he’ll come back the next drive and throw a touchdown on you. So you can never take that for granted with him.”

In the Miami Herald, this weekend's game is a clash of two elite recruiting classes in 2008.

Good story here on linebacker Sean Spence, who aggravated a knee injury early in last year's game against Clemson. It didn't take long for the Tigers to get C.J. Spiller matched up with the ailing star.

Remember watching Spiller leave a limping Spence in the dust on that wheel route for a TD?

But it is Clemson, Miami's next opponent and first ACC foe at noon Saturday, that Spence has been anxiously awaiting. The Hurricanes will face the Tigers on Frank Howard Field at Memorial Stadium -- better known as Death Valley -- for a game that ignites a little extra fire in an already fiery linebacker.

Spence injured his left knee last Oct. 24 in UM's first defensive series against Clemson, and kept playing. He later gave up a touchdown, and partly blames himself for Clemson's 40-37 overtime win.

He missed most of the rest of the season and got his first action on defense in the regular-season finale at USF.

``I was just trying to do whatever I could to help my team,'' he said of the Clemson game, ``but I ended up in the end hurting them.''

In the ACC Sports Journal, Barry Jacobs has a good interview with John Swofford that focuses primarily on the expansion circus that took place over the summer.

With the things that went on with conference realignments this summer, we were not proactive in that by design. We consciously made the decision we would not be proactive in that.

But under the radar, we had some very thorough discussions about the changing landscape and potentially what that could mean to the ACC. We looked at 14(-school) configurations; we looked at 16(-school) configurations. Ultimately, with a mix of presidents, athletic directors and faculty representatives, where our league came out on that is that we were very comfortable at 12, and with the 12 that we had, and at this point in time we were not interested in growing larger. We were interested in making what we were the best it could possibly be.

Now, I think some of the things that were talked about this summer away from the ACC gives one some pause as to what the term “conference” means as we look down the road over the next 20 years. I for one am glad that the changes that took place didn’t go beyond what happened.

In Atlanta, Paul Johnson discusses his team's disappointing start. And of course, it's all his players' fault.

Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson uttered the “p” word on Tuesday: panic.

But he didn’t use it as a sign of defeat. He quickly clarified what he meant, saying he wants his team to play with some urgency, like “their hair’s on fire” in Saturday’s game at Wake Forest.

Johnson seemed somewhat frustrated with his team at his weekly press conference, saying that he’s never coached a group that has played like this one: a decent win against S.C. State, followed by a surprisingly flat loss at Kansas, followed by an inspired win at North Carolina, followed by another surprisingly flat loss to N.C. State.

“If they haven’t figured out they can lose they aren’t very smart,” Johnson said.

In Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels feel like they're finally starting to fill all the gaping holes.

And we'll close with Dabo Swinney telling his fans to get over the noon start.



LW