Tajh's time?

Tajh Boyd was a happy and excited camper on Nov. 1, two days after a loss at Boston College.

Kyle Parker had played poorly in the 16-10 defeat, and Boyd was informed by Dabo Swinney and Billy Napier that his role was going to be elevated.

The next day, the two coaches made it clear that Parker was still the guy at quarterback, still the offense's best option, but that Boyd would get playing time.

This is what Boyd said at the time about his enhanced role:

“It could be every other series. It could be a quarter. Whenever my opportunity does come, I have to be ready for it.”

Five days later, Boyd played five snaps in the Tigers' 14-13 win over N.C. State. Last week, he didn't play at all in a 16-13 defeat at Florida State.

This is not an attempt to stir up strife where there is none, but I'm guessing Boyd expected more over the past two games -- and perhaps a lot more.

I do not doubt that Parker is the better quarterback and gives Clemson its best chance to win. He made some mistakes at Florida State, but he made a lot of good throws and managed the game well.

But put yourself in Boyd's shoes for a moment. The starting quarterback has thrown five interceptions in the past three games. Four of those interceptions have been inside the red zone or close to it. And you have been given a total of five snaps in two games to show what you can do.

With the Atlantic Division title off the table and a .500 overall record, it's going to be immensely difficult and maybe impossible for the Tigers to make this season anything more than a profound disappointment.

The case could be made that, with two games remaining, this is the perfect opportunity to get a jump start on the Boyd era. Start him in both games and play him as much as possible, goes the argument, because he desperately needs game experience.

That's too strong a stance for my tastes, though I won't argue with anyone for maintaining it.

Getting to a bowl is still important. And you'd better believe it's vital for Swinney to do everything he can to prevent the first back-to-back losses to South Carolina since Richard Milhous Nixon was in office.

But this is the time to play Boyd more. Ideally, you'd like to get up 21-3 at the half at Wake Forest and play him the entire third and fourth quarters, then maybe sneak him in for a series or two against South Carolina, then get him a ton of work in bowl practice and work him into the bowl game.

But this year has been far from the ideal Swinney and his staff envisioned heading into the season. The Tigers might be able to go up big early Saturday, but they might not. At this point, you grit your teeth and play Boyd for two or three series at minimum.

I asked Parker about this two days ago.

ME: You probably have a pretty good read on where Tajh is from a developmental standpoint. Given that the division title is off the table, with two games left could you see the merit in just getting him in more with next year in mind and with his development in mind?
KP: "Yeah, I could see that. I don't think there's a total plan to jump boat on this season and say, 'All right, we're playing for next year.' I don't think that's anyone's mindset on the team. But with that being said, me especially, I've done a lot to try to help Tajh along because that's what you do when you're on a team. To be quite honest with you, I think he's come a long way from where he was when he got here in understanding schemes and just understanding how to play the position of quarterback. I think we're going to continue to try to pass some knowledge down to him, and Coach Napier will try to explain things to him and let him learn from a lot of situations. Because once you're in there, a lot of things can happen to you at quarterback -- be it negative or positive. And I think as long as he matures and understands that, he can learn how to deal with different things."

There's little doubt in my mind that Boyd still has a ways to go. And given how bad the Tigers have been in the red zone lately, every possession is valuable.

But it's time to make an investment for the future. Time to play Boyd more.

On to some Thursday linkage...

North Carolina plans to hear of its sanctions soon, but Butch Davis is clean as a whistle because he didn't know of all the shadiness that was occurring under his own roofs at home and in his football office.

The latest development on the Six-Fig Newton scandal.

At this point, it has to be considered all but inevitable that Newton will be deemed ineligible sooner or later.

Lot of people -- mainly Auburn people -- keep demanding black-and-white proof, but this isn't a court of law. The NCAA has dropped the hammer in other cases with less hard evidence than this.

Paul Finebaum wonders if this is the biggest story in college football history.

Sounds kinda crazy, but let him explain.

Whoa, you say. Have you forgotten Reggie Bush a few months ago being stripped of a Heisman? Or Bear Bryant accused of fixing a game and later breaking Amos Alonzo Stagg's record? Surely, this doesn't compare to SMU getting the death penalty?

However, most of these -- sans Bush -- didn't play out in the 24/7 media world of today. See Tiger Woods if you need a point of reference, or Brett Favre.

On Saturday, as the moment neared at Jordan-Hare Stadium and the world would finally learn whether Newton would play, the national media in attendance wasn't in their usual position of emptying out trash cans looking for dirt. Instead, almost to a person, all eyes were glued to Blackberrys and iPhones, hitting refresh on Twitter, searching desperately for the latest report or tweet on the Newton saga.

Barry Jacobs of The ACC Sports Journal weighs in on this year's ACC coach of the year sweepstakes.

Georgia Tech fans are ticked off after watching their basketball team lose to Kennesaw State.

And Lenox Rawlings of the Winston-Salem Journal ponders the tedium and irrelevance of early-season college basketball.

College basketball no longer begins with a Thanksgiving bang, releasing all that pent-up demand for the winter game. College basketball begins with a premature drip, followed by a flood of random driftwood that will wash out to sea after Christmas.

March Madness starts way too early and lasts so long that it ends in April. Talk about burning some clock. The only slower seasons are hockey and pregnancy.

Players might prefer planes and fancy restaurants to practice and cafeteria cuisine. Some coaches might prefer an early read on their strengths and weaknesses, but this six-month schedule doesn’t make basketball better. This six-month schedule makes early basketball maddeningly pointless.



LW