Ten thoughts from the weekend

1. The locker rooms of Clemson and Virginia Tech were pretty close together at Bank of America Stadium, and that produced some stark contrasts late Saturday night as the winners and losers milled about.

Perhaps the most priceless moment, as referenced in my column from the game, featured Frank Beamer crossing paths with Chick-fil-A rep Gary Stokan.

Stokan shook hands with Beamer and told him the bowl was taking the Hokies. Beamer said thanks, began walking to his press conference, then stopped and turned.

"Hey Gary," he said. "We'll play better for you."

How many times in his career has Beamer been reduced to assuring bowl reps his team

2. Speaking of Virginia Tech and their abruptly changed bowl destination:

You could make a legitimate argument that a Sugar Bowl matchup against Michigan is more compelling and sexier than an Orange Bowl matchup against West Virginia.

The Hokies get their brains beat in by Clemson for the second time in a season, and yet the Hokies end up going to a BCS bowl that might be more attractive than Clemson's.

Not that it's something Clemson fans should get all worked up over. The clash with the Mountaineers should be quite an entertaining offensive showcase, and you never complain about South Beach in January.

But imagine if Louisville or Cincinnati were Clemson's foe in the Orange.

What a great system we have, huh?

The anti-playoff folks love to talk about the "sanctity of the regular season," but what about the sanctity of merit in the bowl-selection process?

There's no such thing, really. It's all about how many fans you can bring.

3. Caught a glimpse of Mike O'Cain after the game as he left his locker room, and he looked like he'd been through the worst three hours of his professional life.

The two dates with his alma mater were not O'Cain's finest moments. Three the first time, and 10 the second time -- against a defense that gave up 45 to Maryland, 37 to N.C. State, 34 to South Carolina and 31 to Georgia Tech.

O'Cain just seems so slow to adjust, and maybe that's a reflection of Beamer's run-first doctrine. But from the start, it was abundantly clear that Kevin Steele was devoting his numbers to stopping David Wilson.

So much of the Hokies' runs seemed like slow-developing plays to the outside, and those don't stand much of a chance against the Tigers' speed. Steele played a good bit of press-man, putting trust in his defensive backs to cover.

Logan Thomas is a mobile quarterback, but it seems it's the jitterbug types who have burned Clemson. Thomas is a tremendous running threat when he gets up some steam, but Clemson hardly ever allowed him to get any steam because he was running for his life under frequent pressure.

4. Numerous times this season, I have pointed out when Rashard Hall has taken a bad angle or missed a tackle or whatever. It has not been a good season for Hall, in part because of the knee injury he suffered early in the year.

But from my vantage point, Hall was sensational Saturday night. He often slid down into the box just before the snap to help against the run, and he was a heat-seeking missile on some of those runs to the outside.

Another guy who had a really good game: Jonathan Meeks.

5. The fact that Hall, Meeks and others were able to pursue with such decisiveness and confidence suggests Steele was dialing up a lot of the right calls.

It was a fun night for Steele, who endured two miserable nights the previous two Saturdays at South Carolina and N.C. State. After dealing with Dana Bible and Steve Spurrier, it just seemed like Steele was much more dialed in going up against O'Cain.

6. Here's something that occurred to me Saturday night in the first half, when it became obvious that Clemson was going to have a good shot at winning:

Virginia Tech is a good matchup for the Tigers.

I wondered coming in whether Bud Foster would continue to play aggressively, devoting his focus to stopping the run and giving Clemson man-to-man opportunities in the downfield passing game.

Through Clemson's previous four games, it was quite clear that the blueprint to stopping the Tigers' offense was letting the front four do the work and dropping a bunch of guys into coverage to make life difficult for Tajh Boyd.

Didn't seem Foster was too interested in going that route. His defensive front more than held its own in the first half, making one think he'd be more inclined to sit back in pass coverage.

Foster stuck to his guns, and those guns backfired on him. He was really hurt after the injury to Jayron Hosley put freshman Detrick Bonner on the field as a corner.

Clemson quickly and easily exploited the matchups with Bonner, going after him over and over with great success.

After the game, I asked Chad Morris what he was thinking when he saw Bonner on the field.

He smiled, as if to say he was licking his chops.

7. Another huge factor: Kyle Fuller playing linebacker.

Fuller is an excellent player, but he's quite undersized for a linebacker at 187 pounds. Clemson ran some power stuff to the outside and overpowered the Hokies defense to get their running game going again.

After rushing for less than 100 yards in four of their previous five games, including just 34 against N.C. State, Clemson had 217 on the ground in Charlotte.

8. Dabo Swinney seems really stung by fans who haven't remained firmly on the bandwagon during the Tigers' struggles.

He repeatedly referred to that faction in the aftermath of the huge triumph, saying that the "people that quit on us" don't deserve the ACC title. He later referred to the "unbelief" present at Clemson and said people try to build a new wall every time the Tigers tear one down.

You can understand why Swinney has this sort of chip on his shoulder. He's been told all his life he can't do stuff, and he's proved people wrong at every turn. So it's probably nauseating to him to hear that some fans aren't "all-in, all the time," as he says.

The reality of big-time sports fandom is that fans are going to be really happy when you win, and really unhappy when you lose.

Clemson fans have been unhappy a lot for 20 years, and justifiably so. There's no reason this program should've gone that long without an ACC crown in its trophy case.

Fan overreaction, whether positive or negative, is just the nature of the beast.

And the truth is, there weren't many people outside the football offices who were all-in after the debacles in Raleigh and Columbia.

How many people showed up to greet the team at the stadium after they returned from those games?

9. Kudos to the ACC for putting on an entertaining event outside the stadium Saturday night. Festive atmosphere with a lot of different things to do.



10. Listening to some of the media folks in the press box Saturday night, Swinney's tirade against Spurrier was a hot topic.

The common take: "Will Swinney's rant fire up his team, or will it backfire?"

With all due respect to my media brethren, I'm not sure it mattered one way or another in the context of what happened for three hours between the Tigers and Hokies.

Had Clemson lost, people would have read way too much into his rant.

Clemson won, and the tendency is to look back and read too much into the rant.

This game was about matchups, and it was about a team whose hunger returned when it absolutely had to. Maybe what happened Thursday night fed into that hunger, but everyone we talked to Saturday night credited Swinney's Monday "reality meeting" for turning this thing around.