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When Dabo Swinney was named Clemson's full time head coach in December of 2008, he did the most Mack Brown thing possible that a Mack Brown Jr. type could do. He started calling around the HC coaching fraternity, asking to come visit and sit down with various HCs across the land. Many turned sweet, young Dabo down outright, as they were too busy with their own offseasons or bowl prep to care enough to help the hillbilly upstart and his staff. Still, one man did answer the call, and invited Dabo and his staff down to visit, right smack dab in the middle of Fiesta Bowl game prep - Mack Brown. They all spent 3 days in Austin, gladhanding and chumming it up. Swinney's spent some time this week with the local Clemson press talking about that event and how happy he is to be heading back to Austin. After all, he spoke before the SMU game of preparing to make a run to be the first 3-loss national title winning coach. He thinks he has Clemson peaking at the right time (nevermind South Carolina whipping them in the trenches less than a month ago) and they're ready. Running into Swinney's open armed optimism is a thin-skinned and panicked Longhorn netdom, who have spent the last week+ manufacturing ways in which they need to be worried about this upcoming, first-of-its-kind home playoff game against the underdog Tigers. Having watched a small and slow Clemson team play backyard bully in a truly abysmal ACC all year, I can do nothing but smirk and mock each of these plaintive whines on the boards, as I know Texas is about to stomp a mudhole in Clemson's ass. "But closetojumping, Dabo's a wizard and he's won the playoffs twice before! Sarkisian just eats his own boogers on the sidelines in postseason games!" While it's true that Swinney has won two national titles, those days are long in the rearview mirror. Clemson only made its way to these playoffs through the backdoor, by beating an AAC team with too much hype. This Clemson team has some future NFL players within its ranks. Mafah, if he hasn't taken too many bullets, seems like he'll be drafted. It's early, but TJ Moore and Bryant Wesco look like future stars. Antonio Williams, an older Clemson WR, is the current star and will get next level looks. Briningstool at TE is good but not great, yet he's going to the Senior Bowl and will be drafted. Defensively, Barrett Carter, Sammy Moore, TJ Carter, and Peter Woods will all likely play on Sundays. Peter Woods gets a lot of hype for a dude with like 21 tackles and 3 sacks in 7 or 8 games this year. Oh well. From there? Slim pickings. That's the difference between now and years past. Some of the players I named are true freshmen. One is a true sophomore. They're not loaded with upperclassmen ready to go high in the draft. They have upperclassmen good enough to go somewhere in the draft, and that's it. They have an average OL as usual, with a couple of OTs who could go in the mid-late rounds, but they're never been a power in that key personnel area and this year is no different. Meanwhile, Texas is loaded with draftable players and future NFL high round picks who cannot be drafted yet. While Sarkisian's bowl and playoff record, thus far, do not inspire confidence, this roster talent should. If anyone honestly believes that the slack-jawed yokel roaming Clemson's sidelines with his 1000 yard stare and openly breathing through his mouth is some sort of X's and O's threat, they've not watched much Clemson. "Now come on, CTJ, have you seen Texas' redzone offense and special teams play?" Setting aside the futility of the raging Arch vs Ewers debate, featuring masturbatory fantasies about Sarkisian casually dropping in a complete red zone playset for Manning in the postseason, I think there are reasons for promise and optimism for Texas in the RZ this game. While Texas has been mediocre scoring in the RZ due to, mostly, Bert Auburn gargling more balls than Mia Khalifa, Clemson's RZ defense has also mostly been dogshit this season, allowing points on more than 83% of their drives. This isn't Clemson from 2018 - their front seven is good but not great. They can be run on and they're not elite on pass defense either. Texas needs the offensive line to show up wearing men's jock straps underneath their uniforms and not in the pink panties they wore against the UGA front. Do that, have even Decent Quinn Ewers show up with them, and Texas gets to 20+ on the offensive side. What about the rest of it, STs included? Clemson actually has substantially worse STs than Texas in most facets. They've had a bunch of FGs missed and blocked. They do basically nothing in the return game and just lost their main return guy for the season against SMU. Their coverage teams are average to boot. All we need here on special teams is for Silas Bolden to not be a complete fucking lunatic and for someone to bring some positive karma in Auburn's direction by shaving his head and keeping him away from Scott Norwood and Ray Finkel. "I don't know, closetojumping. I don't like their running game or turnover margin advantage." The Clemson running game has been mentioned on this board and OTF as a source of concern. There's always going to be an affinity for Klubnik on the boards because of the Westlake alumni honk network. "Cade's over there being whiteboy awesome again! He's a dual threat, by gawd!" Right. Look, the Clemson running game is in trouble. It's not just that Texas is a truly elite defense, but their personnel is also a problem. Klubnik's nothing special and easily spied. Mafah is seriously banged up and can't handle 20+ carries without serious wear and tear - their own writers are talking about this. The back-up just tore his ACL. The only defense within range of what they're about to face was Georgia's or SCar's and both shut them down on the ground. As to TO concerns, part of why Clemson doesn't turn the ball over is due to the laughable schedule and competition they've played. In Clemson's 3 losses, Klubnik threw 1 TD and 2 picks. The turnover margin in those 3 games? 0. Clemson's feasting on TOs in their 9 wins against mostly overmatched competition. The Clemson offensive game plan is usually to protect Klubnik from himself and work the short passing game while attempting to pound both he and Mafah until the weaker opponent breaks down. Against better teams, the Clemson running game has been held in check and they've been forced to try to let Klubnik and the young WR corps, along with Briningstool, win the game. They're 2-3 in those contests, with wins against an overmatched SMU on the last play of the game and Pitt in the final minute of the game when Pitt failed to spy Klubnik adequately and let him go streaking. "Sure, CTJ, but we've never played these guys and their brand terrifies me in my feelings." Clemson has beaten 10 teams this season with a combined record of 54-66. That includes an 11-2 SMU team that played virtually no one and shit itself twice against decent competition. I already discussed the two teams they beat with a winning record - a wildly overrated 11-2 SMU and a team in a disastrous state of collapse at the time of play (and continuing now) in 7-5 Pitt. The rest of their competition has either been dogshit that they obliterated, like a 5-7 FCS Citadel, or teams that paired up with them well and kicked their ass, like Georgia and Louisville. If you watched Clemson at all this year, you know that they looked slow and small against SCar and Georgia. They looked great against Wake Forest and North Carolina State. How do you expect them to match up against Texas, on the road? I'm thinking mudhole, to the tune of Texas 27 - Clemson 10. I'm not real sure how Clemson climbs above 13, even if Bad Quinn Ewers and Evil Bert Auburn show up and try to give the damned thing away. Thoughts? Hook'em

Grain of salt and all that, but this is making the rounds on the Tech boards about Micah Hudson's demands. I'd be interested to hear if he got even close to this from the Aggies.

No need to talk shit about him.

About your not getting the sarcasm?😁

Many have written that he has been passed up. Others mentioned that he provided a solid floor when he signed. Still other comments included that he was physically maxed out by the time he showed up on campus. Lastly, everyone loves his mom and believes that there has been nothing but love since the announcement to enter the portal. - Summary Complete Surly AI -

Again?

Hey there Surly brethren. It’s a sad day at the JW house today. It’s Mango’s last day. He’s been declining for a few weeks and now it’s time. Our appointment is this afternoon. He’s such a good little man-dog. He will be sorely missed.

His vestigial left arm is unsettling, but a one-armed quarterback is also inspiring.

"They said I'd never see the field. Well, I showed them by going to a worse program."

St. Cletus, the patron saint of the hullabalooed, is the pisshead who was promised. Rejoice!

I am starting to actually look forward to the disaster just for the LOL's.

My man, you should really take a break. Sark is a moron if he doesn’t recruit a particular player that you covet?

A new member of the family. My brother just brought home Tucker tonight. His former beautiful golden Sam was a good boy for 9 years, but he died this summer. Welcome Tucker!

I actually had to look him up as I had no recollection of him. Turns out he was a communications major, so it's not like he's gonna make money after football, anyway...

Nothing looks good in crimson

Bear Alexander's UGA tattoo only becomes a better decision with time

It was fascinating, was listening to NPR this morning. They had a dude on who was the leader of the big Hispanic evangelical group. When the interviewer pressed him on Trump's positions, his take was essentially "We believe that Trump will do the things he said he would do that we support....but we don't think he'll do the things he said he would do that we don't support." It is still amazing, it still blows my mind. Trump says he will do 10 things. They vote for him because they totally support him doing the first 5 things, and believe he'll do them because "Trump keeps his promises." Then on the next 5 things, they think they are terrible ideas, and even though he said he will do them, he won't really, because "Trump just says things." These thoughts come out of the same supporter's brain in the same minute. It's fucking incredible.

Alright I’m not even going to pretend I wanted Mitchell back this time

Maybe they should try occupying all of Kursk first.

Internet getting spotty up here…can’t make out your post…I’m sure it’s great…. Wi

I used to be a bit of a movie fanatic and looked forward to seeing new releases. I used to rent videos on the reg in the past. I haven't been to a movie theater in years. I find myself giving about zero fucks about any movie at all anymore. I'll get vaguely interested in something and watch it when it comes to streaming, then forget about it, finally watch it, and am usually disappointed. And, although they tend to be half-decent entertainment, fuck comic book movies and the endless reboots and remakes all to hell. Sometime when The Walking Dead was on the air, I'd miss an episode, think I'd catch it on on demand, and then just lose the thread altogether. Of course, TWD turned to shit as have most of the other series I have devoted time to (I'm looking at you GOT). I didn't really get into Master of the Air at all. I haven't watched a "network" show in a decade or more. I tend to like limited series as a general rule, but haven't gotten into one in a while. I watched Disclaimer most recently and mostly ended up disappointed, despite the great cast. And, of course, there's the overwhelming choice presented by streaming services. And the fact that you can, in most cases, start, stop, rewind. I don't focus on things very well, especially if they're less than captivating. At least a cable tv schedule would force me to find a time and sit down for it. The only show that's broken through my malaise recently is Slow Horses and it has yet to disappoint. I peruse these forums with some frequency trying to rekindle the excitement and get some good recos, but, ultimately, I don't think I give a shit anymore. Anyone else like this? An age thing? The deteriorating quality of tv and movies due to fragmentation of the broadcast/cable/streaming entities? Some combination of all three? I'd rather read a book or go down some subject-matter rabbit hole on the internet.

At least she’s still giving up dat ass

The United States government?

Wisner is better as a complimentary back. Sark has mainly ran inside zone to pair with the deep passing game. We struggled to run inside zone this season because neither Wisner or Blue are suited to run it. Blue and Gibson keep fumbling. Baxter and Clark are coming off major injuries.

Only recruiting players with that dog in them.

16 tackles and half a sack this season. Talk your shit man!

Next week will be much better when the board swings wildly to unbridled optimism and cockiness.

Personally, I think the entire site motto should be changed to SurlyHorns: Brought To You By Handjobs from Helobious. Lets get all the mileage we can out of this for the time being.

You seem like a miserable fuck no matter what season it is

And even more impressive when you look back on where this defense was last season. I for one did not expect that level of improvement.

Scrawny left arm. Would not sign.

New Surly motto?