closetojumping

This is where I am as well.

The next cycle is 2024-2025, this one was 2023-2024. Semantics, pedantics, I shouldn’t expect anything less.

Well, from the good news side of things, this is just a thread dying in its own timely way. We’re headed to the 2025 portal thread soon enough.

You could have probably chosen better phrases.

So the Texas-SCar matchup is viewed as a bigger ratings driver than LSU-SCar? I can't see any other reason for doubling Texas with SCar than that. Doesn't SCar also bring back damned near everybody? That's some bullshit.

This is the kind of "folksy" Mack Brown idiot speak that irritates me. No, dipshit, they are not "transferring" from high school. What's even the point of attempting that equivocation? Suddenly folks are going to stop lampooning your ignoring of the portal because, "gee golly, they really did get a whole bunch of transfers from high school when you think about it! " Right.

If it helps, I don’t like the take. Flood summoned the spirit of Herb Hand with this offer. Jagson Christian will likely be my least favorite take in this class.

The portal reopens for those players with the coaching change though, right?

Much like Jonah Williams, I am rooting for another school to take DJ Sanders. Yikes.

No need to do something like that when you're already pulling the bookshelf on top of yourself without any help.

You picture two innocent people doing a harmless podcast getting their heads chopped off by an ISIS psychopath? Huh.

Seems like a low probability of success take, but probably a low amount risked to it. Catalon Part Deux. If the guy is somehow back to early career stages in terms of health, awesome. If not, well, he's a body for some snaps, I guess.

Right. It insults us both when you rebut with a rhetorical tactic like this and expect to be taken seriously, so I'm fine moving on.

Are you one of the last few holdouts who actually believes the shit you're shoveled from the state-run media regarding "life and news"? I don't venture into the political discussions very often, which you've pushed into the discussion here because you guys cannot help yourselves, but I've not seen a "trust the media" honk in the wild in what feels like forever.

No shit? That isn’t a groundbreaking take. There’s also quite a gap between competence and the Wrecking Crew, which was a dominating defense at times during that period. Elko is a solid defensive coach. ATM has okay starting talent and no depth on defense. They’ll do fine until guys get hurt against mediocre competition.

What mystifies me about these kinds of takes is that Elko isn't some new addition at ATM. The guy was there for four years, hammering the buffet lines and happy hours. He made a dent in the College Station GDP with his presence alone. He had a chance to "resurrect the WC" the first time around. Why did he not do it then but he's going to do it now? Was Jimbo Fisher also quietly holding back the defense's true potential? That guy really is the Alpha and Omega for aggie failure of late, I guess.

1) Scourton 2) Bob Johnson 3) Jag Jaggerty 4) Oliver Closeoff 5) Merry Christmas 6) Kiss My Ass 7) Kiss His Ass 8 ) Kiss Your Ass 9) Happy Hannukah 10) Tits McGee

You're a good and rational poster, but I do think you're being a little kennel blind regarding what you bring back. I think you're right regarding QB and I plan on enjoying another summer of seeing media folks talk themselves into believing that Klubnik is still some sort of burgeoning 5 star phenom. My criticisms of him haven't changed since he was a HS recruit at Westlake. He's a long stepper with a big windup, he hears footsteps, he was a system QB, and he takes too long in his reads. You must have a lot of faith in Matt Luke as the OL coach. Clemson has never had an elite OL and losing the 6th year C isn't probably going to help anything. Right side of the OL should be good. TE is a strength. TB should be above league average. WRs still scare no one. Maybe Moore comes in and changes that. Bringing back a bunch of production isn't always a good thing, and Clemson's offense may well illustrate that this season. Offense considered, the Clemson defense has carried the team for awhile. 2024 is that going to be the case? I don't see it. They lost a ton of production, including their best players. Wiggins, Trotter Jr, Orhorhororororo, Davis, Thomas - that's a lot. They also basically lost 4 out of 5 in the secondary and a key back-up. That's a problem. I know Woods, Mickens and Carter are good, but how good are the other 8? How good is Goodwin, also? Not sure I'm a believer. Also, has Clemson solved its PK issues? Schedule-wise, it seems tougher than usual if the preseason thoughts about the ACC being on the upswing have any validity. UGA is a tough opener. App State will play you tough. NC State should be good. They should crush Stanford, Virginia, WF, and The Citadel. I like Norvell, but FSU lost a ton. Virginia Tech will be a trendy top 25 pick and Drones is good. Are Pitt, SCar and Louisville decent? I'm skeptical but just one of them being good adds a challenge. Missing UNC, Miami and Notre Dame doesn't hurt. I'll be surprised by anything better than 9-4 given the QB, defensive losses and schedule.

I heard or read somewhere not long ago that various folks supporting the Clemson program have come to the conclusion that Swinney's camp had that caller planted on his show last fall. It was something like "Tyler/Chas/Todd in Spartanburg" or some shit. He was allowed to whine about all of the negative talking points within the program that had/have become issues online and in social media. Then, Swinney cut him off and went down the line knocking each of those issues down succinctly. Almost immediately, the guerrilla PR went into warp speed getting the sound byte out to the media realm. If you go and listen to that clip in this context, it makes a ton of sense. Now, who does that remind you of? Swinney has always had some serious parallels with Mack Brown in his program approach and that will only get worse with age and struggle. It's fun to watch. I do seriously believe that Swinney still really wants to win. The reality is, he's just not that intelligent and he's too narcissistic to be introspective enough to consider material change. He had enormous success doing things a certain way. Why change, right? Successful people run into this trap quite often. The problem here is that the space in which Swinney has been successful has now fundamentally changed. It's systemic. There is no going back. Paying players openly and with massive war chests, that's not just a Swinney problem, that's a Clemson problem, same as for Bama, LSU, and various other former bag game winners with poorer fanbases. I have seen the numbers. They're stunning. You need numerous big backers plus the many mid-level supporters plus the crowdfunding and then a bunch of corporate. That isn't the base for many places and these guys hate it. They don't see what they did as being wrong and they now think what's going on is absolutely wrong. It's hypocrisy at its finest, and it is glorious. Beyond that, the portal is simply another issue of player empowerment and guys who don't just preach "family", but believe that that's what is working for them, are going to always fucking hate the portal. They're hypocrites on that issue too. Swinney is now the gold standard for the wrong way to approach the new world of CFB. We are going to continue to see their slide back into a rightful background in this landscape and it's going to be a tough fucking climb out of that spot due to the nature of the new world.

I plan on being in Vegas a couple of times before the season starts. If the ATM win total is at 8.5, I am putting $1k down on the under. This shit is greatness. The complete lack of anyone looking at that roster critically is fascinating. Vegas has had the following for win totals with ATM since 2021 - 9.5 (2021), 8.5 (2022), and 8.5 (2023). The actual totals were 8, 5, and 7. They've been overly bullish on them for awhile, I'm sure because aggies and the public (driven by the constant offseason media hype) forces them to post the higher numbers because that's where the market requires it. A schedule is only "easy" if a team has the talent to make it such.

God. I can’t be the only one who finds it incredibly gratifying when the dirtiest shitheel institutions during the bag game era try to posture with piety when it comes to paying players. Saban and Bama, Clemson and Swinney, now LSU. Fuck those hobos.

I used to like Pate before really paying attention to his schtick. He is 100% full of shit. He pumps ATM for clicks more than anyone else that isn't affiliated to the university. His stuff before each of the last two seasons was slobbering the knob of Jimbo and the sleeping giant bullshit. He does shit like that all of the time. Zero analysis, just spewing nonsense. Go back to March of this year and listen to his takes on the spring portal. In retrospect, they are fucking hilariously wrong. "Several unsuspecting rosters are going to get absolutely gutted by the portal in a few days/weeks, my friends." He reminds me now of this huckster who used to run infomercials and write books about things "they don't want you to know about" and idiots would eat it up. I think that clown ultimately went to prison for fraud. Pate's a CFB version of that dude. He's got multiple insiders in every program and he always knows more than "they" want him to know about each program.

Brooks wanted more than he was viewed as being worth. He wasn't pushed to leave. He was merely not asked to stay. I wouldn't be surprised by some portal takes (1-2 of the remaining 3 slots) with 2-4 years of eligibility left. I don't really get it, but whatever. There's not a lot of meat left on the bone this cycle. Maybe the scouts find something somewhere on tape that excites them.

I've followed this thread for the bizarre train wreck quality it brings. Until this post, it never really hit me that there could be personal finance issues at stake here. What part of the debts that you guys are calculating would pierce the corporate veil?

This is another of your bizarre positions that make the rest of us scratch our heads. There’s not a fucking thing wrong with the guy deciding to stay home. IMG approaches hundreds of players each cycle. Many say they’re in and then no-show.