Shoeless Fearless prediction for VT

So we did it! We did it in convincing fashion! We put a whopping on them boys from Tech and now we are back! Right? To take a line from our new bestest friend Lee Corso… “not so fast my friend”.

As a reward for our hard work and dominating performance on Saturday our beloved Tigers get the pleasure of a short week, little rest and the daunting task of traveling to Blacksburg to face the Hookies of Virginia Tech. Yay! (cough cough)… now most of the Tiger faithful might be riding high and predicting a blowout but I have a few doubts. Not really against our offense or defense but instead our special teams…. Remember those? The thorn in our side that cost us BC and almost cost us WF and FSU? Yeah, that. Well, we’d better shape up or we could be in for a rude awakening when we travel north this Thurs night.

VT and Frank Beamer are known for their special teams dominance. In Beamer's 233 games as head coach, Tech has blocked 112 kicks (57 punts, 34 field goals, 21 extra points). Fifteen of the blocked punts were converted directly into touchdowns.

Tech has blocked three punts and a field goal this year. And we’ve have 3 fg’s blocked and also allowed 1 kickoff for a TD, another for over 90yards and 5 of 40 or longer to teams like FAU and Temple!

Yeah, this won’t be a gimmie by any stretch. We’ll have to play solid on ALL sides of the ball to get this victory in, what’s looking to be, a nasty game played in sub 40 degree temperatures.

The rest of the stats from the Hookies don’t really scare me all that much. Their rush defense is currently 22nd in the country… and their total defense is 6th. However, FSU’s rush defense was in the top 3 BEFORE we faced them, BC in the top 5 BEFORE we played them, WF in the top 15, BEFORE we played them, and GT was 6th… BEFORE we played them… now they are—13th, 17th, 27th and 32nd respectively. If James Davis is 100% this game might be another laugher. I really don’t know if there’s a defense in the country that could stop our ground game when they are on.

However, I’m not at all thinking that this will be a wash. If temperatures are lowered, and the ground is wet that’ll slow down our faster players and turn this into a grudge match that might come down to who wants it more.

On the defensive side of the ball we should be able to contain their offense for the most part. I don’t really see how they could put up more than 10 points on us with their offense which makes special teams that much more important! Any big turnover, or blocked kick or long return might be just what VT will need to stay in the game.

To say the least, I’m a little nervous about this game. Maybe even more so than I was the GT game… but that might also be b/c on Thurs, I’ll be missing my first Clemson game (home or away) since the 2004 Miami game. By the end of this season (in the last 4 years) I’ll have missed only 3 games total and we lost 2 of those 3… (NCSU on the road on a Thurs night and Maryland on the road in ‘03).

So, here’s to another Tiger romping and further proof that I get myself all nervous for nothing and our Tigers really are “back”.

Write it down, take a picture, call your momma, eat at Joe’s… The Shoeless Fearless Prediction for this week is:

Clemson 34 Virginia Tech 28

Now let’s recap last weeks games predictions:

I went 22-5 this past week making my overall record 182-47. Yet again… sometimes I think I get what I want to happen confused with what I think is going to happen lol. I wanted Florida State to beat Boston College (as did every Clemson fan) but yet again… FSU looks terrible and BC does enough to get the win and keeps on making our lives miserable lol. Well, I say forget about them and just win our own damn games from now on. If they lose “woo” if not we need to just worry about us.

Weekly Records:
Week 1: 28-4
Week 2: 24-4
Week 3: 20-8
Week 4: 25-3
Week 5: 23-5
Week 6: 18-9
Week 7: 22-9
Week 8: 22-5

Overall: 182-47 Clemson: 5-2

Let’s take a look at this weekend’s games:

NC State 30 Virginia 14
Michigan 54 Northwestern 13
Illinois 10 Wisconsin 38
Oklahoma 10 Missouri 12
Notre Dame 14 Navy 13
Penn St 10 Purdue 11
Auburn 40 Mississippi 10
Bowling Green 23 Temple 3
Vandy 10 Duke 9
Buffalo 10 Boston College 43
Colorado 10 Kansas 37
Kentucky 10 Miss St. 3
Georgia 10 Flordia 35
Southern Cal 40 Oregon St 17
Wake Forest 50 UNC 10
Miami 14 Georgia Tech 39
Nebraska 46 Oklahoma St 16
Minnesota 20 Ohio St 45
Arkansas St 13 Florida Atlantic 7
Portland St 10 Oregon 36
Florida St 20 Maryland 31
LA Monroe 10 Arkansas 29
Texas 42 Texas Tech 31
Texas A&M 56 Baylor 10
Tennessee 15 South Carolina 14
UConn 10 Rutgers 11

So we are here. We have the National stage set.

So we are here. We have the National Stage set. We have College Gameday in town. We have a top 15 ranking. Our opponent has a top 15 ranking. We will be under the lights in the greatest atmosphere you can imagine. We’ll have 90,000 strong trying to weasel their way into the game. We have arguably the biggest game at Death Valley that we’ve had in 20 years… and to top it all off… its homecoming.

Clemson will be jacked up! Georgia Tech will be jacked up! The fans will be jacked up! If you don’t like football even you will be jacked up on Saturday! There’s not a reason in the world that I would miss this game and not a reason in the world why I don’t think we’ll cherish every minute of it.

Clemson will swagger into Death Valley boasting of the nation’s leading scoring offense, #6 total offense, #4 rushing offense, #6 rushing defense, #6 passing efficiency defense, #4 in total defense, #11 in scoring defense, #7 in kickoff returns, #5 in sacks, #10 in tackles for loss, #2 in sacks allowed and 119 in kickoff return yards… oh wait… that’s terrible… worst in the country.

Well, now that you’ve slightly come back down to earth, let me tell you a couple things you might not have known. In the last 5 years following a bye or long week, GT is 8-8. GT also has only scored over 30 points on the road 2 times in the last 4 years (at Duke and Connecticut) before traveling to VT this season and winning 38-27. This game this weekend will also make only the 2nd road game for GT this season.

GT also boasts some good numbers statistically this season as well. Currently the Jackets are ranked 22nd in rushing offense, 7th in rushing defense, 9th in pass efficiency defense, 10th in net punting, 17th in total defense, 24th in scoring defense, T-24th in sacks allowed, T-18th in turnover margin, and 31st in scoring offense. These numbers (like Clemson’s) might be a little skewed in a positive direction thanks to Samford, Troy and UVA but also might be a good indicator when you look at Maryland, VT, and Notre Dame.

However, in the Notre Dame game, they only held the ball for 24:35 in time of possession, while allowing 138 net yards rushing and 246 passing. Also, vs VT, they gave up 339 yards through the air and also lost the time of possession battle but still won the game.

Stats really don’t mean a whole lot when you look at wins and loses but it seems as though GT hasn’t really seen an offensive juggernaut like they will vs. our Tigers on Saturday. They haven’t seen the likes of 4, 5th year SRs and a 4th year JR on an offensive line that is rushing for a (soon to be) team record in rushing. They haven’t seen a healthy James Davis who is arguably the best back in college football but doesn’t have the padded stats of full games like some of the “Heisman” candidates. They haven’t seen the 2 fastest college football players on the planet in CJ Spiller and Jacoby Ford. They haven’t seen a QB who has stepped up to the plate as a proven leader in his Senior year.

This is a Tiger Team that is hungry! This is a defense that has only played 3 full games and dominated when needed and is ready for a full test! This is an offense that can put up huge numbers on the 26th, 22nd, and 11th ranked rushing defenses in the country and is hungry for another test. All 3 of those previous rush defense were in the top 15 or higher before the Tigers ran through them. Oh and guess what… Reggie Merriweather will be healthy again for this one too…

So what do I think? A sure fire blow-out? Hardly. This is a Georgia Tech team that I personally have not seen a victory in person against since 2002 in a monsoon. I have proudly attended all home games since I was a little Shoeless but I haven’t had all that luck vs. the Bees. My record (in person) vs. GT is… 6-6 lifetime with a 1-4 record in the last 5… If I wasn’t so damned stubborn I might purposely miss this game for luck… but I don’t believe in luck. You make your own damned luck! I’m gonna be there screaming my ass off like I did last week in Charlotte, the week before at Wake and every other game this year!

There’s no reason why we shouldn’t win and even cover the spread this weekend but knowing our past history with the Jackets we’ll be in for another classic. If we get a few breaks and can make the right corrections on special teams we should be ok… but we’ll just have to see.

Get there early folks! It’s gonna be a fun one! Clemson will come out fired up and get an early lead, they’ll slow down in the 2nd and 3rd quarter then fall behind then… in the 4th quarter with about 5 mins to go the defense will make a huge stop (and the fans break the ear drums of upstate SC)… the offense will ride the shoulders of James Davis, CJ Spiller, Reggie Merriweather and the best offensive line in the country… and drive down the field to take lead with less than a minute to go to win the game on a 2 yard TD run… and… Shoeless passes out…

Write it down, take a picture, call your momma, eat at Joe’s… The Shoeless Fearless Prediction for this week is:

Clemson 31 Georgia Tech 27

Now let’s recap last weeks games predictions:

I went 22-9 this past week making my overall record 160-42. Sometimes I think I get what I want to happen confused with what I think is going to happen lol. I wanted Florida to beat Auburn, I wanted Michigan to lose, I wanted BC to lose but none of those did and I probably would have guessed right on at least one of those had I not let my “wants” get in the way. Such is life… anyway…

Weekly Records:
Week 1: 28-4
Week 2: 24-4
Week 3: 20-8
Week 4: 25-3
Week 5: 23-5
Week 6: 18-9
Week 7: 22-9

Overall: 160-42 Clemson: 4-2

Let’s take a look at this weekend’s games:

LA Lafayette 10 Florida Atlantic 24
North Carolina 10 Virginia 20
West Virginia 40 Connecticut 35
NC State 35 Maryland 32
Illinois 10 Penn St 17
Louisville 35 Syracuse 10
Rutgers 28 Pittsburg 35
Texas 10 Nebraska 7
Wisconsin 23 Purdue 10
Indiana 10 Ohio St. 48
Mississippi 10 Arkansas 30
Miami (Fl) 17 Duke 14
Miss St. 10 Georgia 39
Kansas St. 10 Missouri 34
Tulane 0 Auburn 55
UCLA 10 Notre Dame 14
South Carolina 10 Vandy 13
Washington 21 California 43
Alabama 10 Tennessee 27
Boston College 10 Florida State 20
Iowa 10 Michigan 20
Oregon 32 Washington St. 3
Boise St. 40 Idaho 9
Texas A&M 37 Oklahoma St. 6
Southern Miss 0 Virginia Tech 30
Colorado 10 Oklahoma 14
Fresno St. 10 LSU 50

Shoeless Fearless Prediction for Temple

Well, Wake almost made me eat my words last weekend but it was more about our team not coming out firing more so than it was Wake pushing us around. Even if we had played for 2 quarters instead of one we might have scored closer to 50 and thus my 56-10 whopping wasn’t that far off if you look at it that way… and that’s better than looking at it in a different way. Just think of how bad it would have been if we played the whole game? Wow! That’s scary!!

Let’s move on… we’ve had a rough go of it recently with the injuries piling up and to make matters worse… we don’t get a bye week for another few weeks!! So what’s the good news? We are playing Temple on Thurs night in Charlotte… my city!!

No need to get cute or try and force some stupid joke on you this week people… this is an easy one. Temple won’t have a chance. Look for Proctor, Davis, Adams and the rest of the 1st teamers to be sitting after halftime and for another fun game of big plays and 300+ yards on the ground. Temple might be the “home team” but they won’t feel like it when 30,000-40,0000+ tiger fans (most of which will be drunk) enter the lavish confines of Bank of America Stadium. Charlotte will welcome the Tigers as a small thank you for allowing their team (the Panthers) to play in Death Valley 10 years ago and the team will return the favor setting the tone early and often with a nice solid butt whopping.

Nothing against Temple but they just don’t have the team to compete. Clemson might even play down and still win by 20+. Hopefully, this will be the game special teams get on track and it serves as a walkthrough for the rest of the squads.

Write it down, take a picture, call your momma, eat at Joe’s… The Shoeless Fearless Prediction for this week is:

Clemson 49 Temple 3


Now let’s recap last weeks games predictions:

I went 18-9 this past week by far my worst week to date and making my overall record 138-33. I correctly picked Tenn of UGA, Florida over LSU but failed miserably with my Oregon and Oklahoma picks… oh well, I hope no one lost the farm thanks to me.

Weekly Records:
Week 1: 28-4
Week 2: 24-4
Week 3: 20-8
Week 4: 25-3
Week 5: 23-5
Week 6: 18-9

Overall: 138-33 Clemson: 4-2

Let’s take a look at this weekend’s games:

Virginia Tech 30 Boston College 28
Nebraska 31 Kansas St. 10
Wake Forest 33 NC State 32
South Florida 23 North Carolina 24
Syracuse 10 West Virginia 39
Minnesota 10 Wisconsin 30
Iowa 35 Indiana 10
Purdue 21 Northwestern 10
Iowa St. 10 Oklahoma 35
Vandy 25 Georgia 50
Florida St. 56 Duke 3
Rutgers 30 Navy 3
Oklahoma St. 14 Kansas 23
SE Miss St. 0 Arkansas 45
UCLA 10 Oregon 39
Maryland 26 Virginia 3
Cincinnati 0 Louisville 44
Mississippi 17 Alabama 24
Missouri 10 Texas A&M 33
Texas Tech 34 Colorado 3
Ohio St. 43 Michigan St. 9
California 40 Washington St. 20
Arizona 30 Stanford 24
Baylor 6 Texas 45
Florida Intl. 0 Miami 35
Idaho 7 La Tech 20
Florida 30 Auburn 10
Arizona St. 0 So Cal 33
Michigan 40 Penn State 42
Kentucky 17 LSU 35
Boise St. 45 New Mexico St. 3

Let me be the first to congratulate Wake Forest...

Let me be the first to Congratulate Wake Forest on another dominating performance and Victory vs. my Tigers. Congratulations for beating us 2 straight and 3 out of 4. You did it again, I made the drive up to Winston-Salem for the 3rd time in 4 years expecting a win and you took my hopes and dreams and ran off with them faster than that laptop I left in Columbia.

Your offense proved once again that we have no answer for it and kept our defense guessing all afternoon. You proved 2004 was a fluke and I’m glad Coach Bowden has opened a petition to forfeit all of our previous wins over your Deacs.

Thank you for showing us that we shouldn’t have believed our own hype.

Thanks for pointing out that your players will win every time when they focus instead of brag, study film instead of sleep and get dirty instead of dance.

Your fans and students once again treated me with respect and dignity as we humbly retreated back to our cars and we salute you and your amazing one of a kind game-day atmosphere.

Pre-Shoeless Prediction: This will not be what I am writing on Saturday night after the game.

Now get your pads on boys let me tell you what IS going to happen on Saturday!

Wake Forest is going to meet a different team than before… Not the same team that traveled in 2003 unprepared and lazy, bored and lackadaisical, tired and uninterested. Nope, this is a Tiger team that (I can personally attest) that is focused and ready. This is a team that remembers the past and will not allow it to repeat.

This offensive team is hungry to prove 50 points is not just a feast we consume vs. the weak and easy. This is a defense ready to let loose with a flurry of blitzes and aggression is has been held back from the past 2 weeks. This is a special teams hungry for a block and ready to make up for previous lack of execution. This is a hungry bunch of Tigers.

Wake Forest can spin it anyway they want and they have all the right in the world to think highly of their team this year. Hell, it’s been a long time since they started 5-0 you know… 1987 when they played equally as fearsome a schedule in the likes of Richmond, NC State, Appalachian St., Army and UNC.

Yup they’ve got me shaking. Ohhh please don’t run up the score on us please! You only beat, Syracuse, Duke, UCONN, Ole Miss and Liberty by a combined 66… yup that’s same amount as our 1st teams have put up in the 1st halves of our last 2 games. Excuse me a second, I’ve got to change my pants.

Now let’s break it down by position why don’t we… Offensive line… yep we’re bigger, stronger, better and out weigh your def front by about 60lbs… no biggie considering you chop/cut block every play which is fine b/c you’ll need to do whatever it takes Saturday.

Offensive skill players… hmmm can’t think of anyone off the top of my head. Let’s check online… QB Riley Skinner, RBs De’Angelo Bryant & Micah Andrews and WR Willie Idlette… Hey wait a minute!! I know them! They are the Fresh Toe-Tapping Trio!! You know, that kick@$$ bluegrass/techno/hiphop group that the internet is buzzing about!?! No wait I’m thinking of someone else…

Still looking, still looking… yup I’ve got nothing. Not one person on your whole roster that even the name sounds familiar. Now go ahead a give me the “well, you’ll know them after Saturday” bs you’ve got in the holster… b/c I don’t really care.

We’ve got 4 RBs you would KILL for in your system and a 5th that would still start for you too. We have 8 WRs that would own your campus if they played for you and could take their pick from all 11 of your hot co-eds. That doesn’t even include our 45 on the defensive side of the ball that would do the same; but—hey, that’s fine, you beat us last year-- and 2 out of 3-- and now 3 out of 4 when you win Saturday right? I forgot.

But the team didn’t…

You ain’t seen the Orange heck-fire that will travel your way this weekend.

Statistically Clemson Wake Forest

Rushing Off 7th Nationally 37th Nationally
240.6 yards/game 167.4 yards/game
Passing Off 54th 98th
204.6 yards/game 149.6 yards/game
Total Off 11th 75th
445.2 yards/game 317 yards/game
Scoring off 2nd 63rd
43.4 pts/game 23.8 pts/game
Rushing Def 11th 16th
69.2 yards/game 78.2 yards/game
Pass Def 30th 63rd
170.4 yards/game 194.28 yards/game
Pass Eff Def 2nd 40th
85.78 avg. rating 139.28 avg. rating
Total Def 9th 24th
239.6 yards/game 273 yards/game
Scoring Def 15th 9th
13.4 pts/game 10.6 pts/game
Sacks T-22nd T-12th
3.0 per game 3.4 per game
Sacks Allowed 10th T-61st
.8 per game 2.0 per game
Turnover Margin 14th T-52nd
+1 +.2

Looks about even… but take into account our 1st team (and 2nd for that matter) has seen less time on the field, we have played some tougher teams and we still lead in almost all categories… we’re good.

Rev coined the term “Gee-Hawed” for this weekend, and I think I like it.

Write it down, take a picture, call your momma, eat at Joe’s… The Shoeless Fearless Prediction for this week is:

Clemson 56 (yes, I said 56) Wake Forest 10

See you at your “Fair” Saturday night! GEE-HAWED!!

Note: anyone who actually gets mad at my posts please grow up and get a life I do this for fun not to intentionally piss people off. So save your emails for someone who gets paid.

Now let’s recap last weeks games predictions:

I went 23-5 this past week improving me to a 120-24 overall record. Another solid week of picking and I had 3 pretty big upsets in that group as well… I only got one right (GT over VT) but hey it’s better than an 0-fer.

Weekly Records:
Week 1: 28-4
Week 2: 24-4
Week 3: 20-8
Week 4: 25-3
Week 5: 23-5

Overall: 120-24 Clemson: 3-2

Let’s take a look at this weekend’s games:

Florida State 35 NCSU 28
TCU 28 Utah 21
Louisville 35 Middle Tenn St. 10
Indiana 10 Illinois 21
Arkansas 10 Auburn 34
Northwestern 10 Wisconsin 23
Purdue 14 Iowa 21
Kent St. 3 Temple 0 (game of the week)
Texas A&M 10 Kansas 21
Vandy 10 Mississippi 14
West Virginia 50 Miss St. 3
Stanford 10 Notre Dame 35
Washington 24 So Cal 31
Maryland 10 Georgia Tech 30
Bowling Green 0 Ohio State 45
LSU 10 Florida 21
Texas 14 Oklahoma 21
Baylor 10 Colorado 13
Michigan St. 10 Michigan 30
Virginia 10 East Carolina 20
South Carolina 23 Kentucky 21
Missouri 24 Texas Tech 30
Duke 0 Alabama 30
Tennessee 10 Georgia 7
Oregon 33 California 32
La Tech 20 Boise St. 35
Nebraska 38 Iowa St. 13