I hate being right. I really do. I said FGs and not TDs would lose us the game and was pretty much dead on. I was referring to all FGs in a defensive struggle but what it boiled down to was attempting 1 FG to try and tie a game instead of scoring 1 TD to win it late.

Oh well, I was right about another thing too… the blind squirrel! HA!

Gotta give credit to USC though. They played a good game. They got the “W” and it was one for the ages even if the wrong team (to me at least) won.

This next segment is brought to you buy the makers of “get-over-it deodorant” reminding you: “Bitterness smells bad no matter how you wear it”…

This segment is for any of the Clemson fans blaming Jad Dean, USC fans still complaining about the “Push-off” or any other school’s fans that have ever complained about “one play costing us the game” in any sport-- EVER!

Football is a team sport played over (most of the time) 80+ plays. NO ONE PLAY EVER WINS OR LOSES A GAME PERIOD!! EVER!!

You can always look at one play before or after that play and place just as much blame on it if you do that way even if it seemed meaningless at the time. You are always ONE PLAY away from turning a game. That’s why they call football a game of inches. Same with baseball or soccer or basketball or tennis or golf or any other sport… You make your own destiny with hard work and effort. Sometimes you work hard enough to get that extra push on the line, or extra inch vertical jump or the extra first down or the free throw or base hit, and sometimes you don’t. You play until it’s over and you try your best. If you don’t succeed you work harder and get them next time. If there isn’t a next time you just have to move on. You don’t complain and moan about officials or one player “screwing it up”.

Bill Buckner lived a pretty shitty life thanks to fans like these along with 100s of other scapegoats in the past. Unfortunately, there are idiots still out there making scapegoats of new people after every close game.

If you want to play a game the requires one play to win or lose… play Russian Roulette.

That’s one where you win or lose with one play. Not football. Not one kick or one bad call or one missed onside kick call or one “no call”. There is no conspiracy and if you saw the way certain refs and players were treated b/c of the “one plays” you’d probably stop complaining, but maybe I’m giving you too much credit. If you believe otherwise you are a moron and I hope you’ll play Russian Roulette before you start breeding.

Now, before you bring up my posting videos of the bad-calls from the BC game or the Ron Cherry punt spot from the NCSU game those didn’t cost us the game and I NEVER said or implied they did. Of course they didn’t cost us the NCSU game b/c we WON that one. Yes, the calls were bad, but we had plenty of other chances to win the BC game even with those calls and I, in now way, think that any poor officiating ALONE cost us any games… Hell, have you ever seen any of my posts or videos before? I’m always taking a satirical look at things and those videos were merely to humor others and until I see a ref, on the first play of a game, call…

“Holding on Clemson. Penalty results in change of possession and automatic Touchdown, game over, wins”

I’ll continue to believe that the refs didn’t cost us (or anyone) a game.

The same holds true for any one football or baseball player who doesn’t pull a Bugs Bunny and play all 11 positions at once for football and 9 for baseball, 5 for basketball etc etc etc.

Please stop blaming “one person” or “one play” for outcomes of games and maybe I’ll be able to enjoy my tall glass of STFU and stop complaining!

I’m done.

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

No game to predict for Clemson but I predict the meltdown will continue unless Clemson basketball stays undefeated! Please prove me wrong people and stop the complaining!

Now let’s recap last weeks games predictions:

As I predicted Clemson lost. That makes my final Clemson predicition record… 9-4.
Note: I noticed that I was a game off after including my “bye week victory” and checked to see that I forgot to add the GT prediction to my record so I end the regular season at 9-4 almost the same record as our Tigers but with better coaching.

I also went 27-17 this past week picking the other games, making my overall record 298-104. Finally cracking 100 losses but almost surpassing 300 wins not too shabby.

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
Week 9: 19-7
Week 10: 18-8
Week 11: 16-6
Week 12: 36-19
Week 13: 27-17

Overall: 298-104 Clemson: 9-4

Let’s take a look at this weekend’s games and I’m picking them all is I did last week:

Central Michigan 21 Ohio 17
Southern Miss 10 Houston 17
UConn 0 Louisville 30
Wake Forest 34 GT 23
Army 10 Navy 3
Stanford 10 California 34
La Tech 10 New Mexico St 32
Air Force 10 TCU 24
Frenso St 29 San Jose St 20
USC 50 UCLA 32
LA Monroe 10 LA Lafayette 17
Arkansas 35 Florida 10
Troy 30 Florida Intl. 0
Rutgers 30 WVU 28
Nebraska 15 Oklahoma 24
Colorado St 0 San Diego St 14
Oregon St 55 Hawaii 63

Alrighty. Another week another Shoeless blog that nobody will read!! Woo!!

Well, maybe not this week b/c this is the big week you know.

This is the week that everyone within the borders of NC, GA and the Atlantic has waited for.

This is the week where one of either Clemson or USC prophetically announces “wait until next year”.

This is the week!

So let’s see. A couple of weeks ago Clemson looked like a team that couldn’t be beaten, a team that would not only contend for the ACC title but maybe even the National-- well… we blew that opportunity but there’s still a lot to gain in this season.

I had the privilege of helping interview some players and coaches on Tuesday, for the www.clemsonfootballdvd.com project (shameless plug), and one thing that stuck out to me was a Gaines Adams comment. When asked about the success of this season, he said that we are still only two games away from being 8-5.

That really hit me hard knowing how we started and what this means to these kids. 10-3 would be acceptable and the “new goal”; but 8-5 would not be a successful season and these guys know it.

You could also tell that the week off was much needed. I’m not really sure if it’ll help us enough to get back to our old ways (pre VT) but you never know. Hopefully the rest will get Davis, the OL and our Def back to 100% and ready.

If I had to pick the winner of this game and put $1,000 on it, I’d put the money on USC. I hate to say it, I don’t want them to win but here’s the way I look at it, if Clemson did lose… hey, at least I won $1,000 right?

Now to the prediction… I am not confident in a Tiger win. I would dare to say I think we are going to lose. Bye week or not, I don’t know if Spence will change his play calling enough to get it done this time. I don’t think we can expect to win if we have to rely on a big play from our defense every game. They are ranked in the top 10 nationally in 5 categories defensively and ranked in the top 20 in 1 one other. The only category on defense we are not in the top 20 or better in is Turnover margin... and that’s b/c the defense doesn’t really have complete control over that one.

Need a reminder of before the season turned… vs. FSU, GT and WF we had bad predictable play calling.. .we won but you can thank James Davis, Gaines Adams, CJ Spiller, and even Proctor (FSU) for those games not masterful play calling. However over the last 3 weeks the big plays have disappeared right.. oh yea except for the one CJ Spiller run vs. NCSU. Hmmm noticing a trend. As the big play goes, so do we.

Here’s the breakdown.

Our Defense is stout! Probably the best Clemson has had in 15+ years top to bottom and this is with 2 decimating injuries before the 2nd game. If you want to blame any game all year on the Defense you Sir/Ma’am, are a moron.

What’s that mean? It’ll come down to offense and the way we are coached it’ll probably mean more stress and gray hairs for most fans. If we get the big plays on offense and maybe one on defense we could very easily win in a romp. If we don’t it’ll be another 13-9 type of battle.

Will the week off help?

Will a “set” of Christmas “balls” be hung on a certain coach after Thanksgiving giving us a different offense?

It is completely up in the air this year. Nobody knows nothing. I ain’t got a clue and hopefully I will be wrong with my pessimism and the Tigers will make like the War Eagles and get the one for the thumb… but I just don’t see it happening.

Hey you know what they say about blind squirrels.

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

Clemson 9 South Carolina 10 much like the Maryland game, FGS not TDs do us in.


Now let’s recap last weeks games predictions:

As I predicted Clemson dominated the Bye week. I went 36-19 this past week making my overall record 271-87. I picked a few less games this week but still stayed close to my average on the year.

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
Week 9: 19-7
Week 10: 18-8
Week 11: 16-6
Week 12: 36-19

Overall: 271-87 Clemson: 7-4 (yes I’m included a win over the bye week b/c this is my blog!!)

Let’s take a look at this weekend’s games and I’m picking them all is I did last week:


BC 20 Miami 10
Northern Ill 40 East Mich 17
Kent St 20 Ball St 7
Ohio 45 Miami (OH) 10
Texas A&M 24 Texas 30
Cent. Mich. 12 Buffalo 0
LSU 10 Arkansas 42
Tulane 17 Tulsa 34
Oregon 30 Oregon St 32
W. Mich 10 Akron 12
Colorado 0 Nebraska 24
Air Force 45 UNLV 3
Fresno St 17 La Tech 10
Kansas 17 Missouri 21
Virginia 0 VT 23
Florida 31 FSU 32
North Carolina 3 Duke 0
South Florida 0 WVU 34
Syracuse 0 Rutgers 40
Cincy 12 UConn 3
UAB 13 UCF 17
Kentucky 0 Tennessee 22
Miss St 0 Miss 34
Oklahoma 34 Ok St 13
San Diego St 11 New Mexico 13
SMU 21 Rice 24
New Mexico St 0 Utah St 7
Louisville 43 Pitts 23
BYU 30 Utah 31
GT 32 UGA 23
Troy 18 MTSU 30
Boise St 40 Nevada 32
Ark St 14 LA Lafayette 13
San Jose St 15 Idaho 31
Arizona St 0 Arizona 17
TCU 34 Colorado St 31
North Texas 13 LA Monroe 3
Fl Intl 0 FAU 33
East Carolina 17 NCSU 13
Marshall 30 Southern Miss 44
Wake Forest 13 Maryland 12
Notre Dame 10 USC 23
Memphis 34 Utep 45
Purdue 50 Hawaii 65

The “Blame Game”, will not be seen this week as-- we won. This doesn’t mean life is grand and all the problems are fixed though. I (like the Def Lineman of NCSU) telegraphed the screen pass to the left the led to a pick 6 as well as over 50 other offensive plays from the game. Very few did I miss but I’ll put that on the back burner b/c CJ Spiller and Chansi Stuckey are beasts!!

In other news… we got another #### ##### ######## ## ### # ###### ######### ###### NOON GAME! I am not pleased. I will be there, as always, but that doesn’t change the fact that I hate Noon games!! Want to know why? Well, I’m gonna tell you anyway.

1st of all, I live in Charlotte. It takes me about 2 to 2 and a half hours to get to Clemson depending on traffic weather etc. Not too long right? Well, for noon games I have to leave at 6:30AM to beat traffic. Now some of you might say “so what, I leave at 5” well let me give you a cookie b/c I don’t!! and I don’t want to!!!

The funny thing is, 6:30 is only about an hour difference from any other time I would leave. I am usually on the road no later than 8AM for any game whether it be 3:30PM or 7:45PM.

The reason why I’m upset is that I love seeing people and Clemson and tailgating and all the great things that make Clemson on game-day… well…. Great!

Now you might say, “why not just do it after the game”. Well let me remind you of what I do… I make videos. That means if we win, I have work to do. If we lose I don’t have to get home immediately, but who the hell wants to be social and polite after we lose? Certainly not me… it’s a lose/lose situation for me with noon games. For 3:30, and later, games I don’t have to worry about the video b/c I won’t be getting home until late anyway so that becomes a non-factor and guess what… I get 3 and a half hours MORE time to socialize and enjoy a town that I (among 10 of thousands others) miss and don’t get to see that often.

Another reason is obvious…

I give you exhibit A: The Maryland Game 2006: The crowd was flat, the crowd was weak the crowd was STILL ASLEEP!! Its funny how everyone seems to say “the crowd was decent… for a noon game” do we ever say this about night games? Nope, don’t need to b/c they don’t suck!

Exhibit B: GT Game 2006: One of the best atmospheres I’ve ever seen before a game. Sure you can say it was ESPN’s Gameday that brought out the people but the stadium was 95% full 25 mins before the game started! We didn’t even get 95% full for the whole game vs Maryland! If you need proof, just take a look at my pictures from both games on photobucket.

Exhibit C: UGA 2003: Sorry to bring this up, but can you remember a worse game you have ever attended at the valley? Played when? Oh yea… NOON!!

Exhibit D: FSU 2003: You think we would have won the game if it was played at noon? How would we have known there was a lunar eclipse and the planets had aligned? Do you think Radio would have run down the hill at noon? I doubt it! Radio told me himself that he hates noon games and would have refused… ok I made that last part up I don’t know Radio.

Exhibit E: USC 2004: I love how people like to pretend this is the exception for noon games. Well let me ask you what was so great about this game? The score? Maybe but it was a boring game, the crowd (minus the opening kickoff) was bored… at least until the fight!! Oh yea, remember that? Think there would have been a fight had we played at night? Heck no!! Lou would have been asleep before the start of the 4th quarter and both teams would have been ready to kick back and relax instead of putting up fists!!

Exhibit F: USC 2000: Probably the greatest Clemson USC game played in the valley. The whole game was tight and came down to a handful of controversial calls and a game winning FG. What time was the game played? NOT AT NOON!

If you need more I can spout out game after game for hours! But I don’t need to. The students don’t like noon games, the players don’t like noon games, most of the fans don’t like noon games but TDP doesn’t care about these people, he cares about $$ and a few old farts who think the noon games are “better”. Kiss my non-loving noon games rump.

Ok I’m vented. You can say what you want and I don’t really care. I will be there and will cheer like I ALWAYS do. Hopefully, other people will get there early and do the same unlike they seem to do at EVERY OTHER NOON GAME!!

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

Clemson will absolutely murder the bye week! Have you looked at the stats? The Bye week ranks last in every category!!

Now let’s recap last weeks games predictions:

I went 16-6 this past week making my overall record 235-68. I picked a few less games this week but still stayed close to my average on the year.

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
Week 9: 19-7
Week 10: 18-8
Week 11: 16-6

Overall: 235-68 Clemson: 6-4

Let’s take a look at this weekend’s games and I’m picking them all this time!:

Miami (OH) 20 Bowling Green 14
Akron 20 Ohio 10
West Virginia 45 Pittsburg 20
Eastern Mich 10 Kent St. 7
Cent Mich 10 Northern Illinois 34
Miami 24 Virginia 10
NCSU 25 UNC 10
Maryland 17 Boston College 21
Buffalo 0 Wisconsin 31
UConn 10 Syracuse 21
Western Carolina 3 Florida 35
Michigan St 13 Penn St 22
Iowa 10 Minnesota 26
Indiana 10 Purdue 28
Oklahoma 34 Baylor 10
Middle Tenn St 10 South Carolina 38
Temple 10 Navy 39
Tennessee 42 Vandy 17
La Monroe 10 Kentucky 39
Illinois 10 Northwestern 34
Duke 10 Georgia Tech 30
Oklahoma St 40 Texas Tech 45
W Michigan 10 Florida St 30
UCF 30 Tulane 28
Houston 20 Memphis 10
Missouri 10 Iowa St 24
Arkansas 45 Mississippi St 10
Army 0 Notre Dame 31
Utah St 0 Boise St 32
Tulsa 10 SMU 13
East Carolina 10 Rice 0
Oregon St 25 Stanford 20
Arizona 21 Oregon 20
Kansas St 34 Kansas 0
Auburn 24 Alabama 21
Michigan 20 Ohio St 19
Wyoming 10 UNLV 12
San Diego St 10 TCU 23
New Mexico 10 BYU 45
UTEP 10 Marshall 14
Idaho 10 Fresno St 33
LA Lafayette 10 Florida Intl 17
Washington 10 Washington St 13
Florida Atlantic 9 North Texas 14
Virginia Tech 19 Wake Forest 20
Arkansas St 10 Troy 24
South Florida 10 Louisville 42
Utah 10 Air Force 33
Rutgers 50 Cincy 10
California 24 USC 21
Nevada 10 La Tech 30
UAB 10 Southern Miss 39
Mississippi 10 LSU 40
UCLA 10 Arizona St 30
San Jose St 30 Hawaii 45

Welcome to Week 2 of the blame game!! (cheesy music plays)

Let’s meet our contestants…

Will Proctor, 6’2” 205 lbs Quarterback of the Clemson Offense who’s got the looks and the charm to sweep every lady off her feet this side of Miami but can he throw a pass?

Rob Spence, Clemson’s offensive coordinator. This second year coach from Toledo is commonly referred to as the Rush Limbaugh of play calling!

Poor Tackling, this herpes of a nuisance reared its ugly head again and seems to be making a come back bigger than JayZ!

And finally…

Last week’s winner, Shoeless

So, just incase you missed last week… here’s how the game works… everyone gets a chance to explain why they were to blame for the loss, and the winner takes the blame.

But before we start let’s hear a word from our Sponsor…

Alcoholics anonymous… who remind us that insanity is defined as repeating the same actions over and over, yet expect a different result.

We’ll check back with them later in the program.

Back to the show…

Proctor, we’ll let you go first…

“Thanks John! Well let me be the first to point out that this week I completed 18 of 25 passes on Saturday for 251 yards and no interceptions! I also made big plays of 25, 60 and 71 yards to Stuckey and TE Hunter. Can’t blame me this week… nope… just can’t do it… nuh uh.”

Thanks Will! How about your take Coach Spence!

“Well, first off I’d like to give credit to Jesus for being our lord and savior through him all things are possible!”

(silence)

and what about your take on the game?

“Well, this week we had more success throwing the football but still can’t figure out why we aren’t getting the ball in the end zone. Oh wait I’ve got an idea! I’ll put Reggie in the game and people will start chanting his name and then they’ll think we are running it, but I’ll pass instead! That’s brilliant! Oh and another wrinkle might be… I’ll put in the 4th string white guy and when the defense is thinking… who’s that? What’s the scouting report… BOOM! I’ll run it up the middle! Genius!! (evil laugh)”

Thanks coach! Glad to see you were willing to go out on a limb and try something different! Now let’s check in with Poor tackling…

“Can’t blame me this week John. We did our job”

You’re right got me there you can be excused!

and finally let’s check in with Shoeless…

“Well, something isn’t right. I came to the game this week. I started a new streak. I wore my lucky shirt, shoes, hat… everything! I washed my truck and got to the stadium early. I cheered my ass off until I was hoarse, I clapped until my hands hurt. I didn’t boo our players or team… I did everything I possibly could! I don’t know if I can take the blame for this one.”

Thanks Shoeless, now let’s go to the judges to see who are winner is…

Wait a min… Shoeless we have good news for you… as it turned out our judges reviewed the tape and decided to take away your blame from last week! You weren’t at fault and you can give back your shame.

“Wow! Thanks! That’s a huge relief!”

(cheesy suspenseful music plays)…

And our winner is…

Coach Spence!

Why blame coach Spence? Well it’s easy. I don’t like to blame players EVER! Coaches get paid (too much) to make the plays and also take the blame. Why blame it on a kid who’s playing for tuition instead of a guy who gets paid to play a game? But, I digress… why blame Spence? It’s easy. I’m not expert, or coach or film-surgeon... nope, just a fan. a guy who watches football, A LOT! Now if I can pick up on tendencies... chances are, an expert, a guy who gets paid to notice things, a coach will too.

This is the problem right now…

And before you get your panties in a wad let me say that I’m not jumping ship or going to be selling my season tickets or any of that non-sense. I’m just venting and guess what … its Tuesday! Not Saturday afternoon or Sunday. I’ve had 3 FULL NIGHTS to sleep on this and I STILL feel this way.

Let’s take a trip back down memory lane… I’ll skip the Woody years b/c that’s too easy… but in 2002 I noticed it a little and in early 2003 was the true beginning of it.

There I was.. a dude sitting in the stands, noticing a trend. I could call our plays on offense before the ball was snapped 80-90% of the time. Every formation I'd call a run or pass and to whom it would go. It was like a game inside the game… I win!

The peak was vs WF in 03… God that was painful. But then…the next week we changed. Everything changed! Play calling changed, they lined up the 1st drive vs. FSU and I thought to myself "Dear Lord, here we go again!" and I called what I saw and they DIDN’T do it. I watched for a good quarter and didn't get one call right!! I fell back to earth and became a fan. The next 4 games were a whirlwind! I was a fan living it up on top of the world. My expectations for the off-season were sky high...

2004: WF. THE FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON!! We had a whole off-season to prepare. We changed offensive coordinators and we were sitting pretty with a top 15 ranking. The first game of the season was an afternoon game in the valley poised for greatness... What happened? They did it again. They came out and ran the offense that I had seen before. When they lined up, I said... "please don't do what I think you are going to do…" and they did. We won the game but I had a bad feeling about it. After the season I was right back to where I was in the middle of the ‘03 season.

Sure, we had some bright spots, won some games, and I tried to stay optimistic, but it didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel like just a fan. Then we made some changes!! I was ecstatic!

2005: New offensive coordinator. This guy is different. This guy is a "genius". This guy will get it done. With this guy, I won't know what’s coming. They were right for 2 games. A&M & Maryland we did enough to win and we actually made adjustments where I didn't really know what was going to happen. Even on the TD pass vs. MD to Baham I said, crap another bubble... YEESSS!! Great wrinkle in a play we had run for 2 weeks without change.

As the season pressed on... the play calling stayed the same, by the SC game I knew 80-90% of the plays before the ball was snapped, thankfully we now had James Davis and some leadership at QB and WR that made it less noticeable.

Sometimes you don't have to be fancy to win, but sometimes you do.

So here we are, 10 games into the 2006 season. What has changed? not much. I would like to say that I didn't know what was coming until the last 2 games, I would like to say that these have been a fluke, I would like to say that we are just flat… but I can't.

Since the first game of the season, I've had a feeling about every play we've run. If we put Reggie in the game with 2 of our starting 3 WRs, it's a pass. If JD is in the game in a bunch formation and they put Hunter in motion, it's a run up the gut. If there are 2 backs, 2 WRs to one side and they shift one back to the WRs, it's a bubble screen. (Note: this is just a generalization but I could do this to 90% of the plays this year... and I have.)

After the VT game, I even got a call from my mom, yes my mom! Not Lee Corso or Bear Bryant! My mom!!! She told me she knows what's coming most of the time. Hmmmm... something ain't right. Nothing against my mom, but if she knows what's coming there’s a good chance the other team does!

Now some of you will say, what about WF what about FSU, GT and even the good about BC and ALL the other games we dominated and won? I’m not saying that the plays didn’t work and they should scrap the whole system b/c sometimes they do work… but that’s mostly b/c of athletes like Davis, Stuckey, and Spiller not “genius” play calling!!

Like I said, I am no expert. I do watch some film of our games b/c I make videos, but I probably watch 10% of what the coaches who get paid to do this do. Maybe I only watch Clemson, so that's why I know what we do more but something’s missing. Personnel needs to be swapped around, I don't care if Stuckey and Kelly don't block as good as Harris and the 4th string white guy... but when they are in the game I KNOW WE ARE GONNA RUN IT! There’s something about camouflaging your scheme that tends to work more than just doing the SAME DAMN THING ALL THE TIME!!

Now, I have lots AND LOTS of plays on film that do exactly what I'm talking about; but, I don't really have the time or the patience to go through and get them all to prove my point. The point is... when we don't add any new wrinkles all year; we are going to get shut down eventually. I'm not talking new formations or gadget plays that are hard to implement in a week's time but I’m talking about... misdirection on plays that we already run, dragging a TE back across the field when rolling everyone one way... a toss sweep instead of a stretch play. Little things... little things make a world of difference.

Did you see the Arkansas game on Saturday? 3rd and goal from about the 17… what did they do? Ran a draw for a TD… have we run a draw all year? What about a shovel pass? toss sweep? Or even just an all out go send everyone long?

I'm actually surprised we made it as long as we did... but then again we did play UNC, Temple, FAU and La Tech during that stretch.

Now, like I said... I am no expert. Do I think I could do a better job of coaching? Probably not, even though I'd like to think I could; b/c at this point, it's not too hard to imagine. Do I want to coach? No. But I do want to be a fan again and when I know what is going to happen before it happens... I'm not a fan but a critic.

Now back to our sponsor… Insanity… doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result… sounds pretty familiar doesn’t it. And it’s also kind of ironic that Alcoholics anonymous is the definer in this case b/c they are getting a lot of new clients from the tri-county area lately.

Keep in mind that most of what I wrote is an exaggeration, but it is what I believe. Something has got to change. I’m not happy with 7-3 after starting 7-1. That doesn’t make me a bad fan or any of that crap but this was supposed to be OUR year. The team that got us over the hump, the team that we were waiting on for 7 years. And here we are… going insane.

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

Clemson 9 NCSU 7

Now let’s recap last weeks games predictions:

I went 18-8 this past week making my overall record 219-62. This was only my 3rd week below 20 wins this season and I’m hoping to bounce back this weekend but 2nd in a row. I’m doing just as badly as the team it seems lol!

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
Week 9: 19-7
Week 10: 18-8

Overall: 219-62 Clemson: 5-4

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

Lousiville 25 Rutgers 10
Wyoming 10 BYU 30
GT 50 UNC 9
Cincy 10 West Virginia 50
Wisconsin 35 Iowa 30
Georgia 10 Auburn 28
California 17 Arizona 21
Kent St 3 Virginia Tech 37
Miami 10 Maryland 13
Michigan 30 Indiana 3
South Carolina 30 Florida 28
Nebraska 20 Texas A&M 21
Ohio St 31 Northwestern 6
Notre Dame 20 Air Force 21
Texas Tech 30 Oklahoma 56
Duke 0 Boston College 34
Tennessee 10 Arkansas 9
Alabama 3 LSU 30
Wake Forest 34 FSU 10
Texas 30 Kansas St 3
Oregon 0 USC 20
Boise St 60 San Jose St 23

Let’s play the blame game!! (cheesy music plays)

Let’s meet our contestants…

Will Proctor, 6’2” 205 lbs Quarterback of the Clemson Offense who’s got the looks and the charm to sweep every lady off her feet this side of Miami but can he throw a pass?

Rob Spence, Clemson’s offensive coordinator. This second year coach from Toledo is commonly referred to as the Rush Limbaugh of play calling!

Poor Tackling, this herpes of a nuisance reared its ugly head again and seems to be making a come back bigger than JayZ!

And finally…

Shoeless, this supposed “die-hard fan” didn’t attend the game on Thursday thus dooming the entire existence of man permanently!

So, here’s how the game works… everyone gets a chance to explain why they were to blame for the loss Thursday night, and the winner takes the blame.

Proctor, we’ll let you go first…

“Thanks John! Well let me be the first to explain that I can throw the ball, I just don’t feel like it! Also, I like to put zip on the ball but the coaches told me that I lose accuracy and so I just lob them now. Also, my WRs told me that it’s more fun to catch less accurate passes than ones right on the money so I do this also...”

Thanks Will! How about your take Coach Spence!

“Well, first off I’d like to give credit to Jesus for being our lord and savior through him all things are possible!”

(silence)

and what about your take on the game?

“I think we just needed more plays to establish the run, I bet if we have 10 or 20 more possessions we could have worn them down and got something going.”

Thanks coach! Glad to see you were willing to go out on a limb and try something different! Now let’s check in with Poor tackling…

“I think I dropped my mic, it can’t seem to hold on to it. Where’d my nametag go? It was just here?”

and finally let’s check in with Shoeless…

“Well, I’m sorry for our loss on Thurs, everyone can blame it on me! I missed the game on Thurs and it was my first game I’ve missed in 2 years and only the 3rd game I’ve missed in 5 years. If I had been at the game something different would have happened.”

Thanks Shoeless, now let’s go to the judges to see who are winner is…

(cheesy suspenseful music plays)…

And our winner is…

Shoeless!

Shoeless took the blame and the rest of the team can breathe easy for another week!

Your prize Shoeless? You will be fired as a fan and all hope is lost for your soul! You clearly are a terrible human being for missing the game and any ill fate coming your way is deserved.



That’s pretty much what it felt like to me on Thursday. I felt like everything went wrong. I felt as though Will Proctor didn’t have a clue what he was doing throwing the ball and Coach Spence needed to grow a set… I mean what’s the point of having a 50,000 page play book if you can’t turn past page 4. The Defense did as poor of a job of tackling as I’ve ever seen and really all I could think about was not being there and how I let them down.

I don’t really know how some of you people do it but I promise you that I won’t miss another game this year…

But to my prediction this week... Maryland is a decent team. They are bowl eligible and they’ve got nothing to lose and this scares me. Not b/c I think they’ll win but b/c I think Maryland is playing better than most are giving them credit for. They’ve won. Period! They might have been ugly doing it but they’ve done it. They’re giving up a lot of yards but so did BC when we played them… do I think they are the better team? No, but they won.

If I were a coach, this wouldn’t have been a fun week for Clemson. They would have gotten an extra day off considering the long week but I would have made the rest of the week hell! I hope the players learned from Saturday and the rest of the season is played differently… but we deserved to have our asses handed to us after the way we played on Thursday and I frankly hope we never see it again.

We are a better team than Maryland and we’d better come out ready to play on Saturday. I don’t want to see another let down. I want to see problems fixed (or at least improved) and I want to see this team play again like we’d seen for 8 weeks. If we don’t do it, I’ll be as shocked as anyone.

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

Clemson 45 Maryland 10

Now let’s recap last weeks games predictions:

I went 19-7 this past week making my overall record 201-54. This was only my 2nd week below 20 wins this season and I’m hoping to bounce back this weekend.

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
Week 9: 19-7

Overall: 201-54 Clemson: 5-3

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

West Virginia 34 Louisville 35
Army 14 Air Force 10
Virginia 20 Florida St. 21
Ball St 0 Michigan 20
Penn St 10 Wisconsin 23
Missouri 10 Nebraska 30
Mississippi St 10 Alabama 34
Florida 25 Vandy 3
Kansas 32 Iowa St 10
Navy 6 Duke 3
Georgia 35 Kentucky 10
Arkansas St 10 Auburn 34
Northwestern St 10 Mississippi 33
North Carolina 0 Notre Dame 32
Washington 20 Oregon 21
LSU 10 Tennessee 12
Ohio St 40 Illinois 9
Arizona 0 Washington St 10
Georgia Tech 34 NCSU 13
Boston College 30 Wake Forest 29
Oklahoma St 10 Texas 40
So Cal 54 Stanford 10
Arkansas 10 South Carolina 24
UCLA 10 California 36
Oklahoma 17 Texas A&M 21
Virginia Tech 40 Miami 10