This was supposed to be a different blog but I guess I’ll make do with what I’ve got…

If you don’t want to read it all just click HERE to see all of the 95 pictures and there are 3 videos on this post… the main one is at the bottom.

This post was actually supposed to be posted Monday… and it was supposed to be a post that included a recap and pictures from my trip to Nashville… Then Tuesday was supposed to be a 3 min long video from the bowl. Then the day after that was supposed to be a Shoeless Highlight video from the Bowl victory. Then the next day was supposed to be a video from inside the locker-room of the post game victory speech, then finally the last day was supposed to be a final video of some extras of the post game interviews etc. You see all that? That’s what I was going to give everyone this week if we had won… *sigh*

Instead I’ll just bring you a recap of the bowl, the pictures and one video today.

Recap: First of all let me inform you guys of something… For the bowl game I got a sideline pass to film the game. This was the first time I’ve ever done anything like this and I wasn’t going to tell anyone about it b/c I figured it would be a much better surprise when I got to share with everyone all the things I got to experience first hand. This didn’t exactly work out but you at least know where all these clips and pictures are coming from…

I drove to Nashville on Thursday before the Bowl. I got there around 2 PM (Nashville time) and checked into the hotel. I stayed at the Alexis Inn and Suites about 5 miles from the stadium. Besides the fact that my room was right in front of the elevator and that you could hear every intimate detail of everything within 3 rooms our or paper thin walls… it wasn’t a bad place. It seemed to have more Clemson people than Kentucky people there as well. I met a handful of Clemson people and, as always, that was a treat!

I proceeded to downtown around 6PM and headed to the “strip” which was PACKED full of Clemson and Kentucky fans. In the downtown area it was tough to tell how many fans each school brought but you could sense that Kentucky had a few more (we found out later how many more). After making a couple of rounds I made my way to Buffalo Billiards where I watched the Clemson UGA basketball game on every TV in the joint. That place was solid Orange except for the 10 or so Kentucky band members who walked through near the end of the game. C-L-E-M in cadence count was performed every 2 mins or so and it was a neat experience to watch Clemson basketball with so many fans so far away from Clemson.

I was hungry so I left downtown soon after the game b/c there were 2-3 hour waits everywhere! I also had to get up early the next day to get my sideline pass and didn’t want to be hung-over or tired in the process. So I got myself a bite to eat and called it a night. It was pretty difficult sleeping in general with all the things going on in my mind but I managed to get about 3-4 hours.

I left the hotel after breakfast around 9AM and I shared a cab to the stadium. When I got there I crossed the pedestrian bridge and snapped a few shots of the stadium and downtown.



The place was already buzzing and I needed to find the media will-call window. After doing a complete circle of the stadium thanks to bad directions by a police officer and the “information window”… I made it around to the media will-call window and got my sideline passes. I didn’t really want to wait around so I headed into the stadium and after a thorough investigation of my camera bag and prostate exam (j/k) I headed down into the stadium. There wasn’t really much to see and nothing photo worthy but if you want to know what it looked like… imagine cement walls, no decorations and open pipes in a hallway with doors every 20-50 feet labeled with computer paper. The only thing really separating the teams was distance. There was however a small carpeted and roped off section that guided the teams from their locker rooms towards the field.

I immediately headed to the Clemson sideline…

Now, I don’t know if you have ever walked out onto a field from the tunnel without visiting the stadium before, but I can say that I have now. Having never played college or professional football (stupid sports agent screwed me)… this was my first time. It was quite a different experience and I hope I get to experience it again. I proceeded to get my camera set up and take some snap shots of the field etc.



Soon thereafter the players started coming out onto the field in groups… I got videos of all of this but here are some pictures.



Time almost seemed to fly by as we counted down to kickoff. I got a little bit of flyover and the best view of the team running out of the tunnel. We made our way to the sidelines and got a good spot next to the team and I got to meet Crump :-) Then I moved over to the endzone and filmed the game from there as I had a better view with less people getting in the way.

The game went along as it did and I got some great angles of plays that came right to me… (including the INT Proctor threw in the endzone) check out my perception of that play... Not too shabby for a first timer huh?

At halftime I turned my focus to more important things like the Tennessee Titan Cheerleaders and Stacey Dale Shuman on the sideline. I made sure to try and get as many pictures as I could for you guys cause I know how perverted and proud we all are :-) .



The 3rd qt started up and the game... well, you know how that went. I will say one thing though; being on the field, you can hear the fans differently. I will say that Kentucky easily had us out numbered 4-1 but when we were being loud we sounded about the same. That says a lot about our fans. Another observation I will make about Kentucky fans is that they were more concerned with basketball than Football. I talked to about 10-15 different groups of Kentucky people in the 2.5 days I was there and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM asked about our basketball team or who we had playing in the NBA etc… It was quite surprising to them when I wanted to talk football.

But I digress… the game ended and this is where I'd like to express some things that I witnessed. I followed the team into the tunnel and towards the locker room (I wasn’t allowed in after the loss but if we had won I would have probably gotten in). The coaches, players and staff were silent. Heads were down and it seemed like a beaten team. There was no bickering or fussing or blaming just disappointment. If you could have seen the way they looked when they entered that locker room maybe you’d understand how stupid you sound when you post negatives about the players or coaches.

Will Proctor was holding back tears as he answered the press’ questions. If anyone doubts his emotion towards the team and program they are morons. He might not have been the best QB we’ve ever had but save your opinions of him personally until you are face-to-face with him. Have you ever read nothing but negative things about yourself everywhere you look? He has… and maybe that’s why he’s defensive and standoffish at times.

Another thing I wish the boards could do that the players do is leave it on the field. For the first time in my life after a loss I left the stadium without wanting to just explode. Those players give it their all but once the game is over they can’t really do anything about it anymore so they move forward. Maybe it was being around them after the game or maybe it was actually being on the field for the game… I don’t know what it was but when I left the stadium I had a different perspective. I’ve never been one to vent on a message board; but, right now, the only thing I want to complain about is all the jackasses on the board who think they know everything. Seriously… Shut the #### up! If you have a problem write a letter or even better… make a phone call (864) 656-2115. That’s IPTAY’s number, give them a ring, they’ll connect you to the party of your choosing otherwise shut up.

I got to experience one of the coolest things of my life. Something that, even if I never get another chance to, I’ll never forget. I wanted to share everything I saw, I wanted to show you these pictures and give you multiple long videos but instead I will just show you the few that are on this post.

Here is a video of the Rally cats, cheerleaders, band and fans at the bowl game performing Tiger Rag.

Video is approx 27 mb and 2 mins 47 secs long.

One last thing we need help with the Clemson football DVD! If you want Clemson to take another step forward, buy this DVD! Next season you might get as many as 5 videos a week, EVERY week, if we can sell enough of these DVDs!! But we have to prove to Clemson that it is worth it! And I’m not talking about 5 stupid videos either, I’m talking behind the scenes stuff that you would NEVER see otherwise. Remember the all-access show they did on ESPN a couple years ago before the NCSU game? Imagine getting that everyday!! Plus, ALL proceeds go to the Boys home of the South so you are doing a good thing in the process! I hope you’ll help out or there might not be videos like this for a while.

Get behind your Tigers!