Two keys to victory

Plain and simple:

1. pressure their quarterback.
2. be loud.

We do those things and Clemson will need a near perfect game to win.

New faces we'll see tonight

It's time. As I aim the truck east, let's take a moment to introduce ourselves to some of the new players we'll see tonight.

• Lorenzo Carter. Definitely will see some snaps at OLB. Which is impressive since all we've heard are good things about Jordan Jenkins and Leonard Floyd as well.

• Isaiah McKenzie. Really sounds like Richt will pull the trigger on letting us see what all the return game hub-bub has been about.

• Dominick Sanders. Look for him in nickel sets in the "star" position.

• Nick Chubb. Can he block on passing downs? Do we have specific sets designed for his skills? Does it even matter?

• Sony Michel. More likely to see him on kick returns, but could also see him in the backfield as well, where he's been neck and neck with fellow freshman Chubb.

• Shattle Fenteng. A local kid returns after going away to junior college, and should play in the secondary.

• Rico Johnson. True freshman that came to Athens via the prep school route and he has evidently been very steady for Coach Pruitt in camp.

Others to look for who might come into the game under special circumstances: Dyson Sims (77, OL) and Isaiah Wynn (55, OL) have had good camps; has Jeb Lazevich (83) impressed enough at TE, or are there enough injury concerns for Rome and Jordan Davis?; Malkom Parrish (14) is another DB we might see.

Other than those, who'd I miss that ou expect to see tonight?

Friday Misery - 241 days of Coach Pruitt not doing sh*t

h/t tbone226

Getting right to the point
I love this rivalry. I think I've made the reasons why I love it very clear. But right now I'm mostly miserable that this might be the last time I get to enjoy this series between two great programs that reside so close to one another and in which one has completely dominated the other. Tomorrow, after we kick their ass, that sadness will intensify and somehow become a comorbid condition with the sheer and utter joy of witnessing winning football again in Sanford Stadium.

Until then, I'm simply tired. Tired of words. I'm even tired of being glad that Grantham is gone and tired of writing about being glad that Pruitt is here. It makes me even more miserable because truly, what has Pruitt done for me lately? Nothing. I'm seriously thinking about benching him. Dude, do something! Georgia has zero turnovers so far this season. None. And don't get me started on Todd Gurley. I can hardly remember the last time he even scored a touchdown. It's ridiculous.

Let's all DO something! Let's nip something in the goddamn bud. Coach Magill was 93 years old and he still was getting after after it. You, me, her, them, and especially that dipshit over there with a thumb up his ass and an index finger on the mouse clicker, we haven't done a damn thing in months.

Except talk. And I'm sick of words. And apparently so is this guy:

Tired of livestock? RT @ShakinSouthland: Fuck Georgia
— Bernie (@BernieDawg) August 28, 2014

Talking is for yesterday. The time for football is here. Like our friend Garrison Smith says, #TeamNoTalk. You want something done? Well then DO IT! Stop listening to these dumbass bloggers with their laptops and their wifi connections and their fistfuls of tater tots. Stop being message bored. Stop telling Coach Ekeler and Sherrer and this Jeremy Pruitt fella how awesome there are. Seriously, when you see that guy at Costco this afternoon with a buggy full of steak and potatoes and a case of Old Spice aftershave I want you to march right up to him and scream in his ear "KEVIN RAMSEY'S DEFENSE HAS MORE SACKS THAN YOURZ COACH JERRY PRUITTT!!!"

It might give you an uneasy feeling, and to be perfectly honest you may even get arrested, but it's for the best. You know what those gamechickens were doing all day Wednesday? Talking. You know what they were doing right before Kevin Sumlin cracked a can of Whoopass? Yup. Talking. It's the Friday before the season opener. It's time to lead with actions. Because words are for [redacted]!!!

The greatest gimmick IPTAY ever pulled...
"Good morning, Coach Swinney's office."
"Hey, I'd like to buy a plot in his cemetery. Preferably one next to the freshly laid Ohio State one. You know, keep it consequential 'n all."
"Sir. Those aren't for sale. They're...for motivation. But I'm sorry for your loss."
"My loss? Heh. I wanna buy it for y'all."
[long awkward silence]
"Um, is this Coach Spurrier again? Because I faxed you that letter from my doctor after your last prank in November and..."
"Spurrier? No. This is Bernie. I'll bring my own shovel if that'll..." [line goes dead]

Stay cute Clempson. Yes, your team won the meeting last year. Yes, Sammy Watkinson was an incredible tackle football player. Yes, you're right, Georgia is an SEC team. Yes, again, Herschel never scored on you. But that feather in your hay bill is awfully old. Is it not? Besides, while you were tweeting that for the 7,846th time this week, Gurley scored on you. Again. In his sleep. Wearing nothing but Scott Woerner boxers. While casually whistling a little James Brown. Perhaps you can put that on your defense's epitaph.

Speaking of Herschel, I want vindication. And I will grasp it within my sweaty palms like the Chapel Bell's rope, and laugh maniacally as the clock drains. I've waited impatiently for 34 weeks. The off season will end with this ... the next ... in two more sentences and we will step lively into another season of college GOTdamn football. We will spring to action towards another game that will be settled not with words, but with an old fashioned hunkering down 'tween the hedges.

Take it away Woerner!

Endzone celebration that pre-dates the "Clempsoning" era.

Is this a morning in which you would like to hear Magill and Munson talk about Georgia and Clemson?

I know I would.

The Coach Magill helmet

Saturday is going to be even more emotionally draining than your usual opener.

Clempson preview - turning over a new leaf

One of the things I meant to but never got around to doing this offseason was spending some more time looking at how (the lack of) turnovers affected the wins and the losses last season. Put plainly, the inability to create turnovers played a key role in Willie Martinez's departure after the 2009 season, and Grantham's ineffectiveness in 2013.

If you want to be able to tell if a defense is sound fundamentally, is playing with confidence, and is playing with aggressiveness, all you have to do is look at the number of fumbles covered up and the number of passes picked. If a defense is tackling well, fumbles are going to happen. If a defensive back is in position to make a play, interceptions will undoubtedly follow.

As Tyler mentioned earlier this week, predicting how Pruitt's first defense in Athens will fare on Saturday against Chad Morris' revamped offense is a hard proposition. A quick look at the numbers shows Clemson giving the ball away about twice per game (mostly due to the fact that they handed South Carolina the ball 6 times) and FSU taking it away about three times a game last season.

Can Pruitt's first Bulldog defense, in their first game, come close to duplicating his unit's effort in Death Valley last season, gaining two fumbles against the Tigers and two interceptions as well?

 He gone? 

What weighs in our favor?

• Quarterbacks. On one hand, both squads have new signal callers. On the other, Georgia's is about to make his third start whereas Cole Stoudt will be making his first in a hostile environment on national television. Add in the fact that they will also throw a freshman in the mix at some point (probably) and it's something that Richt and his staff should be able to take advantage of.
• Offensive line. Both teams have question marks here. I'm glad ours gets to start this season at home.

What weighs in their favor?

• Vic Beasley. You've been hearing his name a lot this week for good reason. The Tiger defensive end is coming off a season where he had 13 sacks, four forced fumbles and 23 tackles for loss. He makes his living in the opponents' backfield. He proved as much in the last matchup.
• Luck. Because she hates our ass.

Starting off the season by protecting the ball on offense and getting greedy with the ball on defense would be a great way to start the season. Am I right?

Never mind. It's all good.

Forget I mentioned it at all. Because this happened.

This year is the 30th anniversary of Kevin Butler's 60-yard field goal to lift Georgia over Clemson. Could it happen again? The circumstances would be hard to duplicate, but Georgia has the kicker to do it.

Marshall Morgan, who made field goals from 56 and 55 yards last year, nailed a 60-yarder in practice the other day, according to head coach Mark Richt. It happened as the team simulated the final play of last year's Iron Bowl, the infamous missed long field goal that led to Auburn's touchdown return.

Except Morgan made the field goal.

"We could've just had him kick short. But I told him, You try to make it, and then we'll make sure that if you do make it we'll flip the ball back there to whoever's back there so we can get a return out of it, so everybody can know what to do if it happens," Richt said. "And he drilled it."

As my kids say, "well shut the front door!"

Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2014/08/27/3272025_thirty-years-after-butlers-kick.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Repost: The Clempson Anecdotes - "Touch that Rock son!"

*From about a year and a half ago, I put this here to help explain how truly awesome this rivalry is and how much I will truly miss it after we kick their Tiger ass Saturday night.

Okay, so I promised to clarify a little. But as I sat down to type this out I realized that there was more than one post here. So let's make it into a series. That's something I learned my second junior year of blogging school.

The year was 2003. Georgia had renewed its rivalry with Clemson and once again the Tigers had been disappointed; losing by a Billy Bennett field goal in 2002 and getting absolutely outclassed a year later. But even more importantly Georgia was creating some traditions under new coach Mark Richt. One of these was the Dawg Walk. With a renewed sense of energy in the tackle football program after an impressive SEC Championship run, the Dawg Walk (where the team is dropped off on Lumpkin adjacent to Clark Howell Hall and the Tate Plaza to enter the stadium amid thousands of fans, the Redcoats, Hairy Dawg and the cheerleaders) was starting to draw good numbers. Add to that the fact that South Carolina was in town and the fact that it was a big time night game and the atmosphere was electrified tenfold.

Thomas Davis make Charlie go BOOM!! (via)

Mrs. Bernie and I had decided to take in the Dawg Walk prior to taking our seats in the stadium. New to this tradition we got there late and had to stand about six deep as we waited for the buses to arrive. While doing so there's really not much to do except people watch and listen to the band hammer out songs that enliven the crowd even more. A group of guys had gathered in front of us and in the middle one of them was wearing a Georgia helmet. At first I thought that he was quite the superstitious fan to wear headgear on such a hot day. But then again, this was well into an afternoon where many beverages had been consumed around campus. Judging from their behavior they had enjoyed their fair share. Perhaps even more.

Prior to the team coming through, a large group of recruits were escorted in and I kept hearing a familiar phrase. "TOUCH THAT ROCK SON!! You know you want to!" My ears had to be deceiving me. Why would a Georgia fan tell a recruit to touch Howard's Rock, the chunk of granite Clemson players grope as they enter the stadium? How drunk was this guy?

As the scene played out and I gathered more context from the friends around him I began to realize that this Georgia fan was actually a Clemson "grad" who had surely lost a bet in Death Valley two weeks before when Greene, Gibson and Pollack had dismantled the Tigers 30-0. He was now paying the price by being paraded around in Georgia gear for everyone to see and take pictures of with their brand new flip phone.

Or was he paying any price at all? He knew a lot of the recruits by name it seemed. And here he was not so subtly recruiting for a rival program, at least in terms of recruiting trails. The novelty of the sight grew to the point that some of these kids acknowledged him and smiled. Why were his buddies letting him get away with this?!?

On the other hand, we beat them 30-0. And it wasn't even that close. This clown probably should've taken Charlie Whitehurst's place. Wouldn't have done any worse.

Repost - "Clemson: next game in an old rivalry"

*From about a year and a half ago, I put this here to help explain how truly awesome this rivalry is and how much I will truly miss it after we kick their Tiger ass Saturday night.

Recently I was asked...

Other than Herschel, who is your favorite Bulldog and why?

Scott Woerner. Although I grew up in Athens, I was raised in a Clemson household. Dad often took me to their games when I was young to show off his alma mater. But Woerner single-handedly beat Clemson in 1980, returning a punt 68 yards for a touchdown and an interception 98 yards to set up another score. He's the player I've looked up to the longest as a fan of college football. I love to watch my dad twitch uncomfortably in his seat when I simply mention Woerner's name. Number 19 played with skill, smarts and a ton of heart. Damn Good Dawg!^*

Tuesday's news really got me amp'd up to tell you the truth. I'm excited that the opener is a nationally televised contest. But we pretty much expected that with two teams that will be highly ranked, most likely. Still, it was like a rich echo in the cavernous valley of the off season, chanting my name and telling me that college football will be back soon. (soon...soon...soon...)

Of course the reality is that it is still 176 (??...I think) days away. But I'm probably as excited for this opener as any other in recent memory. Playing Clemson means playing against family. Nearly my entire immediate family lives up there. I made my parents sign a four page contract before they could have my daughter there for the weekend, unattended. To this day there are still pictures floating around somewhere that my lawyer has yet to successfully subpoena. I'm sure of it.

Yes, this rivalry is deep rooted. Although I grew up within minutes of Vince Dooley's house on Milledge Circle, it was Clemson games blasting from the radio on Saturday afternoons as dad worked in the garage or in the back yard. Of course Munson's voice found its way through the house as well.

Which is why this is so big for me. And why I'm already so excited. More so than usual. Are you with me? Of course you are. Let's go touch that rock and GATA!

^*Many thanks to the folks at BulldawgIllustrated for the acknowledgement.

Going deep...??

Bobo's players are confident they can still get deep when needed, even without Scott-Wesley and Mitchell in the opener.

Still, Mason and the Bulldogs express confidence in the passing game, and the deep threat, based on a couple of reasons.

First, Mason is used to not having Mitchell and Scott-Wesley. They were long gone by the time he took over last season and have basically been absent from practice this spring and preseason.

... 

Second, having speed isn’t the only way to complete the deep ball, as everyone points out.

“Sometimes you don’t have to have blinding speed to go deep, sometimes it’s just a matter of getting off the jam and getting the guy cut off,” head coach Mark Richt said. “You know all these guys have pretty good game speed not many guys just run away from people. But you know we have had a good history of placing the ball where our guys can catch it.”

Put another way, the hope is that Mason can hit Bennett, Conley or someone else on a nicely placed pass after the receiver puts the move on a defender.

I get that. And I believe there are yards downfield that Mason and his receivers can grab. But having just re-watched the Gator Bowl where deep passes and especially completions were hard to come by, I'm very eager to see it play out.