Dealing with Expectations

By: Roy Philpott

Every year about this time, as the upcoming season preview magazines start to hit the magazine shelves, fans start pondering legitimate expectations for their respective teams.

It's always interesting to see how one magazine views a team differently than another.

Truthfully, you are going to get 100 times the information on Clemson on a web site like CUTigers.com or through a newspaper that covers the beat simply because we know what is going on at Clemson more than any national media outlet ever could.

We are there, on campus, probably 300 days of the year.

However, the preview magazines are a great way to get a feel for what the rest of the ACC has been up to during the offseason and to gauge how good (or bad) certain teams could be in the coming year.

But for the Clemson football team, things are going to be a little different over the course of the next few months than what we've seen in years past.

Why?

Because this year, the Tigers are going to be the favorite to win the league. No more Matt Ryan. Florida State and Miami are still rebuilding. Virginia Tech lost most of its defense, not to mention its top receiver, running back and cornerback.

Tommy Bowden told us last week in an interview for our upcoming 2008 preview issue of CUTigers The Magazine, he wouldn't be treating anything different even though his team will be picked to win the ACC.

"I’ve been coaching long enough to know that those (predictions) are really not that important because injuries you don’t know about or getting an unlucky break or team moral," he said. "You just don’t know how your team is going to handle certain situations. How are they going to react to a loss? Those are things you don’t know.

“I don’t look at it any differently that what I have over my last 31 years (of coaching). We’re really not going to prepare any differently. But we are going to talk to them a little differently because they’re going to read things that are different about this team than they’ve read in the past because of the expectations."

Typically speaking, the Tigers have played better under Bowden with their back against the wall and not as the favorite. In fact, Bowden and his team haven't lost a game as a lined underdog since Oct. 2005 against Georgia Tech.

But how will they respond being named the favorite to win the Atlantic Division and the league?

A handful of national level publications have already listed Clemson as the favorite to win the ACC, including reporters on CollegeFootballNews.com and ESPN.com. And that's just the beginning.

Strangely enough, this team is already used to playing the favorite role in individual games. Check out a listing of the lined games Clemson has played in during the last two years:

2007:
Auburn - Clemson by 2.5
South Carolina - Clemson by 3
Boston College - Clemson favored by 8.5
Wake Forest - Clemson favored by 8.5
Duke - Clemson favored by 17.5
Maryland - Clemson favored by 3.5
Central Michigan - Clemson favored by 17
Virginia Tech - Clemson favored by 5.5
Georgia Tech - Clemson favored by 3
N.C. State - Clemson favored by 8
Furman - no line
Louisiana-Monroe - Clemson favored by 27
Florida State - 'Noles favored by 3

2006
Kentucky - Clemson favored by 9
South Carolina - Clemson favored by 5.5
N.C. State - Clemson favored by 17
Maryland - Clemson favored by 11
Virginia Tech - Clemson by 4.5
Georgia Tech - Clemson favored by 8
Temple - Clemson favored by 43.5
Wake Forest - Clemson favored by 16.5
Louisiana Tech - Clemson favored by 33.5
Florida State - Florida State by 4
Boston College - Clemson favored by 2.5
Florida Atlantic - Clemson favored by 33.5

Notice a trend? If you're name isn't Florida State, you're going to be an underdog against the Tigers.

But how will they respond being named the favorite to win the league at the ACC's Annual Preseason Media Kickoff? Does it increase the pressure? Is it a motivating factor? Is it meaningless?

You tell me.

No Surprise, But Good News

By: Roy Philpott

Our friends at the Charleston Post & Courier reported earlier today Oliver Purnell has signed his contract extension, which was first announced before Clemson's NCAA Tournament game against Villanova back in March.

While that should come as no surprise, it's good news none the less.

Purnell is all class and has turned the Tigers into an ACC power in five seasons on the job. What's even more impressive than that is the kind of talent he has coming to Tigertown in the years to come.

Unlike two of the more succesful coaches at Clemson in the last 25 years, Cliff Ellis and Rick Barnes, Purnell has positioned the basketball program to experience virtually no fall off after a successful season due to multiple years of outstanding recruiting.

The Tigers will welcome one of the top point guards in the nation on campus later this summer when Andre Young officially enrolls at Clemson. He'll be joined by a pair of four-star prospects in 7-1 center Catilin Baicu and 6-5 small forward Tanner Smith.

And that's only the beginning.

The following year, power forward Milton Jennings, who will end up being one of the top players to ever sign with the Tigers before it's all said and done, will report to Clemson along with the younger brother of current Clemson forward Trevor Booker, Devin.

Purnell deserves every penny of the $1 million+ he's getting because he's turned the Tigers from a league cellar-dwellar to one of the top four programs in the conference.

And nobody except Purnell thought it could be done at what most people percieved simply as a "football school."

Bye Bye Boise

By: Roy Philpott

Call me crazy, but is the ACC somewhat crazy too?

The Humanitarian Bowl has been reserved for the eighth-place team in the ACC for quite some time, however now the league is seeking to align itself with a new bowl game formed in Washington, D.C. and old one in Mobile, Ala, instead of sending a team out west.

That's right, be sure to hold your breath for the "Congressional Bowl" in our Nation's capital and the GMAC Bowl in Mobile in the coming years.

I guess I understand the desire to move away from the bowl game in Boise, ID. It's more than 2,300 miles away from most schools in the league and not the most attractive location for most fans.

Except for people like me, who want to go on a nice winter vacation to go skiing, of course.

If you think about it, if you are the eighth-place team in the league, your fans probably aren't going to travel in throngs anyway, but why in the world would anybody want to spend a cold December afternoon in Mobile, Ala. of all places?

Washington is more understandable, but teams from around the league already play Maryland, don't they? For every team in the Atlantic Division, they'll be in the D.C. area every two years as it is. Sure, there's an opportunity for touring the city during the week leading up to the game itself and that makes sense, but D.C. is going to be cold and dreary in December- is that really a "big reward?"

Furthermore, this year's Congressional Bowl will pit the ACC's ninth-place team against Paul Johnson-less Navy (if it is bowl eligible).

Who is that going to be - Duke? North Carolina? Duke versus Navy in Washington, D.C. Ugh.

How about South Carolina versus Navy? Ouch, better not go there.

Again, call me crazy, but send the eighth-place team to Boise for a week of fun in the snow and possibly some of the best skiing in the country instead of Ladd-Peoples Stadium in Mobile.

Even it if it's called the Crucial.com Humanitarian Bowl Presented by the Larry Miller Automotive Group (which it was at one point by the way), it still holds more prestige than the previously mentioned option.

And the ninth place team? Just keep whoever that is at home.

Please, for the love of television ratings.

No Ninth Game? No Problem

By: Roy Philpott

It is being reported the ACC has nixed the idea of adding a ninth game to its regular season football schedule.

While I don't really have a problem with that, I do think it's intriguing to consider how such a format would work.

Would the ninth game be scheduled against the same opponent every year in the same way every team in the Atlantic Division has a certain team in the Coastal in plays every single year? (For Clemson that team is Georgia Tech)

If that would be the case, why not Miami or Virginia Tech? Knowing Clemson would get to play the 'Canes or Hokies every year would be a nice "addition" to the schedule.

Even though it isn't going to happen, it wouldn't be a bad thing to have another guaranteed game against a quality opponent.

The coaches, on the other hand, are completely against it as playing another conference game is seen in their eyes as the potential difference between nine and 10 wins- which could keep their team out of the BCS.

At this point the ACC isn't good enough to where that argument is valid.