Tigers fall short of history thanks to late season losses
CLEMSON — Inside the Esso Club, a popular sports bar on Old Greenville Highway here downtown, Clemson athletics are immortalized.
From my table, I can see a row of pictures on the wall. One is a picture of football coach Dabo Swinney with his hand on Howard’s Rock with a signed note to the Esso Club. Beside it, there’s a picture of the 2003 football squad that won the Peach Bowl against Tennessee.
There are three pictures across the wall of the baseball team, past and present. There’s a photo of fans on the court of Littlejohn Coliseum, presumably after a big win. Olympic sports are represented, too: golf, volleyball, men’s soccer and track.
With the history of Clemson sports plastered across the walls of the town’s iconic sports bar, I can’t help but have a few questions, and maybe a few suggestions, for the Tigers as someone who attended high school near Clemson.
For one, if you insist on pronouncing it “Clemp-son,” then maybe you should just go ahead and add the “p.” However, if you don’t want to do that, then “Clemson” should be pronounced in the same way “crimson,” with the “s” making a “z” sound. You’re welcome!
Also, I understand that your resentment of the SEC grew when you were once again overlooked during the conference expansion craze, with two mediocre Big 12 schools accepted into football’s most competitive conference before an above-average ACC school.
But is it really necessary to black out the SEC at the Esso Club? The hyped Cincinnati–Rutgers matchup was on instead of Kentucky–Georgia, a game that decided the SEC East champion. Thirty minutes before Clemson kicked off at N.C. State, every single TV was turned to Georgia Tech at Duke. I mean, I guess that was a more competitive game than the one that Clemson played against the Yellow Jackets.
And if you insist on pretending your program isn’t envious of the SEC, then why not try some originality? LSU was Death Valley first, and Auburn was “All In” before you, although based on your fan base that wanted Swinney out as coach after a 6-6 season last year, you should probably change the motto to “All In … When Winning.”
You ripped off “Tiger Rag,” too. Pretending to be an SEC school hasn’t helped you much as your defense is ranked No. 59 in the nation, which is worse than 75 percent of the teams in the SEC, in case you were wondering. Congratulations, your defense is ranked higher than Kentucky, Ole Miss and Auburn.
Speaking of Auburn, you guys were pretty excited to beat a team that lost its Heisman quarterback and the best player on the defense. Nevertheless, that win warranted a storming of the field and great YouTube video of Swinney channeling his inner Vince McMahon in the middle of fans as he proclaimed that the Tigers made a decision to be great that day. I’m surprised he didn’t pull a Tim Tebow right there in the middle of the field.
The Tigers also gave Swinney a Gatorade shower after the win at Maryland. Here’s another free suggestion: Beating Maryland should be expected and not something to celebrate. I know, they find a way to beat you on a consistent basis with inferior talent, but that doesn’t make them good. They’ve only won two games all season!
Then again, maybe former Clemson defensive ends coach Chris Rumph was right. When recruiting Jadeveon Clowney, the No. 1 high school recruit in the 2011 class, for Alabama, Rumph supposedly told Clowney he left Clemson for a coaching position at Alabama because “they can’t win there.” Clowney, the Rock Hill native, ultimately decided to stay instate, signing with USC over Clemson and Alabama.
With a perfect season on the line, Rumph looked prophetic as the Tigers fell to an inferior Georgia Tech squad. Clemson nearly lost to Wake Forest, if not for a miraculous field goal by Chandler Catanzaro, who seems to miss field goals shorter than Kim Kardashian’s marriage on a regular basis.
Against N.C. State, a team playing for bowl eligibility, quarterback Tajh Boyd looked more like Brett Favre (in his last season) than the Heisman candidate he was considered to be in the first half of the season. After beating Virginia Tech, Clemson had every reason to go undefeated for the remainder of the year but now has two losses to two lesser teams. The Tigers seem to have a knack for spoiling seemingly perfect situations.
Ask the baseball team, which was seeded in the regionals to create a rivalry series between Clemson and the national No. 4 seed USC in the super regionals. The selection committee clearly had too much faith in the Tigers, as Clemson fell to an inferior UConn team that the Gamecocks disposed of in two games en route to repeating as national champions.
South Carolina hasn’t beaten Clemson three straight times in football since the Richard Nixon administration, but the time of USC being the inferior football team in South Carolina is gone. Ever since the Gamecocks beat the Tigers in Columbia in 2009, USC has compiled two of its best seasons in program history. The Gamecocks know how to win now.
I’ve wondered why Swinney does his weekly call-in show at Bi-Lo of all places, when there are several sports bars downtown that would be more appropriate. Maybe, it’s that with Clemson history all over the walls, Swinney doesn’t want to be reminded of the history that his team could’ve added but instead fell short.