BASKETBALLIN OUT OF CONTROL

Unless you've been hiding from creditors in the backwoods of Lumpkin, SC with no contact with the outside world then you would know that the Clemson basketball team is off to one of the hottest starts in school history. We are undefeated and 17-0, a record that is tied with the 1986-1987 season which accomplished the same feat. Not only that, we are 3-0 in ACC play this year and tied for first along with Boston College (11-4, 3-0 ACC).

Clemson has topped off it's success with a recent road victory... err ass beating of N.C. State. They broke a 4-loss streak in the RBC center which is a losing streak that dates all the way back to early 2000.

Oliver Purnell credits the play of the entire team, and not just a five to seven man rotation that is standard with most teams. Also receiving credit and kudos from Purnell is obviously Junior Forward James Mays, Senior Guard Vernon Hamilton, and Sophomore guard K.C. Rivers. Clemson improved to 28-0 with Mays in the lineup with this past Tuesday's win over N.C. State. He led the Tigers to an 11-0 start last season before he was declared academically ineligible, and the team went on to lose 10 of 13 games. Hamilton's speed and leadership has been an obvious and very visible factor in all of Clemson's wins this year. K.C. Rivers was referred to as the "Best Bench Player in the ACC" by the announcer's during the N.C. State game.

"Free Throws were a key to the win against Georgia Tech. We have been working hard at free throws all season, and our work is beginning to pay off. Over the Christmas break, we held numerous free throw only practices during the morning. This has really helped our players’ fine tune their routines and step to the line with confidence. We are going to continue to shoot a lot of free throws as a team and individually, as many ACC games this season will come down to the line and we want to be prepared." - Purnell on Clemson's biggest concern. Freebies turned out to be the downfall of the Clemson Basketball season last year.

The Tigers, ranked 17th by the Associated Press and 14th in the USA Today poll, will face #25 Maryland on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU.

K.C. Rivers continues to punish teams with his clutch three-point shooting.

RUMORVILLE, U.S. AND A.

Please heed the fact that these are, once again, rumors.

It's reported that Rich Rodriguez, former Clemson Offensive Coordinator and current West Virginia head coach has been making phone calls to Clemson Assistant coach Ron West. Apparently Rich Rod needs help with linebackers?

Also, NC State and head coach Tom O'Brien are snatchin up some coaches like a muhfugga. They've gone pillagin across the land and they're pitch forks and torches have come to Clemson, SC. They've got their eye's set on David Blackwell. If we lose him and Dabo Swinney, we're going to be in trouble in the recruiting department. Looks like the entire coaching staff is putting on their swimming trunks and wanting to jump ship if Bowden gets the boot. Or... is it all part of Bowden's plan to keep his job? The old "If I go, they go" deal.

DFIG still searching for some credibility: "Man, we ain't found SHIT!"

MORE RUMORATION

Two days after yanking their offer, FSU has decided they still heart Jimbo and hire him as OC. Great pickup for the 'Noles.

Calvin Johnson is leaving GT for the NFL.

Sidney Rice is leaving USC for the NFL.

The ACC will name a new Director of Football Officials next week, as current Director Tommy Hunt is retiring. Doug Rhodes, a retiring backjudge from Virginia will take the spot.

Bobby Petrino of Louisville is headed to Atlanta to coach the Falcons and have his career killed by Michael Vick and the ever-nosy Artie Blank. Louisville has already found a replacement in Tulsa's Steve Kragthorpe.

RUMORS GALORE

The halls of the IPTAY office are clamoring with rumors of the Clemson football program being turned upside down. Many of our coaches are being courted by other programs and a lot of money is in the talks.

First and foremost, The University of Georgia has offered Clemson Offensive Line coach Brad Scott a juicy contract for his services to be rendered in Athens. This is official and not just a rumor. Word is that they have been talking to him since early 2006 about jumping ship.

Secondly, all I'm gonna say is that Alabama has been doing a mating dance for Dabo Swinney practically since Clemson hired him. I wouldn't blame them since he's a ridiculous recruiter for Clemson. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't pick him up now that Saban is packing his bags for Tuscaloosa.

Finally, it seems that Danny Ford has been answering prayers after all. Word is that some guys with a lot of money that swing big sticks and donate bundles of money to IPTAY and Clemson have been visiting the offices and with the higher ups about getting rid of Bowden and finding a new head coach. I don't know what it is that Bowden does to keep his job usually, but he'd better really turn up the effort.

Please, this is all rumors and watercooler talk, so don't take it as cold hard facts.

LSU DRUBS NOTRE DAME

BLOG AWARDS PLUG

As a reminder, the guys over at MGoBlog are having a blog awards for the college football spectrum.

Please click this link to go to the ballot. You can only vote every 24 hours, but please, vote as much as you can. Simply paste in www.DannyFordIsGod.com into the categories you think we should win.

Obviously since a lot of other blogs out there have cornered the market on other categories and we can't be the best Big Ten blog, we're wanting you to stress us in the following categories: Dr. Z Award, Best New Blog, Chris Berman Antimatter Award, The Old Faithful Award, and Best ACC Blog. The rest of the categories are up to your descretion.

The Chris Berman Antimatter Award is for a popular catch phrase invented over the year and we'd like for you to submit "Frank Beamer's Neck Bubble" by simply typing that in and copypasta the following link as well:

http://dannyfordisgod.blogspot.com/2006/10/viciously-beating-dead-horse.html

The Old Faithful Award is for a recurring post that has hilarity. We are submitting DSOT. Simply follow the same previous guidelines and don't forget to write "Dumb Shit On Tigernet" and not just DSOT. Copypasta:

http://dannyfordisgod.blogspot.com/2006/12/little-bit-of-dumb-shit-on-tigernet.html

For other categories, we would like for you to support our bloggers-in-arms on our sidebar and vote respectively for them

Our votes are as follows:
Best Big Twelve: http://the12thmanchild.blogspot.com/
Best Big Ten: http://runupthescore.blogspot.com/
Best SEC: www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com

Lastly, we gotta holler out to ol' Bill Kristoph from Scalp Em for the The Sports Fans that Don't Cry Award. It's for the blog that had a vomit inducing season, yet managed to put on their smiles and trudge to their seats in the bleachers every Saturday. Copypasta:

http://www.scalpem.com/blog/

Also, if you want to check out the ads on the side of the page, feel free, it helps us out a lot.

Thanks again and don't forget, stay in vegetables and eat your school.

KENTUCKY WRAP UP

You know, usually we give things two days to cool off after a loss... then one of us will write the wrap up. Well, I got to Monday afternoon and turned on my DVR and started to watch the game. Then I had to stop. It made me physically ill. A wave of terrible memories of the sights, smells (mostly of the drunk and ugly KU fans), and etc etc [insert hack material and terrible, corny jokes here] of last Friday's clusterfuck of a bowl game came rushing back to me.

Let me start by saying this much. If you like Myrtle Beach, and I mean, genuinely like the tourist trap aspect of it, then you'd love the Gaylord Hotel. The rooms and the hotel itself is nice. There's a problem though, its like five HUGE hotels connected by two giant malls and a huge courtyard. Every convention you could imagine was in Nashville staying at the Gaylord Hotel. We get to the hotel at 8 PM only to be informed that our rooms are not ready. Check out is at 11 AM. Check in is at 3 PM. We get to the hotel at 8 PM only to be informed that our rooms are not ready. On top of all this, of course we have some disgusting woman who takes no pride in personal appearance (she was more of a pear shape rather than a coke bottle... I'd never seen a fat girl without big boobs until I met her.) Then we finally get a desk manager of the age of 26 who informs us that he graduated from Hampden Sydney and that the Gaylord Hotel is HIS hotel and he will have us escorted out if we continue to act displeased, even though it is completely justified and even though we were treated poorly and we get to the hotel at 8 PM only to be informed that our rooms are not ready. Have I mentioned that? I calmly explain to him that he is a closet homosexual and his degree is worth shyte. Then we finally get the on shift manager who explains to us that the hotel is very sorry and that they have overbooked. We were finally given some decent rooms and some compensation... by the way, the hotel manager that helped us out graduated from South Carolina of all places. Long story short, the average fuse on a member of the Mac family is very short.

When we arrived at the shithole that was the Tennessee Titans stadium, it was flooded with blue and white with nary a bit of orange to be seen. We were totally outnumbered. It would have been neat if UK fans were as cool as TAMU fans, but not so much. Imagine USC fans dressed in blue and white that are far more desperate. To accompany the UK fanbase's already growing annoyingness... was their cheer. C-A-T-S CATS! CATS! CATS! I got into an argument with a UK fan after I had simply chanted "J-E-T-S JETS! JETS! JETS!" He asked me, "Jyust whut are ewe trayan tuh imply there sitty boy." Floored for many reasons, I stated that Clemson was far more of a country school than UK, we've just been to a few bowl games and know how to act/dress/talk/handle ourselves at them. Then I stated that any team in sports with three to six letters in it's name does the SAME stupid cheer. He quipped, "Well ya'll do it to!" I informed him that unfortunately for his argument, our cheer was steeped in rich military tradition because it is an actual cadence count that cadets would sound off with while marching... while their's was just made up *cough, stolen, cough* some drunk Saturday. Yes folks, I got into a shouting match with a UK fan over which teams cheer was better. And yes, my ego was stroked after I won. I know, I'm an idiot and an asshole. Deal with it. Well, his closing argument was "Well, yeah? Fuck you." Me. "Ok. good." UK fan. "Yeah, I said it." Me. "I heard you... congratulations on your bowl invitations the past seven years... wait... that didn't happen." The guy was plastered so I pulled anchor before fists started flying and just made my way to my seat in time for the game. The Nashville jail did not sound pleasing to me.

Finally, the game. Here is my assessment after finally making it through the replay.

- Proctor, Stuckey, the team, overall played well, but only one stat counts. I pretty much expected Proctor to blow the game but he gave a genuinely good effort and didn't screw anything up... for the most part. There were some bad decisions, but he's a first year QB so that's expected. The team played hard and for that I am proud.

- Overall coached poorly. We abandoned the running game that was killing UK. I don't understand why you would do that. Davis and Spiller had 13 carries for a combined 77 yards. Thats an average of 5.9 yards per carry. IF UK HAS TROUBLE STOPPING THE RUN, THEN RUN THE BALL. Tommy Bowden is still timid in the redzone and is now officially hopeless. Give it a few more losses like this and Tommy Bowden should find a real estate agent.

- Stupid penalties. After the second missed field goal in the first half, one of our players had their helmet ripped off. Flags flew everywhere. That's the point you pick up your helmet and walk off the field. First and goal, Clemson. But no, we've got to be the rap superstars of the college football world. A guy ran his mouth and more flags flew... offsetting penalties, loss of downs, first and ten, Kentucky.

- No Reggie... that's a shitty way to send him out Tommy, I'll never forgive you for that one. Reggie has won you games Tommy, and you don't even have the custard in you to give him ONE SINGLE CARRY.

- We got hosed ref wise. I hate to be one of those fans that blames it on that, but hey, it's true. A good referee once told me, "You know the refs did a good job if you didn't notice them during the game." Let's just say, those referees stuck out like a turd in a punch bowl. Two calls really could have changed the game. The Proctor fumble which was clearly NOT a fumble. Guess who doesn't have the nuts to throw the red flag??? Bowden. Same thing in the USC game. TOMMY, THAT RED FLAG IS THERE FOR A REASON. LIFE IS FULL OF CHANCES, TAKE ONE PLEASE. The other bad call was when the Kentucky DB clearly pushed down Chansi Stuckey in the endzone and was left wide open to make the interception. I guess that's the football gods (Danny Ford & Co.) shitting on our chests for Gardner in 2000. But Gardner didn't push off, he just positioned himself well.

- Nashville sucked overall. I never want to go back to the Music City Bowl and Tommy Bowden better not take us back there anytime soon.

Look, all I want is a championship. A real meaningful championship. It could be an ACC or natty... I don't care. Then I'll give Bowden a break if we have more mediocre seasons. I JUST WANT ONE. IS ONE OUT OF SEVEN YEARS TOO MUCH TO ASK? I guess every one trained Rocky style while Bowden was busy on his ranch for this game.

Willy Mac: Representin' the struggles of the Clemson fans that went to Nashville.

Meanwhile, suddenly stumbling on DFIG...

"Wait... is that Kunta? Oh hell no that ain't right."