Bring the noise

posted by LW, Tuesday, November 24, 2009

I remember arriving at practice the week of the Miami game and hearing artificial crowd noise blaring through loudspeakers as the Tigers labored through their routine.

I thought it odd, because Miami is usually one of the more benign settings you'll see -- and particularly at the Hurricanes' new digs at Land Shark Stadium. Noise was not a factor as the Tigers pulled out a 40-37 overtime win in front of a ton of empty seats.

Figures to be a different story Saturday at Williams-Brice, a place that can get pretty rowdy if the home team is playing well (emphasis on "if.")

The Tigers haven't had to deal with a ton of noise thus far in their road games.

In terms of decibels faced in those settings, here's my rating of how loud it got at each game:

1. Georgia Tech

2. Maryland

3. N.C. State

4. Miami

Georgia Tech isn't usually regarded as a tough place to play, but it was noisy as the Jackets took a 24-0 first-half lead on a much-anticipated Thursday-night game.

The big surprise, in my mind, was Maryland. That place was a virtual library at the start of the noon game, and especially when Clemson went up 10-0 early. But folks started showing up, and it was actually pretty loud beginning late in the first half.

QB Kyle Parker had quite a bit of trouble with the silent snap count. It led to some false-start penalties that were really costly in the 24-21 defeat.

In The Post and Courier, Chris Hairston and Brad Scott are wary of the atmosphere that will greet them Saturday.

'With the noise of third-and-long,' Hairston said, 'I don't want to have those types of athletes with their ears pinned back.'

You have to think, though, that Clemson was very happy to hear of the noon start. The Tigers haven't exactly struggled there at night -- remember 63-17? -- and their only loss there since 1987 has come at noon (20-15 in 2001).

Clemson fans would absolutely love to see Billy-B look something like this late in the third quarter:


In The State, Ron Morris says this rivalry game should open the season.

Morris says Steve Spurrier would be in favor of such a move, based on his experiences at Florida when the Gators played the Seminoles in their regular-season finale every year -- one week before all those appearances in the SEC title game.

Spurrier went 4-7-1 against the Seminoles in those finales, and the fact that seven of the 20 regular-season losses he suffered in 12 seasons at Florida tells you how costly those defeats were. Had that game been earlier in the season, he'd probably have more than one national title.

Seven times Spurrier and Florida faced Florida State with a Southeastern Conference championship game looming the next week.

Florida's record against Florida State in those seven games was 1-5-1. Granted, those Florida State teams were outstanding with national rankings of No. 7 or higher in every meeting. But there is no denying Florida's greater goal was to win the following week in the SEC championship game.

"In the long run, if you said, 'Which one would you take if you could win one but not both, which one would you take?' " Spurrier said. "You'd take the conference championship."

There is some merit to the idea. But as I said yesterday, why mess with a good thing if you're Clemson? You've dominated the Gamecocks under the current format. What if the Gamecocks actually start winning the game regularly with an early-season date?

Also in The State, Paul Strelow concludes that the Tigers could fall all the way to the Champs Sports Bowl if they don't take care of business in the next two weeks.

I haven't yet polled any of the bowl reps, but the presence of Virginia Tech and North Carolina would put the Tigers in a precarious position if they lost both games.

But if the Tigers win Saturday and lose a close one to Georgia Tech, I still think they'd be hard for both the Chick-fil-A and Gator to pass up.

Eric Norwood says he's cool with C.J. Spiller unless he's playing against him.

"We're cool. I like to watch him play. I just don't want him to have a big game against us."

In the Independent-Mail, a story from last night's basketball drubbing of Winthrop.


A story on David Potter in The Post and Courier.

In The ACC Sports Journal, an interesting Q&A with the always-interesting Bud Foster.

Included is this snippet:

ACCSports.com:
There are a lot of us out there who struggle to understand why you haven’t already gotten that opportunity. Are there ever “why me?” moments, where you wonder if you’ve done something wrong and why more ADs aren’t picking up the phone and calling you?

Foster:

I’ve had some good job interviews.

I interviewed at UVa. Terry Holland told me, “Bud, you did a great job with your interview, but it would be hard for us to hire a Hokie.” And I told him, “Coach, I’m a Hokie by association. I don’t have a degree from Virginia Tech.” But they hired Al Groh, who’s one of their own, which is understandable.

I was a finalist for the Clemson job. I had a two-and-a-half-hour interview with their AD, Terry Don Phillips, and he told me, “Bud, you had a great interview. We’d make a great match.” But Dabo Swinney had a half-year interview as the interim coach, while I had a two-and-a-half-hour interview.

Those are the only major college jobs that I’ve seriously pursued (before this season). There are some jobs out there that are dead-end jobs to a certain degree that I could have been involved with.

Awful news about N.C. State offensive coordinator Dana Bible, who has leukemia.

Bible, 56, will spend 30 days undergoing treatment at the cancer center at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill.

"At the end of 30 days I guess we'll know where we go from there," O'Brien said. "He's still undergoing tests. It's certainly not a good situation."

According to O'Brien, Bible's doctor recommended Friday that he not travel with the team to last Saturday's game at Virginia Tech. Bible went to Chapel Hill for tests that determined he has acute promyelocytic leukemia.

Saturday was the first time in 34 years of coaching that Bible missed a game or practice. Bible has been on O'Brien's staff the past 11 seasons - eight of them at Boston College.

According to this story in the AJC, Georgia Tech's defense might not be as bad as you think it is.

The No. 7 Yellow Jackets (10-1) are allowing an average of 20 points during the past five games, compared to 26.5 during the first six.

One of the reasons has bee run defense, particularly against pro-style offenses, similar to the kind Georgia will be running Saturday night' at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

Tech is allowing an average of 27.6 yards per game in the past three games against teams (Duke. Wake Forest and Virginia) that featured a traditional rushing attack.

"We geared in on trying to stop something," coach Paul Johnson said.

I'm trying to figure out how Duke employs a traditional rushing attack, though.

At Miami, Frank Haith says his 5-0 Hurricanes are a "spring-chicken type of team."

Took in the majority of the Hurricanes' win over South Carolina, and those are some good spring chickens at guard.


LW

For questions or comments on this blog entry, please visit The West Zone message board.

Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home

---