How did Clemson become elite overnight?
- Thread starter KirbysDawgs
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Agree. I watched that game at a close friend's house. He's an LSU lifer. We thought the rout was on when Clemson fumbled on a big hit in the first series. I remember thinking when Clemson gutted out an impressive win, "that's a different Clemson team. That wasn't Clemsoning." That game was the springboard.
The other play that sticks out in my mind was in 2014, SC @ Clemson game. Early in the game one of our DBs dropped what would have been a pick 6 to put the Gamecocks up 14-0. If that pass hadn't been dropped would Clemson have crumbled under pressure of losing 5 in a row? We were in their heads.
The other play that sticks out in my mind was in 2014, SC @ Clemson game. Early in the game one of our DBs dropped what would have been a pick 6 to put the Gamecocks up 14-0. If that pass hadn't been dropped would Clemson have crumbled under pressure of losing 5 in a row? We were in their heads.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405872616300570
In the United States, where national rankings by the USNWR dominate, some institutions manipulate statistics by maximizing admissions scores and refusal rates. Any shift from needs-based financial aid to merit-based aid influences the average scores of an entering class.48 In publicized accounts, a number of American universities—including Clemson, Claremont McKenna, Northeastern, Emory, George Washington, Bucknell, Baylor, and Tulane—admitted to revising class sizes, boosting academic salaries, or intentionally supplying incorrect information to USNWR to improve their positions in the rankings
Pretty easy to answer... Burch is the only true five star so there aren't in fact 2 as you say. Lloyd is 7th best RB in class according to 247 so not a universal 5 star. He wanted playing time and SC is graduating a bunch of RBs. So not really difficult to see why he would go there without having to think he was paid.
Next is Burch who is a true 5 star. HE LIVES IN COLUMBIA! Go back and read my post. I said that Clemson got Sammy Watkins, CJ Spiller, etc from the backyard of other high profile schools like Florida, FSU, etc.
He's a big part. They imported every single facet of Alabama's program.
Along with that, they started by signing elite skill guys. A lot of Florida guys "apparently" came due to connections between a now retired coach and some bagmen in the state of Florida. Apparently those connections continue even though he isn't actively coaching.
Get the skill guys in, it's easier to recruit a higher level QB. Get a higher level QB, it's easier to recruit higher level OL. Then follow the same formula on defense.
Then add in more bagmen, and New Spring. Remember when we got a lot of talent from the Rock Hill area? Remember taters crying because we had Rock Hill locked down? Nowadays they pretty much skim the cream from Rock Hill and keep going. Have we signed any big time RH guys in the last few years?
They've parlayed that success into the monster recruiting class they're getting this year. They've been VERY lucky avoiding injuries. They've been VERY lucky avoiding distractions. They've been VERY lucky avoiding having guys in trouble. Having the media and the Clemson police running cover for them certainly helps.
The whole Ostarine deal went away, they kept promising to investigate it, in truth they just kept biding time until other stories buried the interest.
The talent they have on offense lets them run up a lot of points, the defense is dominant, and the schedule is weak enough they get to play a lot of guys and rest starters saving them from wear and tear.
Basically the only thing that can slow them down in the short term is losing lots of coaches to other jobs (which is part of what's hurt Alabama), or a U of Miami-type implosion.
In the long term it's cyclical, eventually they'll slip for a bit.
Didn’t happen overnight. Took 6-7 seasons embarrassing losses to WVU on a national stage division clinching wins followed by losses in the ACC champ game. The thing Clemson has done successfully is to build on every failure and learn from every mistake so that it doesn’t happen again.
The other thing Clemson had during that time period was endless motivation not to lose because every time it did, the pundits brought up the whole clemsoning thing. Even when other teams (I.e. Georgia almost every year had a dumb loss) were losing more spectacularly, Clemson was targeted. As a result they were more motivated during that time period not to lose a head scratcher and to play abov of their weight class all the time.
Clemson has great coaches good roster management, with excellent development of its three star players (like Isiah Simmons). The only other thing is that Clemson excelled with an offense that was ahead of the curve. During a time when everyone told them they couldn’t win a championship with the spread’em out HUNH. They proved people wrong. Now everyone (including LSU) has copies Clemson’s philosophy and has resorted to the spreadem out HUNH, pass first to set up the run offense. It was truly a novelty when Deshaun was coming along though.
My 2 cents.
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South Carolina needs to look for inefficiencies in the sport and exploit them. At the time when Clemson was accelerating from just an above average program it happened to be offense the passing game and the WR position that was inefficient and somewhat archaeic. That is not the case any more. Clemson taught the whole world the back shoulder throw, which is now in every bodies playbook.
The future is going to be figuring out the inefficiencies on defense that are leading to teams (like LSU) scoring 60 points in a college football playoff game. The first team that can figure out how to neutralize these offenses will elevate itself above the pack for a short period. If that team can capitalize (with a national title) it can keep itself towards the forefront.
