The SEC gives us more advantages than clemson has. The right coach and breaks and there is no reason we shouldn't be able to field a team like they've had the last few years with better facilities, a bigger budget and the prestige of the SEC. We didn't catch up in facilities and all that until about 2009-ish. Our last coach claimed he'd be a tireless recruiter and then quietly decided he couldn't recruit here after a couple of years and consequently finished the last few years spending less on recruiting than most of the SEC. Clemson by comparison was propelled by the drive to beat us into being a national powerhouse, they didn't lament SC and FSU blocking them from greater success, they upped their game and both SC and FSU have hit the gutter. The only issue we have that's related to the SEC is level of competition, and that's also an opportunity. Clemson has a small alumni base and a lot of talking heads think they are tapped for the next decade from all the fundraising and major donations they got over the last few years. Clemson didn't win just because they found Dabo, they won because they bet on him, trusted him while hitting an unprecedented skid against their rival (us) and put up the farm for it, and they did that while a lot of them were still wondering if he was the guy to beat them. Clemson understood that there is no coach to end our streak without support and they stopped him with no proof he could win the big games. If we want to beat Clemson we need to get Beamer whatever he needs. If we want to win the SEC we need to back the only horse we got and if he can't get it done we need to find someone who will, but only after we've given him a real chance. Saying we should leave the SEC because it's a challenge is a loser mentality if I've ever heard one. We went from being the red headed step child of the state government, 1902 was such a big upset because we had less than half the students clemson had, to leaving the comfort of the southern conference in solidarity with clemson to the upstart ACC, to getting screwed over by their admissions standards causing most in state players to go elsewhere, to getting screwed over by Clemson not standing in solidarity with us, to falling behind on funding as an independent, to the steroid scandal, to finally being invited to the SEC, finally winning a bowl game, finally getting the athletic department in the black, to finally competing with facilities, to finally having multiple 11 win seasons, to finally having the five game streak and you want to walk back the first 30 years this program didn't have every outside factor imaginable lined up against it because of a few rough years? There is no path to the top of the mountain without the SEC because we would lose all of the advantages that could propel us when things line up for us. If you're tired if losing to Clemson why would you give up the money and conference prestige which are the ONLY two advantages we have over them?
