Having lived in “upstate” South Carolina for the better part of four years, I had a first-hand look at watching Clemson’s fans work themselves up into a frenzy throughout the summer with their national championship hopes, only to watch Tommy Bowden’s team botch the first big conference game on their schedule and send their devoted congregation into an emotional tailspin.

While counting the Tigers out this season seems a bit premature with Dabo Swinney in his first full season as head coach, this Clemson fan, who kinda loses his shiat, certainly didn’t enjoy the team’s loss to Georgia Tech. But the ESPN crew did, as you can hear Chris Fowler and Jesse Palmer rip the poor guy to shreds, which seems a bit unfair. The passion of fans like this guy is the reason those guys have jobs watching football in the first place. But if I hadn’t been privy to this exact same scene since 2005, I’d probably be laughing, too. as seen here.

Tommy Bowden is a blessed man. Born with one of the golden names in college football, Bowdenrose quickly through the coaching ranks, landing at Clemson with only two years of head coaching experience. That pedigree was on display last Saturday night when Bowden’s Tigers took on Alabama, only to be molested like a Japanese teen using public transportation. Reeling from defeat, Bowden sought advice from a most unusual place–his vanquisher, Alabama coach Nick Saban.

“As I talked to coach Saban, I said, ‘I’m not one to have enough pride where I’ve got all the answers. I see you got six months to study me, a guy like you, what did you see?” Bowden said Tuesday.

Saban wasn’t the only high-profile coach Bowden called on this week. He said he also spoke with his father, Florida State coach Bobby Bowden; Georgia coach Mark Richt and Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer about how the Tigers would recover from the beatdown at the Georgia Dome.

“I’m always trying to learn and correct mistakes and solve potential problems,” he said.

And I’m sure that Richt and Saban picked Tommy’s brain as well. Those discussion topics would have included how Bowden gets his teams rated so high every year, only to have them plummet out of contention like clockwork. Don’t sell yourself short, Tommy! It usually takes us until mid-October to remember what a horrible game-day coach you are. You’re like six weeks ahead of schedule! Let’s go celebrate at TD’s. You know it’s meatloaf day today. Mmmmm, meatloaf with failure sauce. Just thinking about it makes me want to underachieve right now.

[FanNation]

Clemson football coach Tommy Bowden put together one of the school's best recruiting classes in ages this year, a commendable feat considering most top prospects in the South gravitate towards the SEC.

Oh hey, what's this?  Why, it's four-star offensive line recruit Ken Page wearing a Clemson-orange shirt, holding a stack of fresh twenties that would make Lorraine Bracco's character in Goodfellas blush. 

But I'm sure there's nothing fishy here.  High school seniors usually carry around a couple extra thousand dollars in cash.  Especially since that Bear Stearns buyout.  Kids these days — they just don't trust banks like us adults!  Am I right?

[More details at Brahsome]

Former South Carolina and Clemson stars have been caught in the mess that is BurnLounge, an online music store that is being sued by the Federal Trade Commission for being a pyramid scheme. Among the people smeared by the story are Steve Spurrier's son, the aptly named Steve Spurrier, Jr.

“When Bob Stoops got me, he said, ‘I’ve spoken to a lawyer about this. I’ve spoken to my agent. I’ve spoken to some people to find out if this is a legitimate thing. And everything they told me, this is a legitimate (business). Put your name on it and go do it,’” said Spurrier Jr., a member of Stoops’ Sooners staff from 1999 to 2001.

Man, I wonder if newspaper editors south of the Mason-Dixon have a pre-cooked "Southerners Fooled by Pyramid Scheme" story that they can run at a moment's notice.  Just change out the names every week — Britney Montclair, Robert E. Lee Johnson IV, Steve Spurrier, Jr — and they're all set.

I feel bad for my Southern readers.  I don't mean to disparage your beautiful part of the country.  Your football is excellent and your cheerleaders are divine.  It's just the 90% of the South that are retards make the sharp 10% look really bad.  Or is it 95/5?  I'm behind on my Census report on retardation.

I know it's really unoriginal to hate Duke… but I hate Duke. And I also hate having to pay attention to college basketball in January when cheerleaders aren't involved, so I kind of hate Duke twice as much for their controversial last-second win over Clemson last night. David McClure — he just sounds like a Duke student — made a layup as the clock expired following Clemson's dramatic three to tie the game… only there shouldn't have been any time left at all.

Listen, it's all very complex, but people in the know say that following a referee huddle-up, they put 4.4 seconds on the clock when there should have been 2.4. Here's the video evidence:

Whatever. Wake me up in March. Or when Gilbert Arenas goes back to college and drops 80+ on Coach K.