Timonen
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- Aug 16, 2011
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It feels like ages since I’ve written a soliloquy here. We’ll see if I’ve got the stamina or just end up reverting to the big points. I do want to get points out before I read the board and get influenced.
This was a bit of a surprise trip. My son (and me coaching) are typically doing soccer on saturdays so never thought it’d be an option, but the local school district is on break so no game. My daughter still had tennis so she was out. Just a guys day trip (from atl) for me and the seven-year-old for his first game.
This is a simple drive (two hours) but the noon timing puts a bit of a wrench in it since it condenses all local traffic to a short window. We made great time until we got right to campus and Waze directed us to a road that was closed. That required a 30 minute detour to our assigned lot (and some security sweet talking since the detour took us right next to the stadium where we shouldn’t be). No matter, this is why we leave early. Not y a ton of time in the lot, but some football tossing and my son’s first port a potty experience were highlights.
We set off for the mileish walk to the stadium and my son pointed at a guy in one of my hose striped overall getups. That guy and his group ended up being our de facto guides across campus and all were happy.
Our seats were up top on the visitors side, near where you be Texan Mark group was a few years back. We had two Clemson old timers to our left, two Cuse old timers to our right and complete pleasantness from everyone else there. Really really like those fans and have every time I’ve gone.
I know we have a resident tuba expert but I’m a drumline guy. There’s “consistently good” (e.g., fsu, wvu), “consistently bad” (Rutgers ) and “just ok” (clemson, Pitt). Clemson is fine but remains pretty middling for a school of their size.
To the game (and I realize this is cutting to a big point), I imagine every one of us felt doom from the beginning when we couldn’t capitalize on turnovers/field position with TDs. We left so many point on the field. I was saying midway through first half that we needed 30 for a chance. Prescient, I know.
Offensive execution was really shaky. We seemed to just give up on first downs and consistently run for one. The slower developing things also got blown up. We needed to just toss it up, which actually worked nicely a couple times. Our wrs seemed to do a good job down the field but Eric just couldnt get the time. It also felt like we were trying to protect Dungey. There were a few times early (one a key third down) where he had wide open space that he usually grabs but settled for a throw that was errant. Both of their lines ate us up. Clemson could get 5 on the ground at will. When they did that on first down, they moved down the field. When we held them on first down and forced passing plays, we seemed great (the fourth and six aside).
Here’s one big thing I noticed and wonder if others did (feel free to make fun of me if a 27 page thread on this). Cordy would line up 20 yards off the the line of scrimmage on first and second down when all clemson was doing is running. This seemed downright goofy...but I couldn’t complain as long as we were winning. It was the same deal the last two drives when they were running consistently on the first couple downs (with multiple runners). Etienne was GASHING us and they hadn’t proven they could execute passing. No clue why we held that formation all game.
We felt this ending coming all game, sadly. It really really hurt, but I wanted to take the high road with my kid and not turn into a “sad losing fan” meme. It also helped in the moment how great the clemson fans were in healing praise, except the one bitching about us using timeouts to end the first half.
A great experience. My son, who could have wilted in that heat, was engaged/excited every single play and loved the adventure of the rapid day trip. I’ve got a football companion for life that didn’t detract from my experience one bit. A frustrating game. Great that we know we belong with them but we’ve gotta creatively figure out a way to get a couple more first downs, at least.
I’m ok with this if we roll pitt/unc like we should. We learned from it and are the good team we thought. Like I’m sure everyone is saying, ND should be our only test. God that’s weird to type.
Nice ending to the trip as we left the stadium with only a slight idea where to walk to get back to our lot. My son sees the striped overall guy and we tag along with them back to the lot, trading more good stories.
I’m over being close or being worthy opponents for teams like this now. Play
to our ability and we achieve more than any of us expected. We haven’t done that yet this year, though. Time to get better, as weird as that sounds right now.
Thanks for obliging this. Had to get it, I guess!
This was a bit of a surprise trip. My son (and me coaching) are typically doing soccer on saturdays so never thought it’d be an option, but the local school district is on break so no game. My daughter still had tennis so she was out. Just a guys day trip (from atl) for me and the seven-year-old for his first game.
This is a simple drive (two hours) but the noon timing puts a bit of a wrench in it since it condenses all local traffic to a short window. We made great time until we got right to campus and Waze directed us to a road that was closed. That required a 30 minute detour to our assigned lot (and some security sweet talking since the detour took us right next to the stadium where we shouldn’t be). No matter, this is why we leave early. Not y a ton of time in the lot, but some football tossing and my son’s first port a potty experience were highlights.
We set off for the mileish walk to the stadium and my son pointed at a guy in one of my hose striped overall getups. That guy and his group ended up being our de facto guides across campus and all were happy.
Our seats were up top on the visitors side, near where you be Texan Mark group was a few years back. We had two Clemson old timers to our left, two Cuse old timers to our right and complete pleasantness from everyone else there. Really really like those fans and have every time I’ve gone.
I know we have a resident tuba expert but I’m a drumline guy. There’s “consistently good” (e.g., fsu, wvu), “consistently bad” (Rutgers ) and “just ok” (clemson, Pitt). Clemson is fine but remains pretty middling for a school of their size.
To the game (and I realize this is cutting to a big point), I imagine every one of us felt doom from the beginning when we couldn’t capitalize on turnovers/field position with TDs. We left so many point on the field. I was saying midway through first half that we needed 30 for a chance. Prescient, I know.
Offensive execution was really shaky. We seemed to just give up on first downs and consistently run for one. The slower developing things also got blown up. We needed to just toss it up, which actually worked nicely a couple times. Our wrs seemed to do a good job down the field but Eric just couldnt get the time. It also felt like we were trying to protect Dungey. There were a few times early (one a key third down) where he had wide open space that he usually grabs but settled for a throw that was errant. Both of their lines ate us up. Clemson could get 5 on the ground at will. When they did that on first down, they moved down the field. When we held them on first down and forced passing plays, we seemed great (the fourth and six aside).
Here’s one big thing I noticed and wonder if others did (feel free to make fun of me if a 27 page thread on this). Cordy would line up 20 yards off the the line of scrimmage on first and second down when all clemson was doing is running. This seemed downright goofy...but I couldn’t complain as long as we were winning. It was the same deal the last two drives when they were running consistently on the first couple downs (with multiple runners). Etienne was GASHING us and they hadn’t proven they could execute passing. No clue why we held that formation all game.
We felt this ending coming all game, sadly. It really really hurt, but I wanted to take the high road with my kid and not turn into a “sad losing fan” meme. It also helped in the moment how great the clemson fans were in healing praise, except the one bitching about us using timeouts to end the first half.
A great experience. My son, who could have wilted in that heat, was engaged/excited every single play and loved the adventure of the rapid day trip. I’ve got a football companion for life that didn’t detract from my experience one bit. A frustrating game. Great that we know we belong with them but we’ve gotta creatively figure out a way to get a couple more first downs, at least.
I’m ok with this if we roll pitt/unc like we should. We learned from it and are the good team we thought. Like I’m sure everyone is saying, ND should be our only test. God that’s weird to type.
Nice ending to the trip as we left the stadium with only a slight idea where to walk to get back to our lot. My son sees the striped overall guy and we tag along with them back to the lot, trading more good stories.
I’m over being close or being worthy opponents for teams like this now. Play
to our ability and we achieve more than any of us expected. We haven’t done that yet this year, though. Time to get better, as weird as that sounds right now.
Thanks for obliging this. Had to get it, I guess!
