Discover Orange Bowl Open Thread: Clemson vs. West Virginia
by Berkelium97 on Jan 4, 2012 5:00 PM PST
in California Golden Bears Football
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PrintBelieve it or not, the Big East and ACC still have automatic BCS bids after last year's disaster. In 2010 Virginia Tech and UConn represented their respective conferences and each lost its BCS game by 28 points. Thankfully for all of us, these two teams ought to be a little better than their predecessors. Well, maybe.
Both teams must be disappointed with their performances down the stretch. Clemson's prolific offense ground to a halt as they lost to Georgia Tech, South Carolina, and North Carolina State while barely squeaking past Wake Forest. Their explosive offense inexplicable returned to form in a 38-10 beatdown against Virginia Tech. West Virginia, meanwhile, barely earned its spot in this game. They won three of their final four, but the combined point differential in those four games was only ten points. Despite a three-way tie for the conference title, West Virginia managed to squeak into this game.
Here is ESPN's take on the Mountaineers
Go ahead and say it: West Virginia has a flair for the dramatic this season. The Mountaineers never made things easy on themselves, down to the final game of the season. They dropped a game at Syracuse (has anybody figured that out yet?), and lost at home to Louisville for the first time since 1990, forcing them to scramble to win a share of the Big East title for the sixth time in the past nine seasons. Under first-year coach Dana Holgorsen, the Mountaineers were the preseason choice to win the Big East because of high expectations for a high-powered offense. Indeed, West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith and receivers Stedman Bailey and Tavon Austin shattered passing and receiving records, but nobody would say things ran smoothly for this team all season. The defense, which lost seven starters off one of the best groups in the nation last season, struggled for a good portion of the season at stopping the run and getting a sustained pass rush.
And a quick look at Clemson.
Clemson enters the Orange Bowl with the nation’s No. 21 passing offense under first-year starting quarterback Tajh Boyd and offensive coordinator Chad Morris, but West Virginia will also have to be wary of standout true freshman receiver Sammy Watkins Dwayne Allen. All three of them have had record-setting seasons, but Clemson’s defense has been inconsistent this year. The Tigers are allowing 26.15 points per game, and will face an offense that is averaging 34.92.
Join us in the comments to follow along during the Orange Bowl.
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ESPN articles sometimes do that for reasons which are unclear to me
Some bizarre html tags carry through and turn the text background white when I copy and paste from the article. Of course, this does not show up until the post is published.
I’ve fixed it, however.
"Some people watch adult videos on their computer - I go to YouTube and watch Jahvid Best highlight clips. That’s what gets me going."- Jim Schwartz, Detroit Lions head coach
California Golden Blogs
Big East is such a freaking football joke
The fact that they are AQ proves by itself that the BCS is all about the money
y no discover lemons?
"RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!!"
-TwistNHook
by Redonkulous Bear on Jan 4, 2012 5:34 PM PST reply actions
Amazing
ACC champs trying to be more of a joke than Big East champs
Gawd Almighty!
West Virginia scores 49 points in the first half. Go Mountaineers!
CGB: The Strangest Blog
Maybe the Big East has a good team after all
With luck, next year they’ll get another
Was BSU joining Big East?
If so, I guess they’ll get the same criticism about them beating on cupcakes all year and waltzing into a BCS game
Yes, Boise State is joining the Big East, which will be an even weaker conference than before. However, I believe that TCU is also joining the Big East, which should up the quality a bit.
CGB: The Strangest Blog
I guess I need to keep up. Apparently TCU accepted an offer to join the Big East and then bailed out when West Virginia announced it was leaving for the Big 12. Now the Big East and West Virginia are suing each other.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010%E2%80%9311_NCAA_conference_realignment#Big_East_Conference
CGB: The Strangest Blog
Big East is like a possessive boy/girlfriend
“No! You can’t leave! I’m nothing without you!” [clings]
Beat the hell out of Pitt!
My mom always yelled “Beat the hell of Pitt!” no matter who they were playing.
CGB: The Strangest Blog
Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!
But I’m a West Virginia fan, because my mom went there. Also my uncle and several cousins.
CGB: The Strangest Blog
I only want to see it because I'm evil sometimes
and my own team sucked this year, so yay schadenfreude!
Is it too obvious to say
that I’m inclined to root for WV because their uniforms look like ours.
Vicarious satifaction guaranteed!
Wow!
I hope Robert Irvine can reopen Sullivan’s in time!
Sorry, I don’t give half a shit about this game, so I’m watching Restaurant Impossible instead.
#BlowUpTheBCS
Cal Football: I loved them once and they broke my heart. Let that be a lesson to you. Never love anything.
Stop calling that LSU/Bama monstrosity a "defensive struggle"
It was horrible O and kicking. Maybe my memory is funny, but most teams put up more than 6 on each team during the year, and it’s not like it was all in garbage time.
LOL
Clemson D might want to try holding WVU to less than 20 yards a play
I put the over/under at 77
Man crush on Aaron Rodgers, since 2003.
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I think they sent the kicker home.
Man crush on Aaron Rodgers, since 2003.
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Nah. They still need him for extra points. Going for 2 would be a bit showy.
CGB: The Strangest Blog
No, they’re putting in mountaineer mascot dude to kick PATs.
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63-20 West Virginia with just over 9 minutes left in the 3rd Q
Kevin Steele is Clemson’s D-coordinator. You might remember him also as Baylor’s coach when Cal beat Baylor 70-22 in 2002.
WVU might score more against Steele’s defense tonight than Cal scored against his team in 2002!
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Hi, I'm Kevin Steele! You might remember me from such debacles as Cal vs. Baylor 2002...
Cal Football: I loved them once and they broke my heart. Let that be a lesson to you. Never love anything.
Did they put in Longshore?
Cal Football: I loved them once and they broke my heart. Let that be a lesson to you. Never love anything.
No, Kevin Steele is faking an injury so he can go to the locker room.
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That's right, Tigers
Play field position… It’s mattered so much all night
Clearly, WVU is going to score
Clemson just wants to make them drive 95 yards to do it and burn some clock.
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Don't exaggerate
WVU will need at least 4 plays here.
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I can't get over how many empty seats are there
The upper deck is half full if that… I can’t really blame the schools’ fans… a midweek game, school is back in session…. The BCS is just ruining what these games are supposed to be about. The Fiesta Bowl didn’t sell out… The Rose Bowl didn’t sell out (Oregon had really disappointing fan turnout)… The Sugar Bowl didn’t come remotely close to selling out… and this looks like it will probably be the smallest Orange Bowl crowd in recent memory.
Much sadder to me is that with all the conference realignment stuff going on, it is now uncertain whether West Virginia and Pitt will continue to play every year. It’s a great rivalry, and one of the oldest, starting in 1895. It is so sad to me to see college football destroy these great traditions.
CGB: The Strangest Blog
Maybe they should just play on October 20.
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So here is my lose CAL side coming out, because every time one of these rivalries ends it bumps up The Big Game and the CAL / SC game in the longest rivalry category.
Well, the Backyard Brawl has only been played 104 times, compared to 114 for the Big Game, so its end would destroy a great tradition while doing nothing for Cal.
CGB: The Strangest Blog
I love the name of that rivalry game.
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but i think it would bump up SC / CAL, no? so that would be pretty cool, I think we would have two of the top 15 longest rivalries in college football.
right, but since we have no control of that let’s make sure we maintain ours and celebrate them, no?
Honestly, I’ve never even thought about the length of the USC rivalry as a big deal. And doesn’t a game have to have a name to count as a big time rivalry?
CGB: The Strangest Blog
No, it doesn’t need a name at all. You may not realize this but we are SC’s longest and most frequently played rival.
why are you doing this when I am trying to engage you in a nice way about which something we should be able to agree?
And why do you always do this? You attack people, and when they make a perfectly legitimate response, you stomp off like a spoiled child.
CGB: The Strangest Blog
how did i attack you? as i said, i give up. sorry for trying to engage you. i am sure you could have easily answered your own question.
I asked a perfectly legitimate question. Yes, it was intended to be slightly tongue-in-cheek, since I was sort of making the point that the Cal-USC rivalry isn’t that great of a rivalry since they constantly kick our butts and have done so more often than not for many, many decades. But there was absolutely nothing rude, insulting, or otherwise inappropriate about the comment. It was a perfectly ordinary comment, which I would expect to be part of an entirely pleasant interaction with any regular commenter on this site.
But for reasons which entirely escape me, you chose to turn my perfectly ordinary comment into something bad, and accuse me of doing something — I still don’t know what — inappropriate to you. And when I asked you why you thought my comment was in some way inappropriate, you refused to answer and pulled your usual “I give up” routine, which is your tried and true method of trying to demonstrate that you were entirely reasonable and the other person was acting like a jerk. Getting mad about a perfectly ordinary comment, and then refusing even to explain why, but instead ending the discussion with a disgusted, “I give up,” is behavior which I do not understand and do not appreciate.
CGB: The Strangest Blog
tongue-in-cheek doesn’t always translate online. so what you’re saying is you asked a question to which you knew the answer (being our board historian) and then when I wouldn’t play along, in a perfectly civil way, you accuse me of attacking you, while – ironically – calling me touchy.
The “I give up” is to your seemingly contradictory positions of on the one hand valuing tradition where it concerns certain things (the West Virginia / Pitt rivalry) and dismissing tradition where it actually affects us, the CAL / USC rivalry. I find that inconsistent. The “why are you attacking me” meme, which I clearly wasn’t, is behavior / tactic I have seen and do understand, but none-the-less don’t appreciate.
What a silly thing over which to get in an argument.
C’mon guys, please kiss and make up. Can’t you see that the BCS is tearing us apart?!!!!
In all seriousness, I think you two are not that far apart. Not to take sides, because I don’t know you personally, CalBear81, but having met fiatlux in person, I find it hard to think he was being malicious.
Cal Football: I loved them once and they broke my heart. Let that be a lesson to you. Never love anything.
by CalBandGreat on Jan 4, 2012 11:08 PM PST up reply actions
I actually have no idea whether Cal has been beaten more times by USC than any other school, or not. No idea at all. But even if I did know that, what is offensive about asking a rhetorical question? Why would you get mad about that? It makes absolutely no sense at all. Nor does your habit, which you engage in over and over, of announcing “I give up” and storming off from a discussion for no good reason. You frequently make very harsh and insulting comments to other people. So I find your own hyper-sensitivity to what you apparently believe to be slights directly to you to be especially strange.
CGB: The Strangest Blog
And what made absolutely no sense at all to me was your valuing of a tradition in the case of Pitt / West Virgina but not in the case of USC / Cal. Which is what I was giving up on trying to discuss. And this really ridiculous assertion that somehow asking you somewhat rhetorically “why are you doing this” is an affront or an attack to your rhetorical question. Really now, that’s just plain silly. And finally, it’s a little hard to seriously say someone is “storming off” from a conversation, when in fact they continue to have the conversation with you. I am not sure if all that is just an ironic rhetorical device you’ve found effective in the past, but as I wrote, it’s a pretty silly pedantic thing for two Cal fans to be arguing.
Yep, sure is brilliant to drag out the BCS games over the course of a week and a half, playing them on weeknights and choosing teams ranked in the teens over more deserving ones. The BCS sure did fix college football.
Cal Football: I loved them once and they broke my heart. Let that be a lesson to you. Never love anything.
BTW, I’m now watching Celebrity Chef Challenge on Food Network starring Coolio, Lou Diamond Phillips, Cheech Marin, Ms. America, um some dude from Backstreet Boys (I think), Adam Carter and some other people whose lives are in the gutter.
Cal Football: I loved them once and they broke my heart. Let that be a lesson to you. Never love anything.
I think that was a courtesy incompletion
They should go for it on 4th down though
Reversal of bowl fortune
Under Don Nehlen, WVU lost something like 8 bowl games in a row. Tonight, WVU is going to go 3-0 in BCS bowls.
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My folks went to the Sugar Bowl and to the Fiesta Bowl, both following undefeated West Virginia seasons, when the Mountaineers were playing for a national championship. And West Virginia got slaughtered in both games. After that Fiesta Bowl, my mom hated Lou Holtz for the rest of her life!
CGB: The Strangest Blog
MAJOR HARRIS!
Man crush on Aaron Rodgers, since 2003.
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So
Does Clemson finish in the top 25? Top 50? Division 1-A?
"3rd and about a quarter of the field." -- Mike Tirico
That sounds a lot more daunting than 3rd and 24.
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I love Dana Holgorsen
Still throwing the long-ball :)
Hoping they put up 90+ is the only reason anyone’s still watching this after all, go for it!
They were just talking about West Virginia's OOC schedule next year
UConn
Bowling Green
Norfolk State
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Must be why they put Geno Smith back in the game!
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LOL Mike Tirico
“The go-for-two chart doesn’t say what to do when you’re down by 37.”
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???
WVU put Geno Smith (starting QB) back in?
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Haha
They showed absolutely zero Clemson highlights in that package
I really should be asleep
But I’m staying up just to see if WVU gets 70.
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Baylor held the bowl game points record...
…for 6 days.
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Clemson's defense hasn't been as bad as 70
WVU had very short fields to score after 2 turnovers and WVU scored a defensive TD. So the Clemson D has really only given up 49 points.
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Dublin (OH) Coffman High School representin'
Freshman QB Cole Stoudt gets some playing time at QB for Clemson. Check out the track record for this high school: 3 QBs from the 2000s went on to get Division I schollies: Brady Quinn (Notre Dame), Zack Stoudt (Ole Miss, transferred from Louisville), and Zack’s brother Cole Stoudt (Clemson). A fourth QB played for an FCS school. The school also produced Chinedum Ndukwe (DB for Notre Dame, Cincinnati Bengals and Oakland Raiders) and Michael Adams (Ohio State OT involved in tattoo gate, who will probably land in the NFL).
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I wanted to see if they got 80.
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