It's My Blog

Dabo to be signed Monday is the rumor floating around the internets this morning. Established news outlets (as the link demonstrates) as well as blogs and messageboards are all buzzing about it.

Me, I'm disappointed. These types of decisions should not be made at the height of an emotionally charged weekend and at the end of an emotionally charged 7 weeks. These decisions should be made deliberately based on reason and logic. Unfortunately, it wouldn't surprise me that these rumors are true, as our last three major coaching decisions were made in similar knee-jerk fashion:

-2007 situation: Tommy Bowden flirts with signing on at Arkansas
-Knee jerk reaction: Terry Don Phillips offers Bowden a contract extension, raise, and buyout rather than firing him and hiring Paul Johnson

-2004 situation: Fight at the end of SC game draws attention of national media
-Knee jerk reaction: Terry Don Phillips forbids Clemson from accepting any Bowl Bids rather than disciplining the actual players responsible, allows South Carolina to keep us from going to a Bowl not by actually beating us, but by starting a fight.

-2003 situation: Tommy Bowden should have been fired after Wake Forest meltdown with a talent-stacked Clemson team, instead it is proclaimed "no decisions will be made until a thorough evaluation of the entire season takes place." Bowden proceeds to lead the Tigers to a strong finish by beating FSU and blowing out South Carolina.
-Knee jerk reaction: The Monday after the South Carolina game Terry Don Phillips announces a contract extension, raise, and buyout for a coach that used the same group of talented players to get blown out by Wake Forest and then beat an extremely good FSU team.

Obviously, those three knee jerk reactions didn't turn out so well. I hope this one (if it's true) turns out better, but my gut feeling says otherwise.

Labels: Clemson, coaches, football

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Posted by Tom on 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

these are the people that are running the country now...



oh boy.

Labels: life, politics

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Posted by Tom on 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Hey, Steve Spurrier said it himself:

(right around the 6 minute mark.)

That's a pretty ringing endorsement.

Labels: Clemson, coaches, football

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Posted by Tom on 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Last year, after another year of disappointment for the Bowden-led Clemson Tigers, there was a lot of debate on these here internets over Tommy Bowden's coaching status, and what should be done about it. Some people thought he should be kept on at Clemson and some people thought he should be replaced. I thought that Bowden should be immediately fired and replaced by Paul Johnson. I can safely say that I was alone in this regard, and even called insane for it.

Terry Don Phillips (who's opinion actually counts) thought that his mediocre 9-year performance actually warranted a raise, contract extension, and $4 million buyout. We got stuck with Bowden again, and Georgia Tech made a move on Paul Johnson after firing Chan Gailey. In the minds of the fans and the pundits, these actions turned Clemson into the preseason #9 team in the nation and the ACC favorites hands down, and turned Tech into somewhat of a laughing stock of a talentless, coachless football team.

Well, the regular season is over so let's take a look at the results, shall we?

Clemson:
After a dismal 3-3 start with embarrassing losses to Alabama, Maryland, and Wake Forest, Clemson finally made the correct action and fired Tommy Bowden. We then appointed Dabo Swinney as interim head coach and finished the last 6 games with a 4 and 2 record, ending the season at 7-5 and earning bowl eligibility. Our only quality win was against Boston College (which is a stretch) and we did beat our in-state rival. We finish the season with a huge question mark as to who is going to be our Head Coach, and a huge disappointment in staying home again for the ACC championship game then going to some low tier bowl in late December. Quite the fall from preseason expectations.

Georgia Tech:
The Yellowjackets only lost one game out of their first seven blowing everyone's expectations completely out of the water. Their one loss was on the road at Virginia Tech in a 20-17 nailbiter. After that great start they dropped a couple of odd games to Virginia and North Carolina and ended the year by upsetting their in-state rival, the preseason #1 Georgia Bulldogs. They finished the year 9-3 and an inch away from going to the ACC championship as VT again used a field goal margin of victory to keep Georgia Tech from claiming the ACC coastal division. Along the way they picked up quality wins against Clemson, Florida State, Boston College, and Georgia. They will end up going to a mid-tier bowl like the Gator or Peach (Chik-fil-A.)

Now remember, this is a Clemson team that started the season with a coach in his 10th year, with supposedly tons of talent and supposedly a "mad scientist" offensive coordinator. This is a Georgia Tech team that started the season with a coach in his very first year in "big time" college football and first year at Tech with what everybody thought at the time was a talentless team and a hair-brained offensive system.

It's easy to see who was right. We should have hired Paul Johnson. I just wish there was some way Clemson could steal him away in the next few weeks.

Labels: Clemson, coaches, football

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Posted by Tom on 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

The clock has just reached 00 and Dabo Swinney has just reached 4-2. The playcalling today was leaps and bounds ahead of what it has been in earlier Swinney-coached games (and obviously therefore much better than any Bowden coached games.) We ran a lot of quick hitting pass plays on first and second downs and didn't find ourselves with many third and long situations. We controlled the ball and had very few mistakes, except of course for a few Harperisms like the a fumble deep in our own territory which led to a gamecock touchdown.

I must say I'm impressed with Swinney at this point. I think he's ready to be the offensive coordinator of the Clemson Tigers. He's had 6 games at the controls and he's done some things that I really didn't like but he has learned and improved and today, when all the chips were down, he performed. We saw very few trick plays today and a very good game plan. The results speak for themselves.

It did help that we were playing against the SEC's most inept offense though. I think Smelley had more completions to Clemson Tigers than Harper did. The gamecocks supposedly had a good defense, but Florida and others showed that to be false. Also, the second half was pretty disappointing after the huge lead we jumped out to in the first. I know we still won the game but I do hate to see coaches go into a shell when they get a lead... against better competition that can be deadly.

After today, I really hope we can keep Dabo in some manner, but I still don't think he should be the head coach. Maybe he will be and he will prove me wrong... honestly I wouldn't hate it if he got the job.

Labels: Clemson, coaches, football

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Posted by Tom on 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I hope everybody's having a great Turkey Day. I'm giving thanks for my family and friends, and for the fact that I live in the greatest country the earth has ever seen.

Rick Astley is giving thanks that the internet has resurrected his career:


Take it easy everybody!

Labels: life, music

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Posted by Tom on 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I've got a feeling that we're going to hear some news about the Clemson head coach position pretty soon now. I think it's going to happen shortly after the USCjr game, possibly Monday afternoon. Here's what I'm going with:

Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator: Bud Foster



Assistant Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator: Dabo Swinney



Instead of going through and explaining my reasoning for this at great detail, I'll just keep it simple: I think this is what Terry Don Phillips is going for, and I think he's going to make it happen. I also believe this will be a great coaching staff for Clemson football.

Labels: Clemson, coaches, football

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Posted by Tom on 1:37 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

No really, it's his fault. I know that might seem hard to believe, but it's true.



A few months ago, George W lifted the presidential order banning drilling in the outer-continental shelf, causing the price of oil to drop slightly on the speculation that supply might soon start to shift over to the American side of things. More importantly, he urged congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling as well so that there would be no legal blockade on increasing our own supply of oil.

Of course, this was met with predictable partisan negativity:

"This is not something that's going to give consumers short-term relief and it is not a long-term solution to our problems with fossil fuels generally and oil in particular," said Obama. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, lumping Bush with McCain, accused them of staging a "cynical campaign ploy" that won't help lower energy prices.

Looks like the Democrats were wrong, again. Imagine that.

To their credit, the Democrats eventually did cave, and they let the moratorium expire. That's when Oil started drastically falling on the international markets upon speculation that the US really was going to start building up its own supply. Now we have gas prices under $2. Economics folks, it's really simple stuff.

Labels: politics

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Posted by Tom on 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Muschamp locked down at Texas.

Well, looks like we're not getting Muschamp. From what I've heard my UGA buddies say, it's no big loss. Time to lock down Bud Foster and make sure he can bring in a good offensive mind.

Labels: Clemson, coaches, football

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Posted by Tom on 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I am currently reading "Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith and I am really enjoying it. It's amazing to read such clear thought and apolitical examination of markets. I was inspired to go out there and see if there were any Adam Smith fans on the internets and lo and behold, there are. I found a blog run by a group of people who apply Smith's principles to modern events. Here's a great article from their website (now featured on the right side of the page under "Brilliance"):

Well, it turns out that the UK is in for an even deeper recession than originally suspected. The CBI (Confederation of British Industry) says unemployment may rise to 2.9 million in 2010, instead of the 1.8 million previously forecast. The UK economy shrank for the first time in 16 years between July and September of this year. CBI warns this is far from over; the size of the economy could decrease by 1.7 percent in 2009, which is a staggering change from the 0.3 percent predicted in September.

CBI blames two major factors for the economic slowdown that lies ahead, which is expected to cause five quarters of negative growth. First of all, the banking crisis has diminished the accessibility of credit and credit insurance for all kinds of businesses. Secondly, the negative reports about the economy resulted in a decrease in consumer confidence, reducing the demand for products and services. This declining consumer spending, in addition to less investment spending and significant drops in inventory, will be the largest contributors to the downturn.

Unite, the UK’s largest union, has come up with a plan to stimulate the economy by increasing public spending and instituting stricter regulation of the financial sector. But why would one want to do that when too much box-ticking regulation helped get us here in the first place? While they hassled firms and companies with nonsense procedures and stipulations, stifling innovation and impeding progress among businesses, regulators completely neglected the bigger issue of financial stability. Although some regulation will surely be needed, the economy will fair much better if companies have more say in their operations and management, and regulators get back to focusing on the big picture.

Ultimately, as long as competition and free market ventures are put on the backburner, the bad news will just keep coming.

Indeed.

Labels: education, life

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Posted by Tom on 5:35 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

This site is pretty brutal, and unfortunately accurate. The same could honestly be said of both of the candidates though, as McCain was a pretty bad pick as well.  Check out the video:

Labels: education, politics

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Posted by Tom on 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I wasn't able to watch the game today, but it turns out that the Tigers downed Duke 31-7.

Labels: Clemson, coaches, football

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Posted by Tom on 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I didn't come up with it though: the Fair Tax.

Basically, the idea is to replace all of our current taxes with one simple national sales tax, and include a "prebate" to cover the taxes a family will pay on groceries. This way you don't punish the poor for buying the essentials.

What does this have to do with the economic crisis? Well, look at the money our companies spend on taxes:

1. Payroll tax - Employers in this country have to pay half of the amount owed for each employee's Medicare and Social Security tax.
   
2. Income tax - Companies have to pay income tax on their profit. 
   
3. Compliance Costs - Paying these taxes is ridiculously tedious and complex. This requires companies to spend billions (no, I'm not exaggerating) to make sure they're not breaking any obscure rule or law.

Labels: life, politics

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Posted by Tom on 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I don't have time to write much here, but I just wanted to make a quick point:

No more bailouts. In fact, cancel the original bailouts. While you're at it, destroy social security and medicare. The government's job is to provide freedom and national defense, THAT'S IT!!!!!

This latest bailout is vote-buying, plain and simple. The US auto industry is the single biggest cash cow for the Democratic party, via the power of Unions and their unholy association with the Democrats. The unions have killed the auto manufacturers, and so now the Democrats want to give a "bridge loan" (read: bribe) to the auto industry so that they can stay alive and keep voting Democrat.

Additionally, when is the last time an auto company did something good for you? Really? When is the last time you went to a Chevrolet or Ford or Dodge dealership and they didn't try to screw you? When is the last time a US car company made a car that didn't cost you thousands of dollars to maintain and repair? Why should we continue to pay for shoddy quality due to unskilled and overpaid labor?

Finally, the irony in all of this is that the big three US auto companies that are begging for this bailout are also the manufacturers of the most gas-guzzling, environment polluting vehicles out there. They make Hummers and Hemis and all sorts of high cost, low efficiency, and high pollution products. Then they wonder why sales are down? Hello!!!

Why then should we bail them out? They have spelled their own doom. Let this be the death of bad car companies and unions, we will be better off for it.

Labels: life, politics

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Posted by Tom on 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers" - Unknown

Boy do I wish I knew who said that. It was probably an anti-Federalist founding father or someone like that. Either way, let's keep that quote in mind and take a look at some pictures:

Population Density from the US Census, with dark colors being the most populated areas: (click to see a bigger picture)


Now, county by county election results:


Powerful, indeed.

Labels: politics

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Posted by Tom on 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Well, in Dabo Swinney's third game, the FSU seminoles downed the Tigers 41-27.

Up until this point I've been very optimistic about Dabo and I've even said that I think he would make a good head coach, with the preferred situation being that we hire Bud Foster as the head coach and keep Dabo Swinney on as the Offensive Coordinator.

After this game, I'm not so sure. First off, yet again our defense proved completely incapable of stopping a decent offense, especially down the stretch. The "bend but don't win" just doesn't work and we need to bring in a guy like Foster or Muschamp who will deploy an aggressive, in your face defense that dictates to the offense how the game is going to go.

However, the offense is still the main problem, just like it was under Bowden. Tonight we ran far too many trick plays and lateral plays, running back and forth across the field on triple reverses and lateral passes and not making any forward progress against a defense that has the most team speed in the ACC. That's just bad strategy, plain and simple. Not to mention the failed screen pass that turned into an interception return for a touchdown.

I like Dabo as a man and as a recruiter, but I'm just not convinced that he's enough of a departure from Tommy Bowden to be a good offensive coach for Clemson. Tonight we ran on seemingly every first down, and it was either a reverse or a dive. There are a lot more gaps to attack than either the 1 or the 9. We need someone who can run a fundamental, pro-style, SEC type offense that uses power, fundamentals, and skill to outplay and outsmart the opponent.

So now I really don't know who should be the head coach. Hopefully a Foster or a Muschamp could bring in a great offensive coordinator. Maybe Dabo will redeem himself and stop calling such a predictable offense. I hope so, because we're not going to win many games by putting ourselves in 3rd and long situations with a shoddy line and a crappy quarterback.

Labels: Clemson, coaches, football

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Posted by Tom on 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I'm watching the TT - OSU game and I can't help but ask myself: what happened to Mike Gundy?

Labels: coaches, football

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Posted by Tom on 9:45 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Check out this site: www.blackfriday.info

This is the place to go for all the holiday season shopping deals. It focuses mainly on Black Friday, the friday after Thanksgiving, when most of the stores have their biggest sales. However there are posts about sales going on all the time including this weekend when Wal Mart is selling a Compaq 15" laptop with 2 Gigs of RAM and a 160 GB hard drive for $300. Have fun!

Labels: life

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Posted by Tom on 9:06 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/207897/

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Posted by Tom on 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

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Posted by Tom on 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

On this election day as I prepare to head out to visit a customer and attempt to sell some more of my company's products I had an idea: did the Republicans set out to sabotage John McCain with the appointment of Sarah Palin as Vice President?

Don't get me wrong, I like Sarah Palin. I'd vote for her if she was on the ticket as the Presidential Candidate... but that's exactly my point: she's not what McCain needed. McCain destroyed his biggest advantage by picking Palin: experience. That debate was lost (albeit illogically) as soon as the media found out about her. They used factual information such as her plain lack of experience (even though she actually has more experience than Obama) as well as misinformation from whatever source they could find, even hacked email accounts. After the initial euphoria over her, even Republicans started to doubt that she was VP material.

In the end, McCain gained nothing from picking her. He could have picked an economic whiz, like Forbes or even Romney, or a Fair Tax advocate like Huckabee, seeing that the economy and taxes are the most important issues to voters, and McCain has admitted himself that he's weak on the economy (as seen by his poor debate performances against the outright socialism being proposed by Obama.) Yet he picked an unknown who, while admirably fought against big government in Alaska, has had very little economic experience and runs a state that has a smaller economy and population than most large US cities. There just doesn't seem to be anything good about his VP pick, and I think it killed his chances.

Now the question is: why? Why would the Republicans do this?

My answer: setting up Palin for 2012. The lady is amazing, and like I said, I'd vote for her for President right now. However, the American people in general will need longer to get to know her. I think this whole thing was designed as a coming out party for Sarah Palin. Look at all the media hysteria over her: they did the public vetting process for the Republicans; when they bring up this same petty crap in 2012 everyone will just say "get over it, old news." She is a great story, a real American who got into politics to clean up the system, and she's actually done that in her short career. After four more years, she'll be a Republican superstar, something that party hasn't had in a long, long time.

Also, the next four years aren't exactly going to be good. They'll probably be really bad, in fact. Even Joe Biden says that within 6 months of Obama taking office we are going to be "challenged" by an international enemy. Our economy is on the verge of collapse and given all the promises of government spending companies are moving overseas and scrapping plans for growth within the US. Obama might be the messiah but he's going to have to pull off actual miracles to have a good first four years, even with the media serving as his own personal propaganda machine. Long story short: the Sarah Palin story will be perfect for an ailing America in 2012. The Republican party saw this coming and that's why she was announced as McCain's VP pick.

McCain will take the fall in 2008 so that Palin can take the helm in 2012.

Labels: politics

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Posted by Tom on 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

The Dabo Swinney lead Clemson Tigers came out and got a win vs. Boston College, the first since they joined the ACC. I'm starting to like this Dabo guy but I still don't like our defense. Why we can't stop the other team late in the game is just beyond me. Bend but Don't Break... is broke. We went up 17-0 and then found ourselves down 21-17 in the fourth? How does that happen?

Anyway I didn't see the game so I won't be going into any in-depth breakdown; maybe so if I can catch a replay on CSS or something. I'm glad we won for our players and for Dabo.

Meanwhile Paul Johnson and the Yellow Jackets put down Florida State. I can't say I expected that before this year started but Johnson has made a lot more progress than I thought possible back then, so I was expecting it this weekend. It would be ironically hilarious if Johnson won the ACC in year 1 when Bowden couldn't do it in 10.

My other favorite team, the Georgia Bulldogs, crapped all over themselves today down in the WLOCP. What is it about Jacksonville that makes Georgia play so bad? The refs did help Florida out a good bit in the early part of that game, but that's no excuse really. Stafford and the offense just couldn't get it done today. The defense wasn't horrible but they didn't come up with any big plays either, so it was just an all around F out there.

Now it's halftime of the Texas vs Texas Tech game and Texas is going down about the same as Georgia. They're just lolligagging all over the place, especially on offense. I think they had the ball for 3 minutes in the first half, and yet somehow their defense has held TT to 20 points. That Muschamp is pretty impressive.

Labels: Clemson, coaches, Dawgs, football

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Posted by Tom on 7:06 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post