It’s become very tiresome.
It’s become outdated, worn to the point of absurdity.
It’s as stale as the day-old bread stand at the local supermarket… after it’s spent seven days on the shelf, unclaimed.
Clemsoning — the gerund used to describe a certain ACC football team squandering prosperity — used to legitimately exist. Clemson would engage in (insert gerund here) on an annual basis. Even the 2009 team which won the ACC Atlantic still lost a pile of games. Entering the 2011 season, the Tigers were on the verge of completing a 20th straight season without an ACC championship.
I know we’re talking about college sports here, so the invocation of the phrase (and its accompanying image) might be a sore spot for some readers, but Clemson did leave money on the table — a lot of it — for quite some time. More specifically, the Tigers would do something — a dropped pass and a botched placekick being the favorites of the Tommy Bowden era — to avoid grabbing the brass ring.
Clemsoning lived a long and (for national bloggers, at any rate) fruitful life.
However, beginning in 2011, the Tigers have become a different program. Saturday night against Notre Dame, they were given a chance to show that they were still “New Clemson,” not “Same Ol’ Practitioners of Clemsoning,” whose acronym is SOPC.
In 2011, Clemson won a long-sought ACC title. Sure, the Orange Bowl at the end of that season was a disaster, but when the Tigers beat LSU in the 2012 Peach Bowl (corporate sponsor name not used), they began to establish a true foothold as a program which achieved richly. That foothold became even firmer when Clemson beat Georgia to start the 2013 season. Wins over SEC teams (good ones) in consecutive games began to change perceptions more than the 2011 ACC title ever did. The 2013 Tigers made and won the Orange Bowl, beating Urban Meyer and Ohio State. Again, Clemson and Dabo Swinney left “that gerund” behind and showed they were “New Clemson.”
Last season, Clemson didn’t make a prestigious January bowl, it’s true. However, the Tigers went 9-3 in the regular season despite having to confront recurring injury problems for quarterback Deshaun Watson. When a Watson-less team blasted Oklahoma in the Russell Athletic Bowl, Clemson had genuinely done the most it realistically could under the circumstances.
2011. 2012. 2013. 2014. All of these years featured “New Clemson,” and left SOPC behind.
“That gerund” was nowhere to be found.
Enter 2015, and enter week five against a Notre Dame team intent on winning the big Saturday-night game in an ACC lair it just missed winning in 2014 at Florida State. With rain coming down for much of the evening, the soggy conditions figured to take away from Clemson’s speed and give the beefy, brawny Irish the edge in the trenches. Clemson was a respected team, but the weather seemed more likely to suit the visitors from South Bend.
If Clemson could somehow pass this test, how a great an accomplishment it would be.
Mission accomplished. New Clemson lives.
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This game lent itself to discussion and coverage from a lot of different angles. We’ll talk about the Notre Dame side of the story, and more specifically, the questionable game-management decisions Brian Kelly made on Saturday night.
For now, though, just consider this: Clemson quite clearly bested Notre Dame in the trenches. The Fighting Irish made an inspired, late rally due to the fact that the Tigers became exhausted and weren’t able to control the ball long enough to give their defense enough of a breather. For the first three quarters, though, Clemson’s front seven overwhelmed Notre Dame’s offensive line.
Irish quarterback DeShone Kizer was throwing off his back foot a lot, without the zip he sometimes needed to complete a pass in traffic. Clemson got Notre Dame’s offense off balance, and while the Irish made a spirited comeback, they couldn’t erase all 18 points of the 21-3 lead the home team established in the third quarter. Fellow ACC school Georgia Tech was manhandled by the Irish at the point of attack. Clemson set a much different standard, and as a result, the Tigers are not only the team to beat in the ACC; they’re the ACC team best positioned to make a run at the College Football Playoff.
New Clemson has stuck around.
SOPC — Same Ol’ Practitioners of Clemsoning — can be buried beneath the earth’s surface.
“That gerund” lived well, but it went into intensive care in 2011; fell into a coma in 2013; and now lies lifeless in a grave where Notre Dame and other high-profile victims also rest.
Look elsewhere for teams that don’t achieve in college football. Clemson stopped being part of that list years ago. Saturday night, the Tigers ensured they’ll stay off that list for at least another year.
