Before we begin, some post-Christmas corrections:
- Last Monday, I called the proceeding week the last productive on the American worker's calendar. I don't know what I was thinking. Clearly the week sandwiched between Christmas and the local team dumping Clemson in a semifinal is the most unproductive week.
- Saturday, I said anyone who attended Chargers-Browns should be stripped of possessions and imprisoned, when actuality it's me who needs depossessed and imprisoned. 1-15 (they better finish 1-15) with the No. 1 pick sounds like a 2017 playoff bid.
- Blue Jackets are the best damn team in the NHL. OK, that's not a correction—just a fact.
This isn't a correction, but please keep Eric Morrissey in your prayers because some hardships are passing through his life:
@marion_ohio somehow I ended up at Denny's at 1am Christmas Day. I feel like everyone you've ever made fun of in the skull session
— Eric Morrissey (@ericmorrissey) December 25, 2016
SHOULD BE WATCHING FILM. Few things worse on Twitter than the fan that tweets, "You should be watching film!" any time a college student tweets about something unrelated to football.
The NCAA mandates 20 hours a week of practice, but that's a joke. Urban Meyer admits players who only spend 20 hours a week on football won't be very good at football.
With Clemson looming in less than a week, Christmas celebrations aren't enough to distract two Silver Bullet capos from the task at hand.
From dispatch.com:
“That’s the first thing you think about when you wake up,” Lewis said. “I’m thinking ‘Dominate’ as soon as I wake up.”
[...]
“When we get breaks like this, I still watch a ton of film,” [Chris Worley] said, meaning video snippets of Clemson on his iPad. “So it’s never really (a time when) I’m not thinking about football. But it is good to have some sort of foundation (with regular life); you can’t just be football 24-7.
“I know for me — my mom and dad, and my siblings, they love to see me, and I don’t get to see them as much. It’s good to make somebody else’s day just by spending time with them and it’s not centered around football. … When it’s time to reflect about family on Christmas Eve and Christmas, that’s when it’s the best.”
As a blogger, I relate. After three years of Pavlovian conditioning by Slack notifications, I can't watch a Hallmark Christmas love story without thinking, "What if the FBI indicts Meyer for cocaine trafficking? What if some five-star commit is doing something #viral?"
The grind never stops. There is no offseason, contrary to what these two-800-word-articles-a-week writers think.
SLOT OF DEATH. One cool feature about Meyer's defenses is that despite no matter how dominant it can be, it's still prone to a future accountant blazing it for 200 yards and three touchdowns from the slot.
Deshaun Watson's weapons are numerous: Mike Williams, Jordan Leggett, Artavis Scott, and Wayne Gallman.
But the Tiger offense runs deeper than that. Meet Hunter Renfrow, the scariest engineer in America.
From thestate.com:
“I can turn my back and get ready to coach up somebody for the next play or whatever because you can always count on him,” [Clemson offensive coordinator Jeff] Scott said about [Hunter] Renfrow. “He always grades 95 percent or higher every single week.”
It’s been that way since Renfrow came out of nowhere as a walk-on receiver. And his knack for making big plays has given this offense a huge shot in the arm for the last two seasons. Despite a broken hand that sidelined him for four weeks this fall, Renfrow has still been Mr. Reliable.
“I’m just going out and playing football,” said Renfrow, who has 29 receptions for 353 yards and four touchdowns in nine games. “I just have fun coming to practice every day and I just try to think of it as one game at a time and not think of it as a whole season.”
This either ends with Renfrow drafted by the New England Patriots or Malik Hooker truck-sticking him back to AP Chemistry while en route to a game-deciding pick six.
That's it. Those are the only two options.
CLEMSON HOT RIGHT NOW. The internet says Clemson won a title back in the 80s, but like most Americans, I wash away cognitive dissonance by labeling it "fake news."
Sure, Clemson injured Braxton Miller, Philly Brown muffed a punt, and the Tigers won behind Tajh Boyd's 1,200 yards of total offense. But to me, the guy who doesn't like Clemson, that program peaked either when Woody Hayes stuck ol' dude in the face or when it lost to Alabama.
And while Clemson loyalists argue the best is yet to come, there's no denying their program improbably upped its swag after crowning a dude named "Dabo."
From dispatch.com:
Since the start of the 2014 season, only Alabama (39-3) and Ohio State (37-3) have had more victories than Clemson (36-5), which began its recent tear by beating the Buckeyes 40-35 in the Orange Bowl to cap the 2013 season.
These are the good old days for Clemson, a program that has enjoyed some grand success — including a national championship in 1981 under Danny Ford — but had enough periods of drought to be kept on the outside of the sport’s upper crust.
“Certain teams have always had the opportunity to be good,” Ford said. “Ohio State has been one of those teams forever and ever. Alabama. Southern Cal. Notre Dame, back in the old days. Michigan. Oklahoma. They were the seven or eight that were supposed to do it every year. Clemson was never there in that group. Now they’ve gotten there.”
I don't care how many putt putt courses or slides Clemson puts in its football facility that also launders money. I don't care how many titles Michigan, Southern California, Oklahoma, and especially Notre Dame won back when players smoked cigarettes.
Right now, the only standard that matters is a College Football Playoff Trophy. Alabama and Ohio State have one. Clemson doesn't.
If Clemson wants access to the top tier, beating Ohio State and Alabama (or Washington, which I contend has a better chance of beating the Tide than 90% of people seem to think) is the only way they'll gain access. Power never dilutes itself.
MEANWHILE... Reoccurring ACL injuries ended Kyle Berger's career. Let's see what he's up to these days.
From cleveland.com:
So Berger continues his studies in exercise science as part of a pre-med curriculum that he hopes will land him at Ohio State's medical school. He plays Xbox with his roommates. He wonders why one of those roommates, Ohio State defensive end Sam Hubbard, gets his Chipotle orders delivered, and why another, Ohio State left tackle Jamarco Jones, seldom does the dishes.
Berger no longer plays football. But he's still connected to two of his 2014 recruiting class friends that he's lived with since his freshman year.
"We're just great friends," Hubbard said. "We always got along and we each bring something different to the table."
Sounds like Hubbard brings Chipotle, Happy Jamarco brings dirty dishes, and Berger brings the XBox and free medical advice. Seems like a win/win/win in that commune.
THOSE WMDs. Marion Pritchard, who risked her life to save Jews from Nazis, dies at 96... Marzipan, the sweet taste of the holidays in Spain... 54,000 Germans must evacuate as experts defuse WW2 bomb... Carrie Fisher's remarkable legacy as a script doctor... The story of Jamie Highwater, the fake Indian who won't die... College dorms become luxury playpens.
