Hill Watch...12 days!!!

76er®

CU Medallion [65646]

TigerPulse: 100%

Posts: 33294

Joined: 12/3/03

12 years ago, 2010: An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon

Aug 24, 2022, 8:43 AM

oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico results in the largest marine oil spill in history. President Obama signs The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) into law. A massive earthquake in Haiti kills more than 230,000 people. The “Tea Party Movement” begins to shape Republican policies in the 2010 midterm elections.

33 Chilean miners are successfully rescued after spending 69 days trapped underground after a mine tunnel collapse. Wikileaks dumps a huge trove of military and government documents onto the Internet, sparking massive arguments about Freedom of Information vs protecting military and government assets. Lebron James goes from being loved to being hated in Cleveland, when he goes on TV for a totally overhyped show called “The Decision”, to reveal that he is leaving the Cavaliers in free agency to “take his talents to South Beach” with the Miami Heat.

The 2010 ACC Champions would be the 16th ranked (8-0, 11-3) Virginia Tech Hokies. They defeated the 17th ranked (6-2, 10-4) Florida State Seminoles of 1st year Head Coach Jimbo Fisher in the ACC Championship game by a score of 44-33. But, VT was defeated 40-12 in the Orange Bowl, by the No. 4 Stanford Cardinal of 4th year Head Coach Jim Harbaugh. (After this game, Harbaugh left to become the Head Coach of the NFL San Franciso 49ers.) FSU defeated South Carolina 26-17 in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. The ACC had two other ranked teams, No. 23 Maryland, and No. 25 NC State, both at 9-4 on the season.

National Champions for 2010 were the 14-0 Auburn Tigers of Coach Gene Chizik. They were led by a brash young QB named Cam Newton, who authored several big comeback wins during the year, especially one in the annual Iron Bowl game against Alabama, that would be named “The Camback”. Auburn went down 24-0 to Bama, but then clawed their way all the way back for a 28-27 win. They would destroy Coach Steve Spurrier's South Carolina squad 56-17 in the SEC Championship Game, and then win a thrilling 22-19 Fiesta Bowl BCS National Championship Game over the Oregon Ducks. Naturally, as had been the case all season, Cam Newton led a last minute drive to the winning field goal as time expired in the game.

At Clemson, sophomore Kyle Parker was the starter at QB. The star-crossed Clemson career of Willy Korn had ended when he transferred to Marshall before the season began. There was an up and coming freshman from Hampton Roads, Virginia also on the QB roster, named Tajh Boyd. Offensive Coordinator was Coach Billy Napier, and Defensive Coordinator was Coach Keven Steele. Both were in their 2nd seasons in those jobs.

The season began with a two game home stand, and two foes of the “cupcake” variety. We dispatched North Texas 35-10, and then old foe Presbyterian once again found out why they nicknamed Memorial Stadium “Death Valley” long ago, as the Tigers rolled 58-21. But, Game 3 was a road trip to Jordan-Hare Stadium to face No. 16 Auburn and their freak athlete of a QB, Cam Newton. College Gameday was on hand, and the game did not disappoint. It was a shootout, and as he would do in just about every game of the season, Newton got the win in OT for Auburn, 30-27. Kyle Parker had been injured on a dirty “spear” hit to the back and ribs earlier in the game, and that injury would dog him the rest of the season, to one degree or another.

Auburn moved up in the rankings after that win, and we returned home to face the new No. 16 team, the Miami Hurricanes. Miami's Dbs would drape themselves all over Clemson receivers all day, since the officials were not calling pass interference unless somebody died. We also dropped about a bushel basket full of catchable balls, doing a great Richard “Stone Hands” Caster imitation. The end result of all that was a 30-21 Miami win.

At North Carolina the next week, the Heels unveiled a tough running game, and with this, along with the stout defense that used to be a hallmark of this game in the Danny Ford era, they came away with a hard fought 21-16 victory over the Tigers. Clemson frankly did not have the same quality of skill position players as in some recent years, and the playcalling under Billy Napier had gotten too predictable. All this resulted in a lower scoring offense.

After three straight losses, attendance was down for the next game, as a crowd of only 72,484 showed up in Death Valley to see us handle the Maryland Terps, 31-7. Georgia Tech fell 27-13 the next week, as the Clemson defense put up another fine effort. But the next week, facing BC in Chestnut Hill, NEITHER offense could do a whole lot. BC was grinding out huge “time of possession” drives, keeping the ball out of Clemson's hands. The BC halftime lead of 16-10 held up for the entire 2nd half, as neither team managed a single point in the second stanza. BC had lost five games in a row before this, but the victory over the Tigers propelled them to a five game WINNING streak.

The Tigers would limp back home to Death Valley, and the offense would do just enough to win another low scoring affair, 14-13 over No. 25 NC State. But, down at Doak Campbell vs the Seminoles the next week, the lack of offense resulted in another close loss, 16-13. FSU QB EJ Manuel did just enough, and the Seminoles threw in a blocked field goal to boot, in the FSU win. The game was tied 13-13, and looked to be going into overtime, before we surrendered a last second long pass completion, and FSU's kicker boomed a 55 yard field goal for the win that would have been good from at least 60 yards, as time expired.

So, the Tigers sat at 5-5 for the season, needing a win to become bowl eligible, as we faced Wake Forest on the road. For once, Clemson put up some points, along with some good defense, to win it 30-10. The regular season would be capped off by a night game in the Valley against the No. 17 South Carolina Gamecocks. They came into the game at 8-3, winners of the SEC East, and on their way to a date with Auburn in the SEC Championship game. We broke out the Orange Britches for this game again, would they still possess the magic? The game started out on a good note, as Kyle Parker hit Nuk Hopkins for a long touchdown to put Clemson up 7-0. A personal foul kept a drive alive on the next South Carolina possession, eventually resulting in a 51 yard field goal, 7-3.

Clemson had Jamie Harper at running back, and South Carolina had Marcus Lattimore. The Carolina defense would bottle up Harper all night, but Lattimore found some success. With just over 5 minutes to go in the 1st quarter, South Carolina got the first big momentum play of the game, as Clemson's punter mishandled a snap, and Carolina recovered the ball inside the Clemson 10. Stephen Garcia would then toss a short touchdown pass to give the Gamecocks the lead for the first time, 9-7, as Clemson had partially blocked the PAT.

After forcing another Clemson punt, South Carolina's playmakers started making plays. A couple good runs by Lattimore set up a long pass to Alshon Jeffrey from Stephen Garcia. They hooked up again later in the drive for the touchdown, and Carolina padded the lead, 16-7. A long kickoff return, with a personal foul tacked on, set Clemson up at the Gamecock 38 yard line, but we could only gain a yard further, and had to punt the ball away. The Coots went on a long, clock eating drive that took almost 10 minutes off the clock, resulting in a field goal, for a 19-7 lead. The teams traded possessions the rest of the half with no further scoring.

Clemson forced a punt after South Carolina had gained some yardage on the opening possession of the 2nd half. Jamie Harper was finally finding some holes, and the Clemson offense was moving the football, when Kyle Parker threw an ill-advised pass into traffic on a scramble, and it was intercepted and taken all the way for a touchdown, so that now the lead for Carolina was 26-7. They took advantage of a penalty aided short field to kick another 3 pointer near the end of the 3rd quarter to make the score 29-7. And, that was pretty much that. There was no scoring on either side in the entire 4th quarter. Clemson now leads the series 65-39-4.

So, Clemson had completed the second full season under Coach Dabo Swinney, and slipped to a 6-6 mark. There were a lot of wolves howling at the door, and Dabo has told the story many times of meeting a tearful Kathleen in the office hallway after the game, saying that AD Terry Don Phillips was waiting for him in his office. It would have been no surprise to him, or anyone else, if Terry Don had told him his short tenure was over. He knew he had done his best, and that things were moving in the right direction, even if the on-field results for 2010 did not show it.

But, to his surprise, when he walked in to the office, and found Terry Don Phillips sitting in the dark, the AD told him that he was even more sure now than he was at the time of the hire, that Dabo Swinney was the right man to lead Clemson. He had seen all the behind the scenes changes for the better as well, and felt that his young coach deserved at least one more year at the helm. But, he was only half joking when he told Swinney, “If it doesn't work out, we can help each other pack, because I'll be out the door right behind you.” When the Tigers lost a “lowest tier” Meineke Car Care Bowl 31-26 to South Florida, Phillips DID catch a lot of flak from some influential people who wanted Swinney gone. But, to his eternal credit, TDP stood his ground. What would 2011 bring? All 2010 results below:

North Texas W 35–10
Presbyterian W 58–21
At No. 16 Auburn L 24–27 OT
No. 16 Miami L 21–30
At North Carolina L 16–21
Maryland W 31–7
Georgia Tech W 27–13
At Boston College L 10–16
No. 25 NC State W 14–13
At Florida State L 13–16
At Wake Forest W 30–10
No. 17 South Carolina L 7–29 (Clemson leads the series 65-39-4.)

Clemson vs. South Florida*
Meineke Car Care Bowl
L 26–31

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

Re: Hill Watch...12 days!!!

Slow Down O.J. b/c

Re: Hill Watch...12 days!!!

Re: Hill Watch...12 days!!!

12 years ago, 2010: An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon

Re: 12 years ago, 2010: PICS AND VIDEOS!

Re: 12 years ago, 2010: PICS AND VIDEOS!

LOL you throwing that in there.

Re: LOL you throwing that in there.

Re: LOL you throwing that in there.

Re: 12 years ago, 2010: PICS AND VIDEOS!

Re: 12 years ago, 2010: PICS AND VIDEOS!

Good stuff as always. I especially liked

Re: Hill Watch...12 days!!!

#12

Andy Headen Terrence Mack John Johnson Michael Barber

Re: Hill Watch...12 days!!!

And 17 until 1st home game -

Thanks, O.J.!

Spot the ball!

Re: Spot the ball!

TigerBoard POTD