All-In [49613]
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Joined: 12/10/98
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Sunday Sermon: We got there, but what a long, strange trip
Oct 28, 2018, 4:19 PM
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Some random thoughts as battlefield scavengers poke in vain for anything of value left in Chief Osceola's gore-clotted pockets:
"It was a lot of fun," says our sixth-string running back
I think it was about the time Chris Wilkins rumbled in to the endzone for his TD, looking for someone to flatten. My wife looked over at me and said, "Is something wrong? You're awful quiet."
I wasn't quiet. I was in awe. We've seen Clemson pummel opponents before, but NEVER Florida State. Never like this. Never in Tally. And, in honesty, it's a beatdown I wondered if I see in my life (more on that later).
So, while we rightfully celebrate the day Clemson football utterly disembowled Florida State and sent the Seminoles deep into the swamps of football mediocrity for all time, take a moment to savor what it took to get here. Think where we were 20 years ago, nearly to the week: woefully inept victims of a 48-0 nationally televised butt-kicking in Tally.
Think where we were a few years later, full of pi$$ and vinegar, nationally ranked and ready to pay the Noles back for years of embarrassment. We had Woody. We had TZach and Rod Gardner. Heck, we had Bernard Rambert. We were Top 10! We had the Noles' number this time.
For years, Snoop Minnis galloped through my nightmares
It turns out, we had nothing.
Papa Bowden took his boy out to the woodshed, 54-7 The game, and our season, officially went to hell when our defense successfully pinned the Noles deep, literally in the shadow of their goal post. Chris Weinke (yes, Weinke!) faked a handoff, then tossed a pass from his end zone to Snoop Minnis. I can still see him loping down the sidelines for a 98-yard TD as the crowd chanted "Who's Your Daddy? Who's Your Daddy?" Wave after wave of fresh FSU players chewed us into cane pulp, and we left wondering when, if ever, we could be that talented, that deep.
It took this long to return the favor, and if I wasn't such a respecter of Dabo's "play everyone who deserves it" philosophy, I'd be mad we didn't put an extra 20 points on the Noles for that game.
Think about all the "close but no cigar" games, about all the times, you've had to sit there and suck up the constipated war cry of Osceola's enfante terribles as slipups or sloppiness kept the Tigers from this moment.
But we have arrived. It's a little bit different than a hard-fought win over 'Bama, or yet another thumping of Ohio State. Those are wins that engender respect. The Noles refuse to give respect. They're the folks who want to look down their nose at you, even if they have to tilt their chins skyward to do so.
That's fine. They may break out their clippings and old videotapes for comfort, but there's nowhere to look but the past. As the Tiger's roar echoes, their whimpering war cry settles silently in the swamps of Florida. And it feels good ... REAL good.
It's been a long, strange trip. But it's been well worth the mileage.
Welcome to the future, Tigers.
*****
A personal note: A few folks have wondered where I've been recently. Short answer, I've been sick. While all true sons of Clemson were celebrating our flattening of Florida State last November, I was hooked up to a machine that sucked every drop of plasma from my body. A day later and I'd be celebrating this season with Bob Bradley and Banks McFadden and Frank Kellars ... wonderful company, but not folks I'm keen on meeting just yet.
I've got an affliction known as multiple myeloma. The easiest way to describe it, as my doc at UNC (lousy team, great hospital) says, is termites in your bloodstream. They decide on a place to hunker down and start chewing. Sometimes, its in a kidney, sometimes, it's in your liver.
This time, it's in my back. And when they start eating, they start hard. From late October through Thanksgiving I lost about 4 pounds and six inches (farewell to my dreams of playing starting guard for the Senior Olympics!) I had to go into the bubble for half a year after a bone marrow transplant and sort of fell off the map. I currently have the immunization level of a 6-month-old, but at least my hair has grown back.
On the bright side, I was too sick to worry about our loss to 'Bama. The morphine helped considerably.
If anyone has any questions, I'm wide open. Aside from that, Go Tigers!
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