Before we get started...A brief important message
My friend, Greg, over at "I'm Just Sayin" is raising money for an important cause - ending Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is a terrible disease that I know first hand about. My maternal grandmother died of Alzheimer's. If you never have to go through that disease it would be a blessing. It robbed her of her memory and left her with a blank stare and she ended up spending her last days
Lake Weekend
This year we (Danny, Jenn, Michael, Adrian) moved up our normal "fall" trip to the lake to September for two reasons - to use the lake for the first time and because we figured the defending national champions would be coming to Death Valley undefeated and we had a score to settle from last year on the plains (and lets be honest, who gets excited about Boston College or Wake Forest? Ok, I know two people that get excited for Wake because they graduated from there and if I spent that kind of money there I would spend the rest of my life excited about Wake). I am not going to bore you with the weather forecast because I am sure you saw it (and lived it.) I will suffice it to say that for the 4th year in a row my toes (or any other part of my body or Danny's or Michael's) have touched the water. Between the temperature and the wind, doing anything on the lake was out - except maybe surfing since the entire lake was white capping. Since the lake was not an option, we decided to day trip to Highland, NC. My man Danny, toughed out the curvy mountain road without getting sick but there were a few quite moments that I wasn't sure. If we go back, I think we will helicopter Danny to our destination or we are going to have to knock him out BA Baracus, A Team style. It was chilly, we we got there. We each did what we do best while in Highlands - girls shop and guys eat and drink. We had a first for everyone after inquiring everyone in town. We ate lunch in a grocery store - Mountain Fresh Grocery. Yes, place your order and sit down - not a to-go Piggly Wiggly, Publix meal. We had very tasty burgers and chicken fingers that honestly were some of the best we had ever had. After lunch the girls continued to shop while the guys sought out shelter. We found shelter at The Ugly Dog Pub. If you're in the area, I would suggest checking them out and get 6 t-shirts (they were out except for XXL, not quite that size put give me a few more years). We talked to the owner (was in the cabinetry business but closed shop with the down turn in the economy, decided to open a bar and drink her tears away along with everyone else), listened to Auburn fans chant "War Eagle" (evidently Highlands is a good stopping point/day trip for fans traveling to the game and looking for something to do). Michael and I let them have their fun and remained quit while Danny silently was chanting with them (he wanted SC to have a shot at the belt in two weeks but we now know that title shot will have to wait until possibly the end of the year...more on that later.) Danny made it down the mountain fine and we tried to tempt fate but got scared. We stopped at the Issaqueena Falls and Stumphouse Tunnel Park but the sign at the gate entrance which was open said it would be locked at 5pm but it was still open at 6pm. We decided that two of the possible three options were not very exciting - car getting towed or the gate getting locked while we were still inside, so we decided to leave - pretty sure if we were in college we would have stayed and tempted fate (plus, if we were in college, we just would have called mom or dad and told them to send money because the car got towed). I guess if we are going to actually get in the lake, we are going to have to come in July.
PS - I would suggest waiting a few weeks until renting the house on Walker Pointe drive. It's going to need some time to air out.
Clemson vs Auburn
Shout Out
I want to give a shout out to my two favorite Auburn fans - Clark and Jenn. I hope ya'll had a great experience in Death Valley and enjoyed the greatest 25 seconds in college football. Now that you can scratch a trip to Death Valley off your bucket list. I would suggest a night game to get the full effect (12 noon kickoffs are tough for everyone). I would like to thank Clark for the text after the game, they are just classy people. Since ya'll are evidently our good luck charm, I will pick you up at 8am on Saturday for the Florida State game...are you busy the rest of the season? Oh and by the way, I heard a lot of "War Eagle" or "War Damn Eagle" so I came up with one for Clemson - "Clemson Damn Tiger" (ha!ha!).
Almost forgot, of all the teams(non rival) that have traveled to Clemson I am going to say the Auburn traveled the best of anyone of them with the exception of SC. The Auburn fans were everywhere (even in Highlands, NC). The entire top half of the upper deck (north side)and the scattered everywhere else was filled with orange and blue and pom poms.
TITLE BELT
Clemson is the holder of the title belt!!!! That's right to be the best you have to beat the best and we beat the best and ended the nations longest winning streak (17 games) and defeated the defending national champion. In the words of the immortal Ric Flair:
To Be The Man, Woooo, You've Got To Beat The Man, Woooo
To be the best you've now got to come through Clemson. Our first title defense is this coming weekend against Florida State. I would have preferred a game against Sisters of the Poor but you can't be picky...bring on all challengers.
Did you see how excited Dabo was about the belt?
Probably a little much for me from your head coach, unless you just won the TITLE BELT!!!
Our Life College Football Poll
1. Clemson (Belt Holder)
2. Who Cares
3. Doesn't Matter
4. Irrelevant
5. Unimportant
6.
Confused
While their fans traveled very well, I am not sure if they have been to or watched any of Auburn's previous 17 games and especially the first two this year. I am not sure why down 14 in the 4th quarter they started heading to the exits. The evidently weren't aware of Clemson penchant for folding late in games like a deck of cards...see Georgia Tech game and Auburn's flair for the dramatic win. I pretty sure I would have stayed until the final gun. And plus I don't understand, paying for the ticket, traveling to the game and leaving early. I paid for the seat for the whole 60 minutes. I leave when the final horn sounds.
Did You Know
*Gene Chizik is a Clemson Tiger for life.
- Gene Chizik was graduate assistant at Clemson in 1988 and 1989 under Danny Ford (no wonder he won the national championship last year). He worked with the linebackers and taught one of Clemson's all time great linebackers - Levon Kirkland.
- He is a '91 graduate of Clemson - Master's Degree
*Clemson is now 3-0 in games against the defending National Champions (Georgia Tech, Georgia and Auburn) at Death Valley (1-5 on the road)
*Clemson ended Auburn's 17 game winning streak; previous longest winning streak ended was Georgia's at 15
*It had been 659 days since Auburn last tasted defeat. Welcome to dinner, it's a little cold and doesn't taste good - trust me we've been eating it for awhile now.
*It had been 659 days since Auburn last tasted defeat. Welcome to dinner, it's a little cold and doesn't taste good - trust me we've been eating it for awhile now.
*This was Auburn’s first game at Clemson since 1970. That year Auburn beat Clemson 44-0 on Clemson’s Homecoming. After the game first-year head coach Hootie Ingram started his postgame press conference by asking, “Who is on the Homecoming Committee?”
*Clemson ended a 14 game losing streak to Auburn (dated back to 1951)
The Good
*Clemson answered the bell after getting knocked square in the jaw and spotting Auburn a 14 point lead
*Held Auburn to 3 points in the 2nd Half (I give Clemson coaches for being able to make half time adjustments on the defensive side of the ball)
*624 yards of offense
*Starting year 3-0 for the first time since 2007
*32 First Downs
*92 plays
*14-18 on 3rd downs
*Game Balls - Tajh Boyd and Sammy Watkins
The Bad
*Tackling
*Rush Defense (gave up 237 yards)
*Secondary
*Florida State coming to town*Virginia Tech on the road
Game Highlights (In Case You Somehow Missed It)
Summary
It was a great win on Saturday and hopefully will be the confidence that we need to win the next two games (ok, I will be honest and take 1 of 2.) I am not delusional and think that we are going to win the national championship because we beat Auburn on Saturday but it was an important win for the program and just maybe we got our mojo back that they took from us last year.
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