Thanks (long)

Dec 6, 2009, 3:54 PM

I have a T-net account mostly to read y'alls reactions, but I just got back home from Tampa and had to post. Im 25 years old and can honestly say I've never enjoyed a football season as much as this one. Maybe I don't remember the late eighties, but from all my years going to games and bleeding orange, I've never enjoyed a team more.

This team fought and did things Tiger teams don't often do. They came back in first GA tech game when most of us thought they'd give up. They got in a shoot out with Miami and won a game we normally lose in a heartbreaker. They avoided the inevitable trap game when we all thought we'd screw it up and they made plays when they mattered most (McDaniel owning Ponder comes to mind). This team played with more heart and desire than any Tigers team I've seen in a decade, and it deserves to be acknowledged. Sure, the MD loss(which I attended) was bad, but it was also our rallying cry. Anyone who saw Brandon Maye last night practically playing on one knee, refusing to get off the field, or CJ somehow hobbling/running into the endzone should acknowledge the difference between this team and teams past.

For those who live in a world of ridiculous expectations and invest too much into the success of a bunch of young adults playing a game, now you have basketball season to overreact too. But for those us with perspective, we say thank you.

Thank you to CJ for being the best offensive player we've ever had. Thank you to Jacoby for being a whirling dervish and becoming a good pass catcher. Thank you to Michael Palmer for being a leader and never dropping a pass. Thank you to Ricky and Bowers for being B.A. Thank you DeAndre and the rest of the secondary for being interception machines. Thank you to Thomas Austin and Mason Coy and the rest of the O-line for giving CJ and the boys room to run. Thank you to Kyle Parker for being a hell of a freshman QB--I went to GA grad school during Staffords first year and you are at least as good as he was when he was a freshman. Thank you to every other player for giving us this season. And thank you to Dabo and the coaching staff for making this team what Tiger fans always wanted, a team with heart that fights for games.

For anyone that disagrees or says Im all sunflowers and rainbows, Im sorry your coworkers make fun of you after SC won. Im sorry you cant wear the ACC champs shirt you bought before the game was over. Im sorry the air isn't sweeter and the world seems darker. But for anyone out there with perspective, who had any real expectations on the season, who has seen Clemson play football and constantly disappoint, I say be thankful. This is standard of the Dabo-era at Clemson, and I will judge every subsequent year of his tenure through the lens of the 2009 team. Teams of the future have a lot to live up to.

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Thanks (long)

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