I found it interesting to read today that one of the reasons that Tajh called a team meeting was because he didn't like the effort he saw from everyone the other night against FSU. According to one article, he said it reminded him of the Orange Bowl. I know Clemson fans will take pride in the fact that they have a leader that will "step up" and call a players only meeting to challenge the other players, but I would be concerned about the bigger picture that it would be necessary to do that in only the fourth game of the season.
Dabo is a great recruiter. We know that. He also is great at getting his team pumped up and "riled up." That can be a great thing at times. But I also think it comes with a price. I think Dabo and his entire team play too up and down. Twice in the last five games now it has come out that the team didn't give its all at the end of the game.
Contrast this with Spurrier's comments just this week. Spurrier said "we tell our players that good things are going to happen and bad things are going to happen. You have to play through the bad things." I know one of his big goals since he has been at USC is to get his players to believe that you can't get too up or down when you play. You just have to keep playing the next play. It is also evident this is his attitude when he talks about our wins and losses. He always sort of downplays wins somewhat by saying "well the ball just bounce our way a little bit today" or "we did what we needed to do to win." But he never makes a huge deal out of wins or losses.
If we lose to Georgia next week, I doubt very seriously that our players will call a team meeting for Monday. Some might see that as a negative, but I don't think that is the case. I think our players would go right back to work preparing for the next game.
Many of our fans were mad at Coach when he first got here because he took down all of the "Beat Clemson" signs. But in the years since that time, he has addressed this and said that when he first got here our team was so worked up over the Clemson game that they couldn't perform because they were so keyed up and worried about losing. They were trying not to lose instead of trying to win because there was so much pressure on them.
It is just my opinion, but I think that is one of the main problems over at Clemson and one of the reasons why we will continue to have the upper hand in the rivalry while Dabo is the coach.
Dabo is a great recruiter. We know that. He also is great at getting his team pumped up and "riled up." That can be a great thing at times. But I also think it comes with a price. I think Dabo and his entire team play too up and down. Twice in the last five games now it has come out that the team didn't give its all at the end of the game.
Contrast this with Spurrier's comments just this week. Spurrier said "we tell our players that good things are going to happen and bad things are going to happen. You have to play through the bad things." I know one of his big goals since he has been at USC is to get his players to believe that you can't get too up or down when you play. You just have to keep playing the next play. It is also evident this is his attitude when he talks about our wins and losses. He always sort of downplays wins somewhat by saying "well the ball just bounce our way a little bit today" or "we did what we needed to do to win." But he never makes a huge deal out of wins or losses.
If we lose to Georgia next week, I doubt very seriously that our players will call a team meeting for Monday. Some might see that as a negative, but I don't think that is the case. I think our players would go right back to work preparing for the next game.
Many of our fans were mad at Coach when he first got here because he took down all of the "Beat Clemson" signs. But in the years since that time, he has addressed this and said that when he first got here our team was so worked up over the Clemson game that they couldn't perform because they were so keyed up and worried about losing. They were trying not to lose instead of trying to win because there was so much pressure on them.
It is just my opinion, but I think that is one of the main problems over at Clemson and one of the reasons why we will continue to have the upper hand in the rivalry while Dabo is the coach.
