Clemson football fans and players seem to have a great deal of confidence heading into this game.
There is not a thing wrong with confidence in sporting events. Alabama fans have had this confidence around them since the second season that came after the arrival of Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. arrived to become the head coach. As a matter of fact, that confidence hasn’t been that bad of an idea with all of the wins, championships, and lack of that many losses. Most of the losses came earlier in the season to the usual bottom-dwelling programs so that the Tide could recover and find themselves playing for it at the end of the year, just like God would want.
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I don’t understand the confidence from the Clemson Tigers, especially when a late newspaper columnist seemed to describe Tigers as pessimistic people who gathered in an area with a lake that resembled the campus of Auburn University.
That late newspaper columnist, Lewis Grizzard, is still on of my favorites to read, even years after he passed away. Grizzard told the story of a pessimistic Clemson student that wanted to be a Paratrooper but he thought there would be a reason that the outfit would not take him, whatever that may be. That quality starts early in the South Carolina, apparently.
The young man finally makes Fort Benning and he was taken in for the training. All during the training, the young guy thought was “this ain’t gonna work”. Then came time to put it all together.
In the plane, the pilot told all of the Paratroopers to jump out of the plane when the bell dings and count to four. After you do that, pull the rip cord on your right side to deploy the chute. He added that if something happens from the first one to pull the cord on the left and your secondary chute will come out and you will safely land on the ground near some trucks that can bring you back to base.
As you might have guessed, nothing went as planned for the young Clemson student. He followed the specific directions and not one of the chutes opened on his free fall. The only thing his friend heard as he flew by was, “Yeah, and I bet those damn trucks won’t be there to pick me up, either”.
You see, most schools that get stuck in mediocrity for so long, start taking on the ways of a pessimistic person. Nothing turns out like they want it to. It’s been a long time since Clemson has really been relevant on the national stage. Their last national title, I was still trying to figure out which Gerber Baby Food I preferred and now I am closer to Social Security that I would like to admit.
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Is there new positive outlook coming from former Bama player and coach Dabo Swinney? That has to be it.
Personally, I think after Monday night in Glendale, some will be waiting on those trucks to show up to take them back to base.