TheState.com: Sports

Division-champ Tigers have goals to meet

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:40 EST

CONGRATULATIONS, NO. 15 Clemson, you've just won that elusive conference division title.

What are you going to do next - focus solely on next week's trip to the ACC championship in Tampa, Fla.? "If you can't get up for (the USC game), you shouldn't be at Clemson," senior receiver Jacoby Ford said.

Having spent another season building up to that breakthrough Atlantic Division crown, will Clemson treat Saturday's noon showdown in Columbia with due reverence?

Especially when the revenge match against No. 7 Georgia Tech offers the chance for the program's first ACC title since 1991.

This team has prided itself in maturing beyond the self-defeating tendencies of its predecessors.

Familiar road ahead for S.C. State

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:55 EST

Buddy Pough was thrilled last season when his S.C. State football team got the opportunity to travel to Boone, N.C., to play three-time national champion Appalachian State in the first round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.

After receiving the same draw Sunday, Pough was less than thrilled.

“I am a little surprised,” Pough said.

His Bulldogs, who finished the regular season 10-1 and won another MEAC title with a perfect 8-0 conference record, were hoping for a home playoff game after earning a No. 7 national ranking in the final FCS poll and averaging 17,000 fans per game over five home dates.

S.C. State was the only team ranked in the top eight of the poll that did not receive a home game in the 16-team field, which features eight conference champions and eight at-large teams. The eighth home game went to No. 12 Stephen F. Austin. The Bulldogs, whose only loss came to FBS foe South Carolina, ended the season with seven consecutive wins, but it wasn’t enough to avoid a matchup with perennial national power ASU, which won consecutive national titles from 2005-07.

Men's basketball pregame

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:40 EST

Winthrop Eagles (2-1) at No. 22 Clemson Tigers (3-0)

WHEN: 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: Littlejohn Coliseum, Clemson

TV: None

COACHES: Winthrop - Randy Peele (81-101 in seven seasons, 35-32 in three seasons at Winthrop); Clemson - Oliver Purnell (376-268 in 22 seasons, 120-77 in seven seasons at Clemson)

Notes: Bowers back to tackle defensive rotation

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:40 EST

CLEMSON - It wasn't a start, technically. But Clemson has standout sophomore defensive end Da'Quan Bowers back in the mix, which coach Dabo Swinney viewed as progress.

Bowers, who sat out two games because of a sprained medial collateral ligament, came off the bench in Saturday's 34-21 victory and logged 13 snaps, tallying one tackle for loss.

While Bowers had been expected to play, there had been no indication what role Bowers would have.

But Swinney said all signs are pointing to Bowers getting his standard volume of snaps come Saturday's noon regular-season finale at USC.

"He moved around well," Swinney said Sunday. "That's about what we were hoping to do with him, to just kind of test the water. His confidence should be really high coming in Monday.

Live Clemson Q&A: 3 p.m. Wednesday

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:46 EST

Visit thestate.com/tigers at 3 p.m. Wednesday for a live and interactive question-and-answer session with The State's Paul Strelow as Clemson prepares to take on South Carolina on Saturday.

Clemson football with Paul Strelow

Golf: 'Two Gloves' advances in Q-school

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:28 EST

Add two more aspiring golfers with South Carolina ties who are headed to the final stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament, aka Q-school.

Bishopville native Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey, who earned a spot on the 2009 PGA Tour via last year's Q-school but did not earn enough money this year to retain exemption, shot a final-round 69 at TPC Craig Ranch in Dallas, tying for fourth in the field at 10-under-par.

Another past PGA Tour and Nationwide Tour player, former USC All-American Kyle Thompson, also shot a final-round 69 at Callaway Gardens Mountain View Course in Pine Mountain, Ga., finishing in a tie for 20th at 8-under. The top 20 and ties advanced to third stage.

Gainey, now living near Camden, and Greenville's Thompson bring to 13 the number of S.C. players headed to Bear Lakes Country Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., for the 108-hole finals, Dec. 2-7. The top 25 and ties there will earn PGA Tour cards for 2010.

- Bob Gillespie

Johnson wins 4th straight NASCAR championship

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:18 EST

The nickname "Four-Time" was claimed long ago by Jeff Gordon, leaving Jimmie Johnson in search of a fresh moniker to cap his record-setting fourth consecutive NASCAR championship.

His Hendrick Motorsports team had it covered.

They call Johnson "Shark" for his "relentless attack on the competition, especially when he smells blood," said general manager Marshall Carlson.

Johnson never let up in his chase for a championship, or his chase of NASCAR history.

The most dominant driver of this decade wrapped up another title Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he raced hard to finish fifth when 25th place would have gotten the job done.

Bama ties flow through USC-Clemson rivalry

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:27 EST

When he was as assistant coach at Chattanooga in the 1990s, Lorenzo Ward would stay at Dabo Swinney's condo in Tuscaloosa whenever he was recruiting in Alabama.

Ward would get the royal treatment from his former Alabama teammate: a home-cooked meal and the guest bedroom adjacent to the master bedroom where Swinney and his wife slept.

Ward, South Carolina's defensive coordinator, bumped into Swinney this past summer and asked the Clemson coach if the lodging offer still stood.

"No," Ward said Swinney told him. "You've got to stay in the basement now."

The Alabama loyalty only extends so far.

Crowning moment: Tigers earn shot at title

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:46 EST

CLEMSON | Reflecting on the unlikely success of a team led by one of the youngest head coaches and one of the youngest offensive coordinators in the BCS conferences, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney puffed out his shoulders and mockingly flexed.

When athletics director Terry Don Phillips promoted Swinney from receivers coach to head coach last year, he believed Swinney fit the mold of another up-and-comer he pushed to hire at Oklahoma State years ago, Mike Gundy.

So it was fitting when Swinney, who turned 40 on Friday, mimicked Gundy's infamous rant when a reporter asked about the statement made by him and 30-year-old coordinator Billy Napier.

"I am 40," Swinney said softly but demonstrably. "I'm a man.

"This is an awesome moment. Our fans deserve this. This thing has eluded us for a while, so to punch through and get this thing done ... to put together a run like we have, it's very gratifying."

Morris: Loss to Maryland shaped Clemson's season rebound

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:46 EST

CLEMSON | FROM DABO SWINNEY'S Gatorade-soaked sweatshirt to the players singing the alma mater on the tiger paw at midfield, there were signs everywhere Saturday at Death Valley that the celebration of Clemson's ACC Atlantic Division championship was as sweet as it comes.

Those tears of joy and smiles of bliss were just as much about Clemson's journey as they were about the victory against Virginia that clinched an outright title, one that sends the Tigers into the ACC title game in two weeks.

The journey was a seven-week odyssey that carried Clemson through six consecutive victories, a journey that seemed improbable following a devastating loss back at Maryland on Oct. 3.

That loss dropped Clemson to 2-3. The future was murky at best with a rookie head coach, a first-year starting quarterback and an offensive coordinator so young he looks like a player.

Now, in retrospect, that 24-21 loss to lowly Maryland might have been the best thing to happen to Swinney and his team.