Kenneth Harrison
Growing Wings
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
We are still early in the NBA season but I want to take a look at my hometown team, the Atlanta Hawks.
I’m normally critical of this franchise because they are never championship contenders.
Atlanta desperately needs to pair All-Star point guard Trae Young with another star player. Young has been with the franchise since he was drafted in 2018 and the Hawks still have not figured out how to do that.
They drafted Michigan shooting guard Kobe Bufkin with the 15th pick in the 2023 draft. He played poorly and was assigned to the G League to play for the College Park Skyhawks. He also dealt with injuries so he has not been able to make a contribution to the team.
Last season they were 36-46 and did not make the playoffs. The Hawks did get the top pick in the 2024 NBA Draft and they selected small forward Zaccharie Risacher (France).
So far he averages 10.9 points per game and 23.7 minutes per game. I understand he’s a rookie but more is expected from a No. 1 pick.
He’s shooting 27% from three, which is one of the reasons he does not play major minutes. He did score 33 points against the Knicks in early November so he has shown flashes of his talent.
De’Andre Hunter is in his sixth year and he comes off the bench for Risacher. He’s actually the better player because he averages 19.3 ppg and makes 45% of his threes.
He’s led the team in scoring in six games. I know the organization wants to show their top pick they have confidence in him but he should be coming off the bench.
Jalen Johnson is also listed as a small forward and he’s having a breakout season. He was picked in the first round of the 2021 draft from Duke.
Johnson is averaging 19.6 ppg, 10.1 rpg and 5.5 apg. He has led the team in scoring in eight games so far with 29 as the season high twice.
Shooting guard Dyson Daniel (Australia) was picked 8th in the 2022 draft by Charlotte. He was traded to the Hawks in July for Dejounte Murray. Daniels is averaging 13.4 ppg but he has led the team in scoring twice.
The team is currently 14-13. They have young talent and it shows because they are very inconsistent.
They started the season with two wins then they lost their next four. They lost three in a row in late November, then won six in a row.
The NBA has the pointless in-season tournament, the Emirates NBA Cup. The Hawks beat the New York Knicks in the quarterfinals, 108-100. They lost to Milwaukee in the semifinals, 110-102 over the weekend.
“Just as a team, we got a lot of room to grow,” Hawks forward Jalen Johnson said. “I’m proud of everybody. We defeated a lot of odds, coming in and making it all the way to Vegas. So, there’s nothing to hang our heads about. We just gotta keep moving in the right direction.”
“Our growth is not going to be just linear,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “We’re going to have those moments, and every time we have, like tonight, you know, what can we take from it? And I think that’s really true for Zacch and Dyson and JJ. These moments, because they’re getting an opportunity at a young age to be in them there’s a lot of opportunity.”
Atlanta has potential to be a good team and I think they can make the playoffs as a fifth or sixth seed.
Birmingham Bowl
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The 2024 college football regular season is over.
Now we move to bowl season.
Georgia Tech (7-5) will play Vanderbilt (6-6) in the Birmingham Bowl on December 27th.
Tech head coach Brent Key is from Birmingham and played high school football 20 minutes from Protective Stadium, the site of the bowl game.
“Birmingham’s had a bowl game for as long as I can remember. Probably one of the first football games I ever went to was, ironically enough, the 1985 All-American Bowl (a 17-14 Tech win over Michigan State),” Key said. “Goodness gracious, never would have thought full circle coming back.”
“Birmingham’s a city of grit and toughness. There’s a lot of things about the city of Birmingham that are right in the same parallels as our football team. I know family will be excited; friends will be excited. It’s pretty neat.”
Key went to Tech in 1996 to play football for the Yellow Jackets. He took over the program four games into the 2022 campaign and was named the full-time coach of the Jackets in November of that year.
He’s gone 14-11 in his first two full seasons and he received a five-year contract extension and a raise recently.
“It’s exciting. I think it just shows the leadership here,” Key said of his new deal. “It shows from (Tech) president (Angel) Cabrera to (athletic director) J Batt and then to the coaches, the alignment that takes place here. It also shows the commitment to the future of Georgia Tech athletics. Couldn’t be more excited. Doesn’t change anything about our day-to-day, but very, very appreciative of those people.”
Georgia Tech beat #10 Florida State and #4 Miami this season. They lost to #6 Georgia 44-42 in an eight-overtime thriller. The Jackets lead 27-13 with 3:39 left in the game before UGA came back and tied the game.
Tech’s top receiver Eric Singleton Jr. entered the transfer portal the first day it opened, December 9th.
The sophomore receiver had 56 receptions for 754 yards and 3 touchdowns. He’s also a member of the Tech track and field team and he’s the fastest player on the football team.
Tech has had three receivers enter the portal in Singleton, Christian Leary and Leo Blackburn, from Westlake High.
Defensive lineman Horace Lockett (also a former Westlake High standout), quarterback Zach Pyron, running back Evan Dickens and offensive linemen Corey Robinson (from Roswell High) and Jordan Brown previously announced their intentions to leave Tech.
The Commodores beat #1 Alabama earlier this season. This is their first bowl game since 2018.
Vandy is led by their transfer QB Diego Pavia. He has 2,133 passing yards, 17 TD’s and 4 interceptions. He is the team’s leading rusher with 716 yards and 4 scores. He only completes 59.2% of his passes.
Yellow Jacket senior quarterback Haynes King played in 10 games this season. He threw for 1,910 yards, 11 scores, 1 pick and completed 72.5% of his passes. He also rushed for 578 yards and 11 touchdowns.
I think Vanderbilt will win this game. Georgia Tech is the better team but I think they lost too many talented players to the transfer portal before the bowl game.
Final Four
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The state semifinals for Georgia high school football is this weekend. Let’s take a look at the 6A matchups.
The top four teams in the preseason have made it; #1 Buford, #2 Carrolton, #3 Grayson and #4 Douglas County. Those rankings changed during the season, with Buford (12-1) trading spots with Carrolton (13-0) after they lost their season opener. Douglas County (11-2) is now #4 and Grayson (12-1) is #6.
Douglas County at Grayson
This game is at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Grayson Community Stadium in Loganville. This is the first meeting between these teams.
Grayson’s only loss was the season opener to #5 Collins Hill. The Rams avenged that loss by beating them in the quarterfinals 38-14.
Douglas County’s two losses were to Buford and Carrolton. The Tigers beat West Forsyth 20-14 in the quarterfinals. In that game James Johnson (committed to USC) rushed for 100 yards and scored three touchdowns, one receiving.
Some other key Douglas County players are QB D.J. Bordeaux (2,645 yards passing), RB Zamarcus Lindley (1,183 yards rushing), WR Devin Carter (top-40 national junior prospect), WR Aaron Gregory (Texas A&M), LB Michael Hastie (Region 2 defensive player of the year committed to West Virginia) and DE/LB Jordan Carter (Texas A&M).
Grayson’s key players are QB Tyler Burgess (1,823 yards passing, 535 rushing), wide receiver Alexander-Sanchez (three-star prospect), LB Tyler Atkinson (five-star junior prospect, team’s leading tackler), LB Anthony Davis (four-star junior prospect) and DE Andre Fuller (Georgia Tech).
Grayson is in the semifinals for the 6th time in 10 seasons, the most in that time among any school in the highest class, and won state titles in 2020, 2016 and 2011.
Douglas County was in the semifinals last season in 6A but it was the second-highest classification at that time. This is their first time making it to the semifinals in the highest classification.
I believe Grayson will win this game.
Carrolton at Buford
The game is at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Tom Riden Stadium in Buford.
The last meeting between these teams was in 2021 in the 6A semifinals. The Wolves won 21-6.
Both of these teams have been dominant in the playoffs. This is the true state championship game because these are the two most talented teams in the state. They are both top 25 teams in national polls.
Both of these teams joined the highest classification in 2022. Buford is 34-4 in that time and the Trojans are 38-3.
They are still looking to win a title at the highest classification. Carrolton’s last state championship win was in 1998. They did play in the 7A state title game in 2022. Buford has won 13 state championships since 2000.
Buford has beaten seven top-10 teams during its 12-game winning streak. The Wolves key contributors are Dayton Raiola (1,717 yards passing), Justin Baker (889 yards rushing) and Jordan Allen (771 yards receiving). They have 10 seniors committed to major Division 1 schools. They also have 3 juniors who are top-300 national prospects.
The top offensive players for Carrolton are Julian Lewis (3,272 yards passing), Kimauri Farmer (1,142 yards rushing) and Peyton Zachary (821 yards receiving). Lewis was injured early the week before against Hillgrove in the quarterfinals and he did not return. We do not know his status going into this game. If he cannot play the Trojans don’t have a chance.
I think Buford wins this game and they will win the state championship the following week.
Hardcourt Sting
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The college basketball season just started so I suppose anything can happen the remainder of the season.
We’re only five games in for Georgia Tech but I do have to wonder, are they cooked? If you are not aware that’s slang to say “struggling” or “done for”. Why would I pose that question so early on?
Last season was Damon Stoudamire’s first season as the head coach in Atlanta. If you are not aware he’s a former NBA player. He played at Arizona from 1991-95 where he was a consensus First-Team All-American (1995), Pac-10 Player of the Year (1995) and three-time First-Team All-Pac-10 (1993-95). He was drafted 7th overall in the 1995 NBA Draft and he’s the first pick in the Toronto Raptors franchise history. He was NBA Rookie of the Year (1996) and he played in the NBA from 1995-2008.
I love to see former players become coaches. He was an assistant coach in the NBA for many years and he was also an assistant at Arizona. He got his first head coaching job at Pacific in 2016 and coached there until 2021.
During his time there he had one winning season and a 71-77 overall record. He returned to the NBA to be an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics from 2021-23.
That is a lot of basketball knowledge and experience that he can pass on to players. Also, it should help with recruiting since he played and coached at the highest level. So, has it translated thus far? Last season the Yellow Jackets were 14-18. So far they are 2-3. It does not look like this is resonating.
All of their games so far have been at home at McCamish Pavilion.
The season started with an 85-62 win over West Georgia. They lost the second game to North Florida 105-93. Losing to the Ospreys is not a great look.
They followed it up by beating Texas Southern 81-62. Tech has lost their last two games to Georgia and #18 Cincinnati. The most recent game against the Bearcats was an 81-58 blowout. Cincy had a 45-29 lead going into halftime.
“From the jump Cincinnati just did a good job of bringing the game to us. I didn’t think that we matched any of their energy on the initial,” said Stoudamire. “A lot of the execution you can’t get to in a game because of the way the game was being played on the initial. I thought we played hard in the first half in spurts, but we couldn’t put enough good minutes together. And every time we would get things withing striking distance, something would happen. We turned the ball over. A lot of live-ball turnovers, a lot of indecision. Things that we had talked about, but you’ve got to give them (Cincinnati) credit as well.”
Tech has four players that average double digits in scoring; Baye Ndongo, Javian McCollum, Lance Terry and Kowacie Reeves Jr.
They have two more home games against Charleston Southern and Central Arkansas. On paper those should be easy wins but I’m sure they thought that about North Florida.
In December they play at Oklahoma, at #12 North Carolina, Northwestern (neutral site), UMBC, #11 Duke, Alabama A&M and Boston College. In these next nine games I think the Yellow Jackets have to go 7-2 in order to set themselves in the mix to make the NCAA tournament.
I’m not sure they will do that but we will see.
Flightless Falcons
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Atlanta Falcons got demolished by Denver, 38-6. It was their second consecutive loss. New Orleans snapped their seven-game losing streak against Atlanta the previous week, 20-17. The Falcons are now 6-5.
Rookie quarterback Bo Nix completed 85% of his passes for 307 yards and 4 touchdowns.
“No one play ever defines any game,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said. “(But) that was a great-effort play by those guys and not a great-effort play by us. You’ve got to give those guys a lot of credit for playing hard, playing physical. And they absolutely went out there and beat us today with their effort and their physicality, and that was a key to the game.”
I thought Nix was a pretty good rookie but he looked like a Hall of Famer against the Falcons.
The Broncos swept the NFC South by a cumulative 125-37. It marks Denver’s first sweep of a division since they went 4-0 against the NFC North in 2015.
Atlanta is trending in the wrong direction and this loss raises some concerns. I can understand losing a game but they were blown out by a team that came into that game .500 with two consecutive losses. This reminds me of the Week 7 home loss to Seattle (5-5), 34-14.
The Seahawks were on a three-game losing streak coming into that game. On paper they should be able to beat these teams, or at the very least be competitive.
The one bright spot was kicker Younghoe Koo. He missed three of his four field goal attempts against New Orleans, one of those was blocked. Against Denver he made both of his field goals. One was 41 yards and the other was 51 yards.
Injuries are beginning to take a toll on the team. Atlanta ruled out eight players before the game, including several starters on defense. Falcons CB Kevin King was ruled out in the second quarter with a concussion and WR Darnell Mooney pulled a hamstring in the third quarter.
The Falcons are on their bye week now. Hopefully that will allow players to heal from injuries. The coaching staff needs to meet and figure out how to get better results on both sides of the ball.
The biggest problem the last few years has been getting the ball to playmakers and that is still an issue.
QB Kirk Cousins is third in the league for passing yards with 2,807, 17 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. Only four players have more interceptions.
Running back Bijan Robinson is sixth in rushing, with 783 yards and 6 TD’s. Jahmyr Gibbs (Detroit) is fifth and he has 34 less attempts but more yards (796) and touchdowns (8).
Drake London is fifth in the league in receptions (61), with 710 yards and 2 scores but he has less yards and touchdowns than Darnell Mooney. Mooney has 48 catches, 711 yards and 5 touchdowns.
Tight end Kyle Pitts needs the ball more. He has great size and speed but he seems to disappear from the offense regularly. He had 1 catch for 9 yards against Denver on 3 targets. He had 1 catch for 11 yards on his only target against Dallas. In the first meeting with New Orleans, he did not record a catch and he was targeted 3 times.
Atlanta ranks 25th in total defense, giving up an average of 357.1 yards per game.
The first two games after the bye are against the LA Chargers (7-3) and at Minnesota (8-2).
Those are quality opponents so there is a good possibility to lose those games.
Trojan Quest
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The 2024 high school football regular season is over for the Carrollton Trojans.
The top team in 6A is Carrolton (10-0) and they finished the year undefeated. The season finale was against #4 Douglas County (8-2) last week and they won 49-28.
Douglas County got within 27-21 in the second quarter before Carrolton scored three unanswered touchdowns in the second half.
The Trojans are led by four-star quarterback Julian Lewis. Lewis was 21-of-26 passing for 290 yards and two touchdowns. Kimauri Farmer rushed for 147 yards and three touchdowns and caught a 47-yard TD pass.
Messiah Satterwhite rushed for 98 yards and two touchdowns and caught a 26-yard pass. The game decided the No. 1 seed from Region 2.
Lewis is ranked as the #14 player in Georgia for the class of 2025 and he is committed to USC. Lewis did take his fourth visit to Colorado in late October so he might not stay committed to USC for much longer. He turned seventeen in September and he reclassified in January 2024 to graduate one year early.
After the Elite 11 Finals in June he ranked seventh out of that group. He also appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in October 2023. I’m saying that to say, he’s kind of a big deal.
Julian’s father, T.C., has spent a lot of time preparing him to be a big time QB prospect.
Carrolton’s head coach is Joey King. King spent five years as the head coach at Cartersville, where he won two state championships with Trevor Lawrence. He was the fastest in state history to reach 50 wins, in 52 games.
King left high school to become the wide receivers coach at Coastal Carolina from 2019-21. Once King took over as Carrolton’s head coach T.C. moved Julian to Carrolton for eighth grade.
Lewis attended Pace Academy before that, which is a private school in Atlanta.
“If a kid is trying to go to Harvard, I need him enrolled in that kind of [school],” T.C. says, “but if he’s trying to go play at Alabama, Georgia, wherever, then let me put him in AP Football.”
The GHSA moved the start of the playoffs back in early October due to Hurricane Helene. They moved the end of the regular season from Nov. 1 to Nov. 8 and pushed the opening round of the state playoffs back to Nov. 15 and16.
GHSA said the week of Nov. 8 will be used for makeup games. Schools that completed games without schedule interruptions and are advancing to the postseason will have an open week before the first round of the playoffs.
Carrolton’s next game will be 11/15 against Dacula. The Falcons are 4-6 and ranked fourth in Region 8. This should be an easy blow-out win for the Trojans. They advanced to the state championship game in 2022 and they look to do that again in 2024.
I think they are talented enough to reach the state championship but I think #2 Buford (9-1) is the best team. Their only loss on the season was the season opener to the top team in 5A, Milton.
Buying Time
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Billy Napier is in his third season as head coach in Gainesville but he has not proven himself as the right man for the job.
He was hired as Florida’s head coach on December 5, 2021 from Louisiana. He was 40-12 in his four seasons coaching the Ragin’ Cajuns. In his last three years he was 11-3, 10-1 and 12-1.
He replaced Dan Mullen who coached the Gators from 2018-21. Under Mullen UF went 10-3, 11-2, 8-4 and 6-7. Having a losing record got him immediately fired despite having earlier success.
In the case of Napier, he has not had success yet. They were 6-7 in his first year and 5-7 last season. That 2022 team did advance to the Las Vegas Bowl where they were beaten 30-3 by Oregon State.
This season Florida had a brutal schedule. They started the season with a loss at home to #19 Miami, 41-17. The other losses were to Texas A&M, who is currently ranked #14 and #8 Tennessee. They did play a close game with the Vols and lost in overtime, 23-17.
The Gators are currently 4-3 and had their best win of the season. They beat Kentucky 48-20, snapping their three-game losing streak to the Wildcats. Five-star freshman quarterback DJ Lagway completed seven of his fourteen passes but five of them went for 40-plus yards. He passed for 259 yards and rushed for 46 yards.
Freshman running back Jadan Baugh rushed for 106 yards and 5 touchdowns. The 5 touchdowns in a game tie the school record held by Tim Tebow and Trey Burton.
“That’s pretty good company there,” Napier said.
“For Billy Napier, Florida’s beleaguered head coach, the win kept the lions at bay for another week,” Saturday Down South’s Neil Blackmon wrote. “Napier’s buyout was assembled by Florida’s boosters in September, per multiple media reports. After Saturday night’s blowout win, there’s enough hope swirling around the Florida program to provide a path forward under Napier, albeit a narrow one.”
I want to point out that Georgia struggled against Kentucky, winning 13-12.
UF is going into their bye week before they face #2 UGA in Jacksonville. Georgia has won six of the last seven meetings. They’re currently on a three-game winning streak.
Beating the Bulldogs does not seem likely. The remaining schedule after that game is at #5 Texas, #8 LSU, #18 Ole Miss and at Florida State.
As you know, the Seminoles are historically bad this season. FSU is 1-6 and this will be an easy win for Florida. That will only put them at five wins though. In the other games, where will they find a win?
The most likely scenario is UF loses to those ranked teams and finishes 5-7. If they can upset one of them they will finish 6-6. Beating any of those teams will be impressive but is 6-6 good enough at Florida?
Another aspect to consider is Lane Kiffin has been rumored to be the top candidate to replace Napier if he is fired. Once these teams play November 23rd it is going to be talked about more, especially if Ole Miss wins.
I think Napier’s tenure at Florida is done after this season. The only thing that could save his job are two wins against ranked teams and I think one of those wins would have to be against Georgia.
Memorable Cocktail Games
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Georgia-Florida game is one of the best rivalries in college football. Let’s look back over the years at some of the best performances from this rivalry game.
1997 #14 Georgia 37 #6 Florida 17: The defending national champion Gators were on a seven-game win streak against UGA.
The Bulldogs were 20-point underdogs because of this. The Gators had won 52-14, 52-17 and 47-7 the previous three years against the Bulldogs.
Robert Edwards rushed for 124 yards and four touchdowns. He seems to be a forgotten about player but he led Georgia to a major win.
1995 #3 Florida 52 Georgia 17: This was Florida’s only trip to Athens since the game was permanently moved to Jacksonville in 1933. This was the first season for the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars and the city had to make renovations to the Gator Bowl. The series was moved to a home-and-home series in 1994 and 1995.
Quarterback Danny Wuerffel threw for 242 yards and 5 touchdowns in just under three quarters. Backup QB Eric Kresser tossed two more touchdowns in the 4th quarter, with the last one with 1:10 left in the game.
“You could always tell there was a little extra pep in [Spurrier’s] step when it was Georgia week,” wide receiver Chris Doering said. “It was cool being one of the few teams that ever got the chance to play Georgia in Jacksonville, Gainesville and then going up there in ‘95.”
1980 #2 Georgia 26 #20 Florida 21: Freshman tailback Herschel Walker rushed for 238 yards and a touchdown on 37 carries. He’s actually an afterthought when people look back at this game though because of how it ended.
UGA trailed 21-20 when they took over the ball at their 8-yard line with 1:35 left in the game. They lost one yard on first down and threw an incomplete pass on second down.
On third-and-eleven QB Buck Belue completed a pass to flanker Lindsay Scott near the UGA 25-yard line. Scott seemed to be surrounded by Gators but he cut towards the Georgia bench and ran down the sideline for a 93-yard touchdown.
2002 Florida 20 #5 Georgia 13: It’s tough to view a Gator win as an upset during this time period because they had won 11 of the last 12 meetings before this.
UF had first year head coach Ron Zook and they were struggling, coming into this game 5-3. Georgia, on the other hand was 8-0 under Mark Richt in his second season.
The Florida defense did not allow a single third down conversion on the day, the Bulldogs were 0-for-13.
Florida QB Rex Grossman completed 36 of his 46 pass attempts for 339 yards, two scores and two interceptions.
2007 #20 Georgia 42 #9 Florida 30: Florida won the national championship the year before. Head coach Urban Meyer was doing a great job bringing talent to Gainesville, which included quarterback Tim Tebow. He would become the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy in 2007 but he was not the star of this game.
Bulldog running back Knowshon Moreno rushed for 188 yards and 3 TD’s. QB Matt Stafford passed for 217 yards, 3 scores and 1 interception.
The coolest thing about this game was after Moreno scored a 1-yard touchdown in the first quarter. The entire Georgia team ran into the end zone to celebrate.
It would later be known as the ‘Gator Stomp’ and it is one of the best images in college football history.
Back To The Front
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Clemson started the 2024 football season by getting pummeled 34-3 to #1 Georgia. This caused us to look at the Tigers and wonder if the game had passed by head coach Dabo Swinney. After he suffered his worst lost in more than a decade, Swinney was optimistic.
He watched film from the UGA game and saw a team that, according to him, matched Georgia physically and lost, in large part, due to a handful of unforced errors and an inability to capture any “momentum.”
“We matched up well. It didn’t go our way, but we were physical, we could run. We’ve got a good team,” Swinney said. “We’ve got a bunch of good, young talent. It’s going to come together, and it’s going to be fun to watch.”
Is he optimistic, delusional or correct in his assessment? One thing he has not adapted to is the transfer portal era we are living in now. Four FBS programs do not accept transfers. They are Army, Navy, Air Force and Clemson. As you can see, one of those things is not like the others. It makes sense for service academies to do but it is strange that a regular Power 4 school does not.
“We’ve done it in a unique way,” Swinney said. “Now people want me to go do it some other way. They’ve lost their freakin’ mind. I’m not doing it another way. Everything doesn’t go the way you want it every single time, but that doesn’t mean you get away from what your foundation is, what you believe.”
As Swinney would say, the Clemson stock took a hit after the first game. The Tigers have responded with three straight wins since then and they are now ranked #15.
All three of their wins have come at home against Appalachian State, NC State and Stanford. The closest margin of victory was 24 points against NC State. The Wolfpack came into the 2024 season as a top 25 team but they were trounced 51-10 in Week 2 by Tennessee. Clemson has not faced world-beaters over the last few weeks.
Clemson’s player retention rate is among the best in the country — only Northwestern and Oklahoma State had fewer players leave in the December window than Clemson’s 12. They also had the highest graduation rate of any Power 4 school. Clemson is the only team in the country to rank in the top 25 in both the AP rankings and graduation rates for 13 years straight.
Clemson’s record from 2021 to ’23, the supposed downturn of the program — was 30-10, the eighth-best mark of any program in that span. Maybe they were having issues because Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne left for the NFL.
They have their first true road game of the season at Florida State (1-4) this week. It’s ironic because the Seminoles QB, DJ Uiagalelei started at Clemson. Then he transferred to Oregon State and now FSU. He took some parting shots at the Tigers after he transferred.
“I didn’t want to do what I was doing at Clemson,” said Uiagalelei. “I didn’t really like what we did there scheme-wise. I didn’t think we did very much. I thought it was very basic. It didn’t help me out as a quarterback and play to my strengths.”
He was benched after a bad loss to ACC newcomer SMU last week, so he’ll watch this game from the sideline.
The Tigers only have one ranked team on the schedule the rest of the season. I think they will be 11-1 going into the ACC Championship game.
NFC South Pretenders?
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
We are three weeks into the NFL season.
I think it is too early to really weed out the contenders from the pretenders. In the NFC South, three of the four teams lost this weekend.
We are going to examine the teams and see if they have something to worry about or if they will be fine the rest of the season.
New Orleans: The Saints (2-1) lost to Philadelphia (2-1) at home, 15-12. Going into this game the New Orleans offense has looked amazing. Klint Kubiak is in his first year as the team’s offensive coordinator and he has revitalized the careers of Derek Carr and Alvin Kamara.
Philly just lost the Monday night game to Atlanta and their defense has played poorly.
They kept the Saints in check this weekend. The key players for the Philly offense were Saquon Barkley and tight end Dallas Goedert. Goedert had the best game of his career, with 10 receptions and 170 yards.
Their next game is on the road against the Falcons.
Tampa Bay: The Buccaneers (2-1) lost to the previously winless Denver Broncos (1-2) at home, 26-7. Denver has looked bad on offense prior to this game and they are starting rookie QB Bo Nix. I think he has to have the record for the shortest name in NFL history, but I digress.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield has proven that he is a good starter in the league. He has great weapons like wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. They beat Detroit on the road last week and the Lions are considered a legit Super Bowl contender.
Week 5, they play Philly at home.
I believe they overlooked a bad Broncos team after that big win and that is why they lost. Going forward, I think they are still the best team in the division. They advanced to the second round of the playoffs last season and I think they can do the same this year.
Atlanta: The Falcons (1-2) lost the Sunday night game at home to the two-time defending Super Bowl Champs, 22-17. Kansas City (3-0) is a better team, but Atlanta had opportunities to win the game.
They intercepted Patrick Mahomes in the end zone and did a good job keeping the Chiefs offense in check.
Kirk Cousins is still playing inconsistently and he does not look comfortable in the offense. He has four touchdowns, three interceptions and three fumbles. He has to improve, stop turning the ball over and get the ball to playmakers like Drake London and Kyle Pitts.
The next game is at home against New Orleans.
I think the Falcons are an eight or nine win team that will struggle to make the playoffs.
Carolina: The Panthers (1-2) were the only division team that played a road game this past weekend and they beat the Raiders (1-2), 36-22.
Second year quarterback Bryce Young was benched after starting 0-2 and veteran Andy Dalton stepped in to get the win.
It feels good to win but the excitement will be short lived. Carolina has been a poorly run franchise since David Tepper purchased them in 2018. They will win maybe four more games this season.
Their next game is against the Bengals.
