Crimson Red Sports

Yabba-Dabo-doo!
During his first three years at Clemson, Dabo Swinney had compiled a fair-to-middlin’ mark of 21-15.  Fair-to-middlin’ in Death Valley will not suffice, however, so Swinney entered 2011 with his backside perilously close to the hot seat.  Three games and three wins later?  All hail Dabo!  The most recent of those wins this season also served as Swinney’s biggest in three-plus years with the Tigers, with Clemson snapping the nation’s longest winning streak at 17 and downing No. 21 Auburn 38-24.  Swinney’s offense pounded AU’s beleaguered defense into submission, piling up 624 yards of total offense in the win.  After opening with games against Troy (chuckle) and Wofford (giggle), this was Clemson’s first real test of the season.  Suffice to say, they passed with flying colors, even if the 2011 edition of the Auburn Tigers are nowhere the 2010 BcS title edition.

“BOOM!”er Sooner!
The Oklahoma-Florida State game got scary for several minutes when Seminoles receiver Kenny Shaw suffered what appeared to be a head injury after getting sandwiched between two Sooner defenders. But the fact of the matter is that Oklahoma’s defense brought the wood all night against the ‘Noles. And, as dangerous as it, there’s something about watching a player get lit up that makes us get a little excited. Whatever it was, the Sooners were playing with a purpose, not to mention some serious anger, on defense tonight. And we like it.

It wasn’t pretty but…
In the first two games of the 2011 season, Notre Dame produced over 500 yards of total offense in each contest — and lost both.  In their game Saturday against No. 15 Michigan State, the Irish produced 275 yards of total offense — and won.  Yep, this game makes perfect sense.  Regardless, it was a huge win for the Irish, preventing Brian Kelly‘s charges from falling into a 0-3 hole even after falling into a 28-10 third-quarter hole against the Spartans.  The turnovers are still an issue — three in this one, 13 overall on the season — but this was a game the Domers had to have.  And they got it, warts and all.

State of Georgia’s just peachy offensively, thanks for asking
As expected, Georgia and Georgia Tech had little problem in easily dispatching of Coastal Carolina and Kansas, respectively.  How they did it offensively, however, was truly impressive, particularly on Tech’s part.  The in-state rivals combined to score 125 points (66-24 for Tech, 59-0 for UGA) and roll up 1,238 yards of total offense.  The staggering aspect is that Tech contributed well over half that total — with nearly half the total of the two schools coming on the ground.  Of their 768 yards of offense against the woebegone Jayhawks, 604 came on the ground for the Yellow Jackets.  To repeat: Tech churned out over 600 yards on the ground against a a school from a BcS conference.  Unbelievably, that may not even have been the worst part for KU; Tech “only” ran the ball 50 times, meaning they averaged over 12 yards per carry every time they handed the ball off.  Incidentally, the total yards, rushing yards and yards per carry were all single-game school records.

That Auburn's winning streak, which started after the 2009 Iron Bowl, ended at the hands of an Alabama guy wasn't lost on Clemson coach Dabo Swinney.

"All the glory goes to God," Swinney said, in his version of Gene Chizik's "It's a God thing" quote that's apparently mandatory when Tigers play each other. "He has a funny sense of humor. It's only fitting that an Alabama grad would be in charge of the team that ended the winning streak."