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Here Lies “Clemsoning,” An outdated and insolent term

By Shawn Spencer

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Here lies “Clemsoning,” an outdated and insolent term that has been used for years by the national media and fans who have not done their homework.

If you still use the term “Clemsoning,” you obviously have not kept up with the Clemson football program in about four to five years.

"“Clemsoning” was defined, according to Urban Dictionary, as 1. When you are widely favored to succeed and instead crash & burn. 2. Failing miserably and/or by a wide margin 3. Horribly embarrassing yourself in front of loved ones and strangers alike. 4. Having multiple records broken against you in front of a large audience."

On Saturday, after Clemson’s 33rd straight win against unranked opponents, Coach Dabo Swinney was asked a question about ESPN’s David Hale. (Note: I’m not saying Hale had bad intentions, but honestly, why even bring it up?) He asked Swinney how the team approaches their mentality despite the “unfair Clemsoning” term?

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Dabo Swinney replied with a vengeance, however, when he started with the phrase,

"“I think it’s ridiculous you even ask me that question, that you even say the word. I’m serious, I’m sick of it. I don’t even know why we bring up the dad-gum word.”"

Well, Coach Swinney, the reason why is simple. Even if David Hale does not feel that way, the national media has not done their homework. As a matter of fact, they are so behind on the times that the statistic of wins over unranked opponents is a shocking fact to them, but you know what we are going to look further at this.

Coach Swinney went onto say this.

"“How about some of the other programs out there that lose to unranked opponents all the time. That’s our 33rd win against unranked opponents. We ain’t lost to nobody unranked since 2011, but I have to come to a press conference in 2015 and get asked that.”"

This where the term “insolent” comes into play. For those of you keeping track at home, Insolent is defined as “Showing a rude and arrogant lack of respect to something.”

I don’t even want to focus on the fact that Clemson has won 33 straight games against unranked opponents, I want to play the “what if” game. What if it was 2010 or 2011? What if Clemson just lost to Georgia Tech as an unraked team? “CLEMSONING” is not the reason. I want to take you back to before 2011.

This term used to irk me so much before Dabo Swinney took over the program. Something would happen and you’d see Clemson lose to a team and the story line across the nation was “Tigers Clemson again,” but then week after week you’d see a team like Oregon, USC, Notre Dame, Texas, Auburn, and so on and so forth lose and there was no term made for it. I’ve never heard of “Oregoning” or “Alabaming” or “Texasing” have you? Why “Clemsoning?” Because the national media’s arrogant and rude lack of respect to Clemson’s football program.

“It’s all media bull crap. I can tell you how they feel about it, they don’t like it. It’s a lack of respect. It’s not doing your homework and paying attention to what reality is. They’ve earned everything they got.”

Coach Swinney nailed it right on the head with this quote. The Clemson football program has been built from the bottom up. The players have come through here and given everything they’ve got with little to no respect despite wins over big programs.

So, I’m here to bury the hatchet, once and for all. If you still are using the term “Clemsoning,” you either don’t know anything about College Football or have been in a coma for 6 years. It’s time to let it go and move on. Clemson football is an elite program and guess what, if it does lose a game the term doesn’t need to be resurfaced.

Here lies “Clemsoning,” an outdated and insolent term.

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