Clemson football has been accused of many things over the years, some that are closer to the truth than others.
Sometimes it ventures into wild conspiracy theory territory or just plain ludicrous hyperbole that becomes more bizarre by the minute. That’s what happens when a team gets firmly into their opponents minds so deeply that they can’t see straight or think logically.
On Wednesday, Malik Cunningham told us he was blaming last years Clemson loss on those dastardly 60 Clemson coaches that are stealing signals.
"“We had no timeouts, so we had to go signal. And if you know, Clemson steals signals, so it’s kind of hard signaling the plays and they’ve got 60 coaches looking at the signals,” Cunningham said. “We don’t blame it on that. I wouldn’t say we lost it because of signals. It wasn’t that. They beat us. It’s fair and square.”"
Sign stealing accusations against Clemson are not new, but Malik Cunningham goes into conspiracy theory territory on last year’s loss to Tigers
It’s not a new accusation, but it’s certainly the most out there, at least in terms of sheer numbers of Tiger coaches stealing signals.
Essentially Cunningham blamed the loss on Clemson stealing signals without blaming the loss on Clemson stealing signals. What do the kids say these days? “Tell me your blaming sign stealing for the loss to Clemson without telling me you’re blaming sign stealing for the loss to Clemson.”
If you don’t believe the alleged signal stealing was the ultimate reason you lost the game, you don’t bring it up. Period. You man up and take responsibility for the L, get better and get them next time.
Mind you, this is not 10 minutes after the game, in the heat of the moment, but more like 8 months or so later that Cunningham used Clemson’s “60 coaches” as an excuse.
Here’s the thing. Cunningham is a very good player and he could lead his team to a win over Clemson this year. I enjoy watching him play and believe he’s immensely talented.
However, when I hear something like this ridiculousness it makes me wonder if he’s too busy searching for his next excuse instead of focusing on the mistakes and issues that led Louisville to ultimately lose the game, because I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Clemson’s “60 coaches” that hung that L on you.