CLEMSON — The last time the Clemson football team found itself in this position, nothing short of a nightmare ensued in Nashville, Tenn.
After Kentucky took its opening drive for a touchdown against the Tigers in the 2006 Music City Bowl, there wasn’t much looking back, as the Wildcats walked out of LP Field with a 28-20 victory that wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicated.
Thanks in large part to four Tiger turnovers, which led directly to 14 Kentucky points, Clemson trailed 28-6 going into the fourth quarter of a game that saw its share of head-scratching moments, the least of which wasn’t the fact that the revered running back duo of James Davis and C.J. Spiller combined for all of 13 carries.
Spiller, who was just a freshman during the Tigers’ Music City debacle, doesn’t carry many memories from the loss, apart from the obvious one.
“Them just winning the game, plain and simple,” Spiller said. “Their guys came out with more fire and came out with that will they weren’t going to be denied and that’s the main thing I remember. They were ready to go.”
And with Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, then the receivers coach under Tommy Bowden, preparing his Tigers for their upcoming rematch of that game, he isn’t particularly keen on talking about it, though his wounds from that loss still run deep.
“We don’t spend a lot of time talking about four years or anything like that, but they’re certainly aware the last time we played these guys, and Clemson didn’t represent the paw very well,” Swinney said. “We weren’t prepared to play and it was pretty obvious, so we’ll have to do a better job.”
The parallels of the 2006 game are certainly there as the Tigers (8-5) prepare for next Sunday’s Music City Bowl against the Wildcats (7-5), which will kick off at 7:30 p.m. (Central Time) and be televised by ESPN.
In both seasons, Clemson failed to capitalize on its chances to claim an ACC Championship before tumbling down the bowl ladder, though this year’s squad did manage a breakthrough by winning its first-ever ACC Atlantic Division crown.
And just like the last time these teams met, Kentucky appears to be much more excited about its trip to Nashville, as one recent report indicated Wildcat fans have bought 16,000 tickets.
According to that same report, Clemson fans have snatched a meager 4,000 tickets.
And if those ticket sale figures represent the level of excitement in the fan bases, it conjures up Michael Palmer’s memories of the Tigers’ last trip to Nashville.
“The only similarity is probably the disappointment,” said the senior tight end, who scored on a two-point conversion in the 2006 game. “I remember the senior class was obviously disappointed; the entire team was disappointed back in 2006, much like we were this year.”
And though the disappointment is present again this year, as Clemson nearly played itself into an Orange Bowl berth with an ACC title, Spiller was adamant that motivation won’t be a factor next week, as the Tigers are plenty hungry for their chance to finish the season with a ninth victory.
“Our objective going into the game is to win it, and we’re not coming out just because we got selected to go there,” Spiller said. “We want to send the rest of our seniors out on a high note and give these young guys some confidence going into the offseason, so there’s a lot of things to motivate us.”
And Swinney will make sure to do his part in instilling plenty of motivation, like he has done all season.
“We’re going to do what we’ve done all year, and that is prepare relentlessly, coach hard, meet to win, practice to win and try to get these guys to play with great effort,” Swinney said. “Hopefully we can get them to play a little bit smarter than we have the last couple of weeks in particular.”
Looking ahead and hoping to close the season on a high note, Spiller added he doesn’t feel like the 2006 game will be a factor once the ball is spotted next Sunday, as there’s little point in giving it much more than a second thought.
“Both teams are very different from each other, so the main thing we want to do is prepare well and not direct (attention) too much on what happened in ’06 because we can’t control that,” Spiller said.
All Spiller and the Tigers can hope to control is helping to erase the memories of 2006 while ensuring a new nightmare doesn’t unfold this time around.
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