Yay tigers!

Dear Dabo,
First of all, Hello! How are you? You must still be reeling with excitement over that glorious win in the ACC Tournament! You looked quite handsome even as they gave you a gatorade bath. Your words were very poised at the end, and I was quite proud to have always stuck with you.

However, I apologize for doubting the Tigers.
To be fair, it wasn't you I was doubting. I have been one of your biggest fans for the past 3 years. I watched how you had a different way of energizing the team. I loved watching when you first began & everyone liked to showcase the way you and the team marched on the field arm-in-arm.
You seemed to bring a togetherness to the team it has lacked since I've been a student at CU.
I saw on many occasions over the past few years how you could really turn it around after a great halftime pep talk.
Still, seeing the way the team had played the previous 4 games.... I didn't count on much.

I'm sorry I told the couple that was wearing their Virginia Tech gear at that little shop in Charlotte that i knew they would win.
(Yes, I'm glad they never found me in order for me to pay them the drink I owed them for kicking their butts in the ACC Tournament)
I even told our waitress at Chili's (a Clemson freshman) that I was just hoping for an interesting game.

You see, I pretty much knew we would lose to GA Tech back when we played them having a record of 8-0 & being #5 in the nation. I didn't really want to be #5. That didn't feel right. I was more content with being #8.
I was OK with losing to GA Tech. Because truly, I didn't expect us to be undefeated. (we're no Alabama or LSU!) and if we had to lose, the yellowjackets were a good match for us.
Certainly didn't want our first loss to be to a crappy team like Maryland (*whew! that was CLOSE). Of course, I wouldn't want to lose to NC State either. (woops). Leaving just USC as potentially "only" loss. That would be horrible. So, I was glad to give up our Tech win. However, watching that game made me shudder. And I knew from then on our battles would be huge. Even more huge than the ones that gave us that 8-0 start.
Beating 3 back-to-back ranked teams didn't seem like a big deal after watching that game and the following games.

USC must have enjoyed wiping us all over the field when we played Thanksgiving weekend.
So, yes. I was a doubter.
But never a hater.

They almost gave me a coronary a few times watching the big game!
I was too afraid to cheer when I saw the many touchdowns and interceptions! I was always afraid the refs would take it all back.

I couldn't believe that it was VT that kept making penalties. For I've seen Clemson give up lots on penalties. (and we tend to not capitalize on lucky breaks)
So-
Kudos to you, Dabo. You and all your team.
I can't wait to see us in the Orange Bowl. (perfectly fitting color, by the way!)

Sincerely,
mpotter- a happy tiger & Dabo fan.

PS- wasn't it precious how everyone began throwing oranges on the field???

PPS- I certainly hope you were able to pull some strings and let the whole town of Clemson finally watch the glorious game, since there was the massive power outage that began just as the game started!!