It is all about respect, right?

I’m sure some of you remember your father telling you to always have respect for other people until they do or say something that disrespects you. I have lived by this code, and I will continue to do so as most of us will.

Clemson’s football program also lives by this code. Regionally, inside the ACC and SEC confines of our great nation, the Tigers get that respect. Florida State, even during the down years of the 1990s, has always viewed Clemson as the only ACC school with the capability to rival them on the gridiron. Other ACC schools always want to beat the Tigers and view beating Clemson as a milestone or barometer on where their own program is at.

SEC schools respect Clemson’s traditions, its game day atmosphere and its rich history as a program that has played for and won a national championship, many of conference championships and has played in some of the biggest and most historical bowl games in college football. I have had fans from several SEC fan bases tell me the SEC picked the wrong school from the state of South Carolina.

So you see the kind of respect Clemson has regionally. Nationally, that’s not the case.

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