Bounce Back

Editor's Note: I'm still bummed over the loss, but there's still a long season in front of us. Mikey's piece put that into perspective for me. Bumped to the front. --Joe

Yeah, we lost. Is this going to be what defines us? Is our whole season determined by this one game? Remember last year. We started 4-0 going into a home game against Clemson. We lost 23-3. Did that define us? We dropped 10 spots in the polls that week. We got a second chance though—another seven games. How did we do? We went 7-0, rose to number five in the country. We probably didn't deserve it, as later that week Clemson beat us by 28 points. But, we still got to go to the SUGAR BOWL. I know you guys had a fun time down there too, regardless of the result.

Have you really lost faith in this team? You don't think the defense will respond from giving up an ungodly amount of yards/points? You think the ENTIRE year we'll never figure it out on offense? We had expectations on defense that were quite high. We had them for a reason. They CAN do it. One game is not going to define us. We still have an eight-deep defensive line. Soon our star backer will return. Our secondary will get healthy. Our special teams is actually decent this year. We still have the same players. We still have a leader in Logan. We will figure it out.

It can't get any worse than what just happened; four turnovers in the first half and over 500 yards given up. Sounds a lot like the game against LSU. Yes, they were a much, much better team than Pitt, but look how we responded. Minus the BC loss, the rest of the season was great. We killed Clemson, We beat FSU for the first time with Beamer as head coach. We won the ACC.

We're still 2-1. We're still 1-0 in the ACC. We still get a chance at revenge against Clemson. We still get Florida State at home on a Thursday night, with the possibility of an upset against an undefeated team. We still have a chance to win the ACC. We still have a chance to blow out UVA. There are a lot of positives still. Yes, I know the Orange Bowl sucks. But I would rather have that with an ACC Championship win than some no-name bowl.

Maybe this is me just getting used to disappointment and 10-win seasons, but I still see a lot of positives for the rest of the season. We can't do much about what just happened. But we can impact the future. We can't get to the title game, but we can still show we aren't the team that came out yesterday. Are you telling me it wouldn't be fun to beat Clemson? Are you saying you just want to quit and not get the chance to beat FSU? We still have a lot to play for. We still have at least nine more games. I know our players will keep trying this year, and I hope you do too.

Bounce Back.