Has Clowney exceeded your expectations?

[go garnet]

Abso freakin lutely... He is the best thing to come through Carolina in a long time.

[ShutTheSuccop]

Lattimore raised the bar of expectations of the impact a freshman could have in the SEC...I think that Clowney raised the bar even higher. He is without a doubt, one of the best players I have ever had the privelege to watch. Every time he is in the game, I expect him to cause havoc for the other team. I know that Tajh Boyd and Aaron Murray think that he has eclipsed their expectations.

[DiamondGamecock]

Originally Posted by Sax1031

lol

here was mine:

The caption under that GIF should read, "Ok now, come on Clowney, put him down"

[sandstorm2001]

Nope. This is about what I expected out of him. Honestly if he wasn't in the top two in sacks in the country I would be a little disappointed.

[sc455]

yes, he has. watching clowney is what is just awesome. the way he leans his body around, bull rushes or divebombs on runners is awesome. Until Clowney, Derrick Thomas from Bama was the best, but JD rises above. that guy is literally the best defensive end i have ever seen. PERIOD.

[sparklecityspur]

Thanks for the responses. Its hard to believe we only got one more year of watching him. He is the reason I sit on the edge of my seat for every snap of the opposing offense.
I think we've been spoiled guys.

[snoopcockycock]

don't want to be flame magnet here, but i actually expected more from clowney this season. i really thought in his second year, he would be more like melvin was in his last year. don't get me wrong, clowney has had a great year. but i expected more forced fumbles, and defensive td's. i didn't expect him to get shut down against tenn, except that late forced fumble of course. i know tenn has an unreal ol, but i didn't think any one man would be able to do that to clowney, ever!
i take nothing away from his accomplishments, as he was great this year. but i guess i fall into the "unreal expectations" category of fanhood when it came to clowney this season. i do think he should have won the best defensive player of the year award over te'o. notre shame won that award more than te'o did. can't wait to see what clowney will do in the bowl game.

[Sax1031]

Clowney hasn't got a ton of help from the defensive calls during games. when they triple team/double team him we don't pressure them from the opposite side of the line to help ease that.

[Cockholio]

He has not exceeded my expectations, but I'm pleased with the overall impact he's had on our defense and our program.

[KaneisAble]

Originally Posted by DiamondGamecock

The caption under that GIF should read, "Ok now, come on Clowney, put him down"

I thought of Clowney WHILE I WAS IN THE THEATER. Great post.

And yes; as w/ Latt, the expectations were so high and he somehow met and then exceeded them. The difference is that Lattimore was great in a way we've seen before (not to slight him by any means; just mean purely based on skill and talent, of which he possesses freakish amounts). I don't think we've seen anything like Clowney in football, ever. He's an evolution of the position from what Lawrence Taylor was in the 80s/90s.

(And again: not to in any way shape or form slight Marcus, who is my all-time favorite human to don the Garnet and Black. I just mean purely from a football perspective.)

[AikenRooster2112]

No, he has not exceeded my expectations. Clowney is a great pass rusher, but not a durable run stopper, at least not yet. I give him a pass for just being a sophomore, but he needs to improve in this area.

[KaneisAble]

Originally Posted by snoopcockycock

don't want to be flame magnet here, but i actually expected more from clowney this season. i really thought in his second year, he would be more like melvin was in his last year. don't get me wrong, clowney has had a great year. but i expected more forced fumbles, and defensive td's. i didn't expect him to get shut down against tenn, except that late forced fumble of course. i know tenn has an unreal ol, but i didn't think any one man would be able to do that to clowney, ever!
i take nothing away from his accomplishments, as he was great this year. but i guess i fall into the "unreal expectations" category of fanhood when it came to clowney this season. i do think he should have won the best defensive player of the year award over te'o. notre shame won that award more than te'o did. can't wait to see what clowney will do in the bowl game.

Seriously? This shows an insane lack of football knowledge. Clowney had a better year than Melvin did last year and Melvin had a spectacular year. Just because he didn't score a defensive TD doesn't mean it wasn't on par w/ Melvin's year.

UT has one of the best O-Lines in the nation and he still managed to get pressure on Bray and cause a game-saving turnover. It wasn't "any one man". Clowney has to be accounted for ON EVERY PLAY. And just because he may not record a stat during any given play, his presence directly effects virtually all of them. So to say that you're somehow disappointed in the greatest defensive season any individual player has turned in in the history of the program shows an insane lack of appreciation and reason.

[KaneisAble]

Interesting that many on here are saying "no". I must have missed something watching Carolina football the past 25 years.

Jesus. College Football as a whole hasn't seen anything like him, much less South Carolina football. But sit back and continue to be unimpressed. We won't see another like him for a long time, if ever.

[SpecOps Cock]

LIVED UP TO THEM!!!

[uscgamecocks88]

Knew he would be a legit beast last year but he really exceeded my expectations this year. WOW.

[ACPhilson]

Without a doubt he has.

[Goofyboy]

No. I saw his HS highlights and was aware the scouting sites gave him the highest grade seen in about 10 years. He's done as well as I expected, which was really high. I was just expecting a scoop 6 or pick 6 by now, but when you look at how teams have schemed against him and he still has the super production he's had so far, it's even more outstanding.

[ConwayGamecock]

Posted 2-29-12:

Originally Posted by ConwayGamecock

Hopefully Clowney picks up the nuances of playing every down next season.....it would give him so many more opportunities to rush opposing backfields.

Norwood was used strictly as an outside edge rusher at DE and then OLB, and was very effective. I expect to see Jadeveon have a season with 15-20 TFL and 10-15 sacks next season. If he does a good job picking up Lawing's defense, he could surpass both of those. The thing I like is with all those opposing offenses having to spend so much more time figuring out how to block Clowney, it will give Taylor a chance to have a career year.

5-10-'12:

Originally Posted by ConwayGamecock

It will be tough, but if anyone could do it, you'd think Clowney could: he now needs 21 sacks to tie the record of 29 by Norwood, or average 10.5 the next 2 seasons. He almost reached that number his 1st season, playing limited snaps.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Clowney have somewhere between 10-15 sacks this season, and 15-20 TFL. Ingram had those type numbers last season (15 TFL, 10 sacks) in his only season as a full time starter, and IMO Jadeveon is more of a pure edge rusher than Melvin is.

If Jadeveon averages 10.0 sacks and 15.0 TFL his next (and most likely his final) 2 seasons, he'll finish with 28.0 sacks and 42.0 TFL.....far short on Norwood's TFL record of 54.5, but within sight of the sack record...

Clowney has 13.0 sacks and 21.5 TFL through 11 games with one more to go this season. So he's already surpassed my TFL expectations and has a chance to surpass my sack expectations for him....he's also well on pace to best both of Norwood's career sack and TFL records: he now only needs 9 more QB sacks to own that record, and if he matches the 21.5 TFL he's gotten this season in 2013, he'll have 55 career tackles for loss, or 0.5 more TFL than Eric. I didn't think he'd reach the TFL record playing only 3 years at USC....



And he still has one more game to play in 2012.....

[ConwayGamecock]

Originally Posted by FloydTheBarber

He exceeded my expectations last year

8 sacks as a true freshman DE in the SEC? Um, hello!

And then to obtain the single season sack record as a sophmore?

Yeah...he's done quite well.

Eric Norwood had 7 sacks as a true freshman, and he was a 3* DE out of HS. He had 19.5 TFL his true sophomore year (only 2 behind JD's current total) playing on a poor defense, but only 6 sacks. I really loved Eric for what he did at USC his entire 4 years but yes, JD is taking it to a whole higher level. Just feel really fortunate we've had Norwood, Ingram, and now Clowney in successive years....

[b381l]

He's been the great player that we all thought he would......his productivity has been hampered this year by the lack of holding calls on the OL however, but he has no control over that. I think where he has exceeded my expectations is his level of maturity on how he has conducted himself on the field, but also as a student. So many times these super athletes have big mouths and are in and out of trouble while in school. He is done none of that. Since his enrollment, he has been a model student and someone that kids can look up to. And I will be very happy to watch him play in the NFL after next year. He won't be playing in WB but one more season, but we are going to hear his name called on Sundays for years to come.