Clemson's toughest bowl test

"And, you know, the sun's settin' fast.

And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts."

Iris Dement, "Our Town"

NASHVILLE -- Disappointed participants, say, the Florida Gators, can sugarcoat the Sugar Bowl. It's played on New Year's night in New Orleans. Indoors.

San Diego, Honolulu and Orlando have a way of easing pain.

But there simply is no getting around this. No way to make the air warm, palm trees appear or flood LP Field with bus loads of Clemson fans before the Tigers face Kentucky tonight in the Music City Bowl.

It's a grim scene here along the banks of the Tennessee River. The Clemson players and coaches are saying all the polite things, but billboards around town advertising the release of the new Rascal Flatts CD only do so much to lift the spirits for competitors with crushed Orange Bowl dreams.

Yes, strange as it sounds -- stranger than the ghost of Johnny Cash appearing at the Grand Ole Opry in all white -- this relatively minor bowl game in which Clemson is favored, is one of the toughest postseason challenges the Tigers have ever faced.

Everything tilts to a foreboding guitar twang.

The kickoff forecast calls for temperatures in the low 30s.

Knowing a good thing when they don't see one, Clemson fans are staying away in droves.

Four Clemson players will also miss the game, suspended Saturday for curfew violations.

Kentucky got to practice at Vanderbilt.

Clemson practiced at a local high school.

"Well, you expect that, with Kentucky being the SEC school in an SEC town," Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said.

If Swinney rights this unusual emotional slide to cap a good overall season, he deserves extra credit.

Rock slide alert

Thinking about showing up at the last minute?

Bring hot chocolate. And don't forget I-40 is closed in parts of North Carolina and Tennessee for rock slide work, forcing a 53-mile detour or the alternate Atlanta/Chattanooga/Raccoon Mountain route.

Two games ago, Clemson was 8-3 and celebrating a victory over Virginia and its first Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game berth. But the sunny Atlantic Division title smiles slipped faster than Tanya Tucker's career.

The Tigers lost to South Carolina, and to Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship Game and wound up here.

Kentucky, meanwhile, is right at home. LP Field holds sacred meaning for Wildcats fans. Rich Brooks with a 2006 Music City Bowl conquest over Clemson got his first bowl victory at Kentucky and tonight aims for four in a row.

"They've had an outstanding year," Swinney said Saturday. "They're a couple plays away from winning 10-plus ball games."

Kentucky (7-5) lost at South Carolina, 28-26, the day Alshon Jeffery had his three-touchdown coming out party for the Gamecocks.

The Wildcats lost 31-24 to Mississippi State and are coming off a 30-24 overtime loss to Tennessee.

Whitehurst aid

Three straight bowl losses have dropped Clemson's bowl record to 15-16.

Amid performance slides and rock slides, the Tigers got one nice break in Nashville this week. Former Clemson quarterback Charlie Whitehurst was in town with fellow San Diego Chargers for a Christmas Night rout of the Tennessee Titans. He stopped by Clemson's Christmas Eve practice.

"He had some good words for those guys," Swinney said, "and it was great to see him."

Whitehurst started in two Clemson bowl wins (2003 Peach Bowl, 2005 Champs Bowl).

But Whitehurst returned to California, leaving behind the cold and a town full of waitresses unable to sing songs (or write songs) like Iris Dement.

They probably don't want Clemson's unused Music City Bowl tickets, either.

Reach Gene Sapakoff at gsapakoff@postandcourier.com or (843) 937-5593.