Well, I sold the car.... and.... it WAS the clutch cable. The B13 clutch cable did not work properly in my B14. The part numbers are different. I got the B14 clutch cable from Greg, installed it and it shifted like butter for 250+ miles, both soft and hard driving.
So if anyone runs into this problem as well (having to tighten the clutch cable all the way to get into gear, and barely even) try getting the correct clutch cable for your car. They are different part numbers. Your results may vary.