Team preview: Clemson - College Football

Tag : Hot Runner System

This is Clemson's best chance in years to become ACC champions, atitle the Tigers once won with regularity.
But -- and this story line is getting really, really old to Tigerfans -- they haven't brought home the league's championship trophysince 1991, a year before Florida State became the ACC's ninthmember. Winning that title is even harder these days, now thatthere are 12 members, two divisions and an ACC championship game.
There is no doubt, however, that the Tigers have the best group oftalent in the ACC's Atlantic Division, which has about six morecontenders for the league title than the weaker Coastal Division.Clemson has the league's top returning quarterback in CullenHarper; the top returning tailback in James Davis; and the topreturning wide receiver in Aaron Kelly.
Harper set 21 passing records as a junior last season, afterwinning the starting job in fall drills. He returns this season asthe ACC's most accomplished signal-caller. Both Davis and Kellyconsidered leaving after last year for the NFL, but both opted toreturn for their final year of eligibility, allowing the Tigers tojoin Tennessee as the only two schools in the country that canboast having a 1,000-yard rusher and a 1,000-yard receiverreturning this season.
Davis will again team up with speedy tailback C.J. Spiller to givethe Tigers one of the country's top backfields, if Bowden and hisstaff can fill in several gaping holes on the offensive line. Ifthey can find the right people to block for them, Davis and Spillercan reach the end zone on any play they touch the ball.
Kelly decided not to enter the NFL draft and hopes to improve onhis record-setting junior season, in which he caught 88 passes andscored 11 touchdowns. Tyler Grisham ranked in the top 10 in passreceiving yardage in the ACC last season. And the Tigers have evenmore speed on the other side of the line in junior Jacoby Ford, oneof the fastest players in college football.
On defense, the Tigers have finished in the top 25 in pointsallowed each of the three years that Vic Koenning has been theteam's defensive coordinator. All four starters, led by second-teamAll-ACC selection Michael Hamlin, return in a secondary thatallowed just 188.5 passing yards per game, tops in the ACC and 13thin the nation.
In all, the Tigers return 40 of their top 44 lettermen, which isexactly the kind of experienced depth champions need.
"The combination of players coming back, I've never had," Bowdensaid. "We have confidence in their abilities because they haveshown their success on the field in big games. Our biggestchallenge in the preseason will be to develop a line that willcreate areas for the backs and receivers to run and score."
Bowden and his staff also brought in one of the most heraldedrecruiting classes in school history, a collection of 26 signeeshighlighted by January enrollee Da'Quan Bowers, ranked by ESPN.comas the nation's top incoming recruit.
Those are some of the many reasons the Tiger faithful are ready tosink their teeth into the program's first berth into the ACCchampionship game, played this year for the first time at RaymondJames Stadium in Tampa, Fla., on Dec. 6.
"We've finished second in the division the past three years and wehave some people coming back from last year's team," Bowden said."Based on last year's accomplishments, some people are picking us.
"The last three years we've been close [to an ACC title], and basedon who we've got coming back, I'm anxious to see how the teamresponds to the preseason ranking. Hopefully they'll understandlike coaches that the ranking at the end of the season isimportant."
The Tigers know they can't make reservations for a week at TampaBay just yet. In each of the last three seasons, the Tigers havehad golden opportunities to win the ACC's loaded Atlantic Divisionand each time they managed to lose games at home to yank thosepossibilities out from under themselves.
Last year, it was a 20-17 loss to Boston College in which Kellydropped a wide-open pass late in the game that would have givenClemson a go-ahead touchdown with less than a minute to play. Twoyears ago, the Tigers lost at home to 19-point underdog Maryland toend its bid for the division title and faded badly down thestretch, losing four of its last five games. And three years ago,they lost 16-13 in overtime to league newcomer Boston College atDeath Valley.
Bowden, who has whipped his father Bobby and Florida State threestraight seasons, still hasn't completely won over Tiger fans. Hewas nearly fired four years ago, and that story-line has followedhim every year that his team has faltered out of the gate.
He created some good will by going 9-4 last season, concluding witha 23-20 overtime loss to Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta.
That probably won't be an issue this season, since shortly after heflirted with taking the vacancy at Arkansas, Bowden and the schoolagreed to a $1.8 million extension in late May to remain with theTigers through 2014.
Bowden knows that the most important game of the year might be theAug. 30 season-opener against Southeastern Conference foe Alabamaat the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, in the first meeting between thetwo southern powers since 1975. That opener will be the Tigers'first opportunity to show that they have filled two biggestquestion marks heading into fall drills, at linebacker and on theoffensive line.
The Tigers have only one starter returning on the O-line, juniorcenter Thomas Austin, and only right tackle Chris Hairston assuredhimself of a starting position in the spring.
Two of last year's starting linebackers, tackle leader Nick Watkinsand Tramaine Billie, completed their eligibility, and two more,Antonio Clay and Kortney Vincent, left the program for reasonsother than football. So Bowden had only five linebackers to rotatethrough spring practice, but he found three new starters in ScottyCooper, Brandon Maye and Kavell Conner. He will look for depth inpreseason drills.
"We got the right pegs in the right slots at those positions,"Bowden said. "Now how much they mature over the summer and howready they are to play Alabama, I don't know.
"There is a lot of concern simply because you have a lot of playerswho haven't performed at this level. You know they are going to begood, you just don't know how soon. We won't have much room formargin of error that first game."
A win against the Crimson Tide would keep Tiger fans in a goodmood, because Clemson plays five of its next six games at home andshould be favored to win all of them. The Tigers end the season onthe road for three of their final five games, with trips to FloridaState and Boston College included.
"Three of the final four ACC games will be on the road, and thatwill certainly be a challenge," Bowden said.
One thing that makes Bowden and the Tigers confident going into theseason is experienced leadership. Harper, Davis and Kelly are allseniors on a balanced offense that has somehow found a way to sharethe ball equally. The Tigers ranked second in the ACC in rushingand third in passing and were the only team to rank in the top fivein both categories. The Tigers scored more points than any team inthe ACC last year.
The defense is less experienced, but possibly more talented.Koennig will have to find some leadership among his down linemenand a secondary that returns all four starters to make up for thelack of experienced leadership among the linebackers.
Bowden was able to keep his coaching staff intact during theoffseason and his program appears to be in line to finally end the17-year ACC title drought. Bowden, who has ab-sorbed as much ire ashe has praise in his first nine years at Clemson, enters the seasonoff the hot seat for the first time in a long while.
"Usually the bulls eye is on me," Bowden said in the spring. "It'llbe on the team this year. That's a different angle."
And, Tiger fans hope, the outcome will be different as well.