ACC PREVIEW 2011

Okay, even though I am a terrible blogger and blog about once every six months I am keeping up the tradition. Year three of the ACC preview. In year one, I was one game off of Clemson’s record and correctly predicted an Atlantic Division crown. Last year I was a whopping 3 games off and falsely predicted another Atlantic Division crown. I thought having Kyle Parker back was a huge blessing, but in retrospect all he thought about was not getting hit so as to protect his body for his multi-million dollar baseball career. He had a great three quarters against Auburn until he had his sternum nearly separated from his body and was never the same. Hard to blame him, but painful to watch. Also, once Andre Ellington went down, there was as many playmakers on that offense as there are competent politicians in D.C. WR Nuke Hopkins being the only one. Last year I had the Atlantic Division race all fudged up, but did go six for six on predicting the coastal. Not that it’s hard. Virginia Tech is the only team in the league with a proven head coach who doesn’t get busted for cheating every other year.

CLEMSON PREVIEW –
DEFENSE - All spring while I should have worried about wedding preparations I was instead fretting Clemson could have its first consecutive losing season since 1976! The loss of a DOMINANT defensive player like Da’Quan Bowers (spelled his name right without a google search, except for the apostrophe) is irreplaceable. Lot of good players from the secondary now playing on Sundays, but a lot of good ones remain. Depth isn’t as good this year, but if this unit can stay healthy it has a chance to be almost as good as last year’s defense. Lost in the sh#@iness of our offense was the fact our defense was 1st in the ACC (11th nationally) in scoring defense and 3rd in yards per game (23rd nationally). Doesn’t sound like a 6-7 team does it? Well, being 86th in the nation in takeaways meant our offense rarely had the short field they needed to even have a chance to score. This was surprising with our great pass rush and excellent secondary. That said, the only thing keeping last year’s defense from being a top five dominant unit was the awful linebacker play. Due to the dominance of the defensive lineman, no linebacker had to deal with a block all season and still couldn’t make plays. The only reason I have improved my outlook is it seems our recruiting class isn’t just great on paper, but a few of these LBs are ready to play immediately. If this unit can just stay almost as good as last year’s the Tigers would be looking at a winning season.

OFFENSE –I think Andre Ellington is special. Like, really special. If he gets enough touches, I think he could even crack 1500 all purpose yards. The offensive line should be pretty good and Dwayne Allen at TE is a future NFL player. Hopkins at WR is proven and should have a solid Soph. season. Can Sammy Watkins live up to all the hype at the other receiver spot? And the huge wildcard, what will red-shirt Sophomore Tajh Boyd look like at QB? Will Chad Morris (only one season removed from high school coaching) and his high paced no-huddle offense make a difference in year one. It did at Tulsa, but Tulsa didn’t play Auburn, FSU and Virginia Tech.

SPECIAL TEAMS – Other than the actual kicker, our return and coverage units have been great the last few years. I hope the loss of Andre Powell (who apparently was worthless otherwise, but seemed to keep our special teams in order) will not mean we will go back to the days of letting Virginia Tech and FSU run back at least one kick each time we play them. Not even going to discuss the kicker Cat Man as he could be great or terrible, who freaking knows with kickers.

OVERALL
So, sadly I am going with 7-5, losing to Auburn, FSU, Virginia Tech, Maryland and tragically South Carolina for the third straight year. The South Carolina loss alone will keep Dabo on the hot seat one more year. Hope I am wrong, but there are just too many question marks. I think this program has a chance to be really, really good in 2012 and even an 8-4 and 9-3 2011 would really keep the recruiting momentum going. All this being said, like any other year if the Tigers stay healthy and finally catch or make a few breaks 10-2 is not inconceivable. It’s college football. The national championship team started the year unranked coming off a 6-5 season and played Wofford. I am NOT predicting a national title, but I am just saying anything is possible and long overdue in Tiger Town.

Atlantic
1. FSU
2. Maryland
3. Clemson
4. NC ST
5. BC
6. Wake

Coastal
1. Virginia Tech
2. Georgia Tech
3. Miami
4. Virginia
5. North Carolina
6. Duke