ACC - Clemson

Clemson
Skinny - The ACC is traditionally one of the hardest conferences to predict, especially the Atlantic division. I'm not sold on Christian Ponder for Florida State and behind Clemson's defense I'll give the early advantage. Not playing Alabama to start the season is a good thing for the Tigers as they break in a new quarterback, which Kyle Parker seems to have an edge over Willy Korn at the moment. A strong case for Florida State supporters is that their entire line remains intact, well so does Clemson's which is always a good foundation in terms of team chemistry. Although the passing game will be inexperienced with only Jacoby Ford returning, the running game should be solid behind a lighter Jamie Harper and CJ Spiller. The defense will again be strong and DaQuan Bowers has the potential to become a star this season. While Bowers will get the hype, I've always been a fan of the play of Ricky Sapp. Sapp, if fully recovered from an ACL tear, has good speed off the edge and is overall fun to watch. Clemson has a lot of potential if the quarterback situation takes care of its self, but recent history shows Clemson struggles with reaching its potential. Dabo has the opportunity to start his own legacy this season and if the team comes together, they could finish in the top 10 or sputter to another mediocre, disappointing season.

Strength - Defensive End
DaQuan Bowers is only a sophomore this season and has star written all over him. He's a physical specimen and a monster on the line, but its the depth at the position that makes this a Clemson strength. Sapp is an exciting player to watch from the opposite end, and even if he hasn't fully healed from last season's injury Keith Alexander will be ready to step in. Alexander had 34 tackles last season as a starter for most of the season. Malliciah Goodman is waiting in the wings for his opportunity, but it may not need to come this season. Even with all the talent the team had at end and tackle last season, they only finished 36th in rush defense and only yielded 14 sacks as a team last season. They need to improve on those numbers and they should with a more experienced linebacking corps this season.

Weakness - Quarterback
Cullen Harper was expected to be bigtime last season after a stellar junior season, but that season just didn't happen. He looked less comfortable last season and never seemed to find it. Neither did backup Willy Korn when he came in. Korn was highly touted coming out of Byrnes and is in third season in the program. It's time for him to prove his worth or be labeled as a bust and through spring practice it looks like he is getting outplayed in the quarterback battle by a multi-talented baseball player Kyle Parker. The two had similar statistics in the spring game with Parker having slightly more yards and a better completion percentage. Swinney said the battle will continue into the summer and freshman Tajh Boyd could be thrown in the mix, but preferably for Clemson fans Boyd needs a year in the system to learn the playbook instead of being thrown into the firepit, especially with the pressure surrounding the quarterback position after last year and Harper and dating back to Proctor a couple years ago.

Key Game - @Georgia Tech 9/10/09
Not only does Clemson have to play two games in 5 days but they have to travel to Atlanta for the second one. Clemson really needs to set the tone early in the ACC season with a victory to gain some confidence as they have games in succession after this game versus BC, TCU, Maryland, WF, and Miami before a break against Coastal Carolina. The team doesn't need to kill itself against Middle Tennessee but getting the starting quarterback experience in that game will be vital before the Georgia Tech game. Swinney should have some interesting decisions on when to pull the starters in the opening game.

Key Player - Xavier Dye
Dye needs to step up at receiver and help the quarterback, whoever it ends up being. Jacoby Ford is the only proven returning receiver and thats not good for a team with an unstable quarterback situation. Dye was a bigtime recruit, who's better known for his transfer to Byrnes his senior year in high school. He had two starts last year and 10 catches for 125 yards. If he can't become the receiver he needs to look for Clemson to resort to true freshman Bryce McNeal as a complement to Ford.

Impact Freshman - Bryce McNeal

Predicted ACC Finish - 1st (Atlantic)

Top 5 Players
1. C Thomas Austin
2. RB CJ Spiller
3. DE DaQuan Bowers
4. CB Chris Chancellor
5. DE Ricky Sapp

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