****I had to post this blog first before moving on for full disclosure purposes.
Clemson nation’s hearts suffered collective palpitations half way through the third quarter on Saturday as they watched starting quarterback Tajh Boyd laying on the ground after being hit in the lower left leg. As the replays began to play those palpitations turned into utter dismay then to anger. Lets face it my world was crashing in on me quickly.
In came Cole Stoudt a true freshman from Dublin, OH. No that is not a typo, the backup quarterback at Clemson is from Dublin, OH located outside of Columbus. While the game was continuing, most Clemson fans were setting their hopes and dreams on fire. On Stoudt’s first play he fired an incomplete pass to Dwayne Allen and Clemson ended up settling for a field goal.
Fast forwarding to today and having time as perspective, Cole Stoudt was thrown into a precarious situation down on the three yard line going in to score and then coming off the two yard line just a mere 98 yards from the goal line. He did not let the moment completely overwhelm him. You could see in his eyes that he was not caught up in the moment and yes Coach Morris was not going to put the youngster in a bad situation but he led this team on three scoring drives to seal a game that felt very much in doubt there for awhile.
In the midst of the Boyd injury and hearing maybe it was not as bad as most had feared what got lost is that Clemson is 6-0. This is a program that only won 6 games all of last year. Remember this is a team that many people had 3-3 at this point based on preseason prognostications, luckily for us games are played on the field and not on paper.
Now here comes Maryland. A lot of talking heads have been talking about a Clemson let down, people are waiting on baited breath to say, “I told you so,” when talking about the 2011 Clemson football team. In all seriousness this is the week I think Clemson fans need to be concerned.
Full disclosure, I loathe the University of Maryland. I loathe College Park, MD, I despise Terp fans, Byrd Stadium is more awkward looking than Billy Brice Stadium in Columbia. I have no use for Maryland.
All that said this game Saturday scares the heck out of me. It scared the heck out of me when they announce the 7 o’clock game time two weeks ago long before Tajh Boyd was writhing in pain on the field of Frank Howard Field. Maryland is one of those teams that seemingly puts a good performance together against Clemson. Now a lot of that had to do with Ralph Friedgen who disliked Clemson as much as I dislike my feathered colleagues from Columbia. The Big Man always had a great plan for Clemson and won a lot of games against the Tigers during his tenure.
Fortunately, for Clemson fans Coach Friedgen was fired after last season after leading the Terps to their best season in years and winning ACC Coach of the Year. In comes former UCONN coach Rand Edsall and the transition has been more turbulent than most would have thought given what Maryland was returning. The Terps played a depleted (suspensions) Miami team on Labor Day night in a game where their uniforms made more news in the D.C. area than their win over Miami.
Maryland comes into this week with a 2-3 record with wins over Miami and Towson. The hardshells were manhandled by Temple, came up short late against West Virginia and hung in there with Georgia Tech. The message from the Maryland coaching staff is that they are close to putting it all together. More importantly Maryland is hosting the eighth ranked team in the nation coming into their house in primetime.
I just do not feel good about this one. There is no logic behind my feelings. The reality remains Clemson is better than Maryland but that does not always to translate on the field. The longer the win streak goes on the more nervous I get earlier in the week.
I talked to a friend earlier this week and he reminded me “film doesn’t lie.” When you watch this Clemson team on film they can beat you in a lot of different ways. It is not merely stopping one guy and you win. If you decide that Sammy Watkins is not going to beat you, you better have a plan for Dwayne Allen, Jaron Brown, Andre Ellington and Mike Bellamy. That is enough to keep a defensive coordinator up late when they are trying to prepare for this football team.
On the other side of the ball, the Clemson defensive front has started to come into their own. Led by senior Brandon Thompson, the Clemson defensive line has really come up big for this team as the season has progressed with big stops at key moments. This will continue Saturday in College Park.
The weather here in the DC area is supposed to be cool and windy Saturday evening. The kicking game is going to have to be spot on. You could tell this team missed Spencer Benton last week with the short kickoffs. Clemson cannot give Maryland any cheap ones.
There are questions at Maryland on who will start at quarterback for the Terrapins Saturday. Reigning ACC Freshman of the Year Danny O’brien was replaced in last week’s game against Georgia Tech by Sophomore CJ Wilson who led the Terps on a second half come back that came up short in a 21-16 loss to the Yellow Jackets.
O’brien is by far the better passer though he has struggled in recent weeks after playing well in the first two weeks of the year. Wilson is the better runner of the two and demonstrated those attributes on a 77-yard touchdown run last week in Atlanta. It will be interesting to see who Coach Edsall goes with. I would not be surprised if you see both quarterbacks play.
Clemson fans need to familiarize themselves with Terrapin defensive tackle Joe Vellano, quarterbacks Scott O’brien and CJ Wilson, running back Davin Megget, and South Carolina native Ronnie Tyler. Vellano had 20 tackles last week against Georgia Tech, defensive tackles do not have 20 tackles in a game without playing with great effort. Megget is capable if he gets going, Tyler is a legit deep threat for Maryland. They have athletes who can play so Clemson has to show up and play well if they are going to win on Saturday.
When the dust clears I do think Clemson’s offensive pace and defense gets the Tigers out of College Park with a win but I think it is closer than the experts think.
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