Clemson Football 2009 Outlook

By clemsoncannon  |   Wednesday, August 12, 2009  |  Comments( 0 )

Clemson Tigers
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The Clemson faithful approach the 2009 season with a feeling of excitement not felt since the fall of 1999. For those who are not familiar with our program that is the year that Tommy Bowden took over a program that had been persistently mediocre for the past 10 seasons. And for the next ten seasons we watched our once mighty football program continue to be persistently mediocre with an average finish of 8-5. Now we enter a new era in Clemson football, the Dabo Swinney era. I think I can sum up the coming season for the Tigers in three words - Don’t expect much.

The Tigers ranked 4th in the ACC and 87th nationally in total offense in 2008. With the loss of Cullen Harper, James Davis, Aaron Kelly and Tyler Grisham I would not expect the offense to fare any better this year. There are many questions on the offensive side of the ball that have not been adequately answered at this point. First and foremost is who is going to lead the offense? Willy Korn was the highly touted recruit and heir apparent from the moment he walked onto the campus. He played fairly well in limited action last season completing 26 of 38 passes for 216 yards and one touchdown. But he is getting some unexpected competition from redshirt freshman Kyle Parker. Parker has the better arm of the two but Korn is a better scrambler. Either way the Tigers will be led by a QB with little or no relevant playing experience when the season commences.

CJ Spiller is back and will be a dangerous weapon out of the backfield. Spiller holds 12 school records already including all-purpose yards and is a threat to score from anywhere on the field. But with the graduation of James Davis the question remains as to who will be the thunder to Spillers lightning. 235 pound sophomore Jamie Harper appears to be the leader for that role at this time although he is another unproven piece of the puzzle. Speedy redshirt freshman Andre Ellington may also see playing time as a third down option although he is a little undersize for the position. As long as Spiller is healthy the running game should be sound but an injury to him could spell doom for this part of the offense.

The #1 receiver this year will be senior Jacoby Ford who caught 55 passes last season for 710 yards. He has blazing speed and has improved his hands and route running. Unfortunately after Ford there is very little to get excited about at this position. Juniors Xavier Dye and Terrence Ashe have done very little in their careers and the rest of the underclassmen should still be considered to be works in progress. Clemson ranked 1st in the ACC last year in passing offense. I would expect a big drop in that category this year.

The good news on offense is that the entire starting offensive line from last year is back. Or is that the bad news? This unit gave up 33 sacks last year which ranked 103rd in the nation. The Tigers had arguably the best running back duo in the country and neither one of them ranked in the top 10 in rushing yards in the conference for the season. Clemson’s rushing offense ranked 10th in the ACC. They were dead last in 3rd down conversions. This unit has to accept some, if not all, of the blame for those dismal statistics. What is most troubling is that the line did not show improvement as the season wore on. The team had their three highest individual rushing games within the first half of the season (against The Citadel, SC State and Maryland). Logic would seem to dictate that if everyone stays healthy the unit would become more cohesive and effective as the season progresses. The opposite appeared to be true in 2008. Senior Thomas Austin was the lone bright spot on this unit, being named All-ACC at center. He is moving to left guard this year. Hopefully this unit has matured after one year of playing together. If not, Spiller may end up wishing he had bolted for the NFL after last season.

Clemson appears to have more stability on the defensive side of the ball. Coach Swinney added premiere defensive coordinator Kevin Steele to the coaching staff. The defensive line will be anchored by sophomore DE Da’Quan Bowers and senior DE Ricky Sapp. This unit was stout against the run last year giving up only 127 yards per game. But they struggled to get pressure on opposing quarterbacks. The Tigers recorded only 14 sacks in 13 games last year ranking dead last in the ACC in this category. To make matters worse, three of those sacks came against SC State. They will have to do a much better job to take some pressure off the secondary or veteran quarterbacks like NC States Russell Wilson will pick them apart.

The linebacking corps will be solid this year as they return all three starters from last year’s team. Senior Kavell Conner led the team in tackles last year playing the weak side position. Sophomore Brandon Maye will be in the middle after a stellar freshman year in which he recorded 87 tackles and 2 sacks. Junior Scotty Cooper will man the strong side as a full time starter after being a spot starter and reserve in his first two years.

Cornerbacks Crezdon Butler and Chris Chancellor return to lead a secondary that ranked 4th in the ACC last year. Both are top notch pass defenders with NFL caliber talent. The problem for Coach Steele will be finding replacements at both safety positions after the departures of Chris Clemons and Michael Hamlin. Junior DeAndre McDaniel will switch from linebacker to strong safety this season. He was undersize for a linebacker but should fit in nicely in the secondary. Speedy senior Sadat Chambers will probably start at free safety this year after spending most of his career as a reserve. He may be challenged by junior Marcus Gilchrist who has been getting reps at free safety in practice as well.

I think Coach Swinney has the program moving in the right direction with some of the decisions he has made so far. However, I think we will have to give him a mulligan this season. This Clemson team has too many question marks on the offensive side of the ball to seriously contend in the ACC this year. Although the defense should be able to keep many of the games close this team has 7-5 written all over it.
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