By Will Vandervort.
ACC Notebook
By Will Vandervort
CLEMSON — In Clemson, all the talk this week has been about how will the 15th-ranked Tigers stop Georgia Tech’s option offense, which more times than not has it its way with the Clemson defense in years past.
But in Atlanta, there has been serious concern on Paul Johnson’s part on how his football team will be able to keep up with the Tigers when the two schools kick things off this Saturday in Death Valley at 3:30 p.m. To this point in the season no one has been able to stop the Tigers and that includes No. 3 Florida State, whose defense ranks third nationally.
Clemson (4-1, 1-1 ACC) racked up 426 total yards and scored 37 points on the Seminoles in a losing effort. The Tigers then bounced back to score 45 points and gain 576 yards in a victory at Boston College last week.
“I tell you, we’ve got a tremendous challenge this week,” Johnson said. “When you put on the tape of Clemson, they’re scary good. They’re very athletic. I think all their skill positions offensively have next-level players, and they’re executing at a high level. It will be a huge challenge for us.”
It doesn’t help that the Yellow Jackets (2-3, 1-2) will be coming to Death Valley, where an near sellout crowd is expected, with a defense that surrendered 49 points in a loss to Middle Tennessee. Georgia Tech comes to Memorial Stadium allowing 26.8 points and 397 yards per game.
“That’s always a tough place to play,” said Johnson, who is 1-1 at Clemson. “We’ve got to bounce back from a really disappointing game on Saturday. We get thrown right back into the fire against a quality opponent in Clemson.”
The Tigers are averaging 40.2 points and 511.8 yards per game through five weeks, with Andre Ellington leading the league in rushing at 103 yards per game, while quarterback Tajh Boyd has thrown for1,356 yards and 12 touchdowns already this season.
Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins leads the ACC in receptions (42), yards (609) and receiving touchdowns (6).
“The key is not to give up the big plays,” Johnson said. “They got a lot of big-play guys. You try to limit the big plays. I don’t think you’re going to shut them completely down. They have a good scheme and too many good players. So you got to try to match them.”
It does not help that Clemson is nearly perfect in red zone scoring, converting on 22 of 23 attempts thus far, with the one miss coming last week when it took a knee at the BC one-yard line to end the game. Clemson has scored 17 touchdowns on their 23 trips into the red zone.
“You got to try to get some turnovers, force them to continue to execute,” Johnson said. “You don’t give it to them all in one or two plays. You make them have to grind it out.
“They can do that, though. Clearly if you watch, they can. But there’s a far better chance of trying to stop them than the other way when you give it up in one or two plays.”
Duke bowling? Don’t look now, but the Duke Blue Devils are nearly bowl eligible and it’s just the first week of October. The Blue Devils (4-1, 1-0 ACC) are off to their best start since 1994, which happens to be the last time they went to a bowl game.
Duke , who hosts 2-3 Virginia on Saturday, is only two wins from being bowl eligible. Who had that written down at the beginning of the season? Not this writer.
Also, Duke wide receiver Conner Vernon tied former Clemson star Aaron Kelly for most receptions in a career by an ACC player with 232 in last week’s win over Wake Forest.
Tough challenge ahead. Miami, who is off to a 3-0 start in the ACC’s Coastal Division, will visit No. 9 Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. The Hurricanes are led by quarterback Stephen Morris who has thrown for 1,002 yards in his last two games, including an ACC record 566 yards in last week’s dramatic victory over the NC State Wolfpack.
It will be tough for Miami to pick up those kinds of numbers against the Irish this week, which rank third nationally in scoring defense and ninth nationally in pass efficiency defense.
Another slow start? Should NC State lose to No. 3 Florida State this Saturday night in Raleigh, the Wolfpack will fall to 0-2 in the ACC. That’s not exactly where the ‘Pack thought they would be after closing the 2011 season so strong.
What makes things even harder is the fact they have to try and bounce back after such an emotional loss at Miami last week, in which the Hurricanes scored the game-winner on a long pass with 10 seconds to play. Of course playing frontrunner FSU should make that a little bit easier to do, right?
“Well, certainly Florida State presents all kinds of problems for you, and that’s the biggest challenge of the week that we have in the coaches’ meeting room is trying to figure out how we’re going to put ourselves in position to try to stay with them,” NC State head coach To O’Brien said. “I think as far as the team is concerned, the main problem I’m concerned with is their legs and their health.
“I mean, we played basically a four-hour game in 90-degree heat with humidity astronomical, too. So right now I think the physical fact of getting our legs back… If we’re not as quick as we can be and as fast as we can be, it’s going to be tough to stay up with the athletes that Florida State has.”