By Will Vandervort.

Every year there’s a list of questions that concern the fans about the upcoming football season. At Clemson, some questions on that list have been answered, at least for right now.

Everyone knows barring an injury, Cole Stoudt will be the Tigers’ starting quarterback when they travel to Athens, Ga., on Aug. 31 to kick off the season at No. 12 Georgia. That question from the spring has been answered, sort of. But will it truly be answered on Aug. 31?

However, in my humble opinion, there are five questions as Clemson heads into camp today that must be answered by the end of camp or the Tigers might be in trouble.

1. Can the Tigers stay healthy on the offensive line? Dabo Swinney says the Tigers have a lot of talent on the offensive line and that might be true, but what the Tigers don’t have is experienced or quality depth on the offensive line, and that is scary. I have seen cases in which the offensive line did not pan out that it ruined a season (i.e. the 1992 Clemson Tigers). The Tigers have good players in Isaiah Battle, David Beasley, Ryan Norton and Kalon Davis, but right tackle is a big concern and guys like Davis and Eric Mac Lain, who the coaches want to play guard, could be forced to move outside if an injury occurs at either of the tackle positions. If that happens, it will take away from the depth at the guard positions.

2. Can the Tigers find more depth at tackle? Listed on the Tigers’ two-deep depth chart at offensive tackle is Battle at left tackle and Shaq Anthony and Joe Gore at right tackle. That’s it. Anthony is listed as Battle’s backup at left and no one is listed on the depth chart behind Anthony and Gore—who are projected as co-starters. From what we heard from offensive line coach Robbie Caldwell two weeks ago is this – Mac Lain will be a backup and Davis could bounce outside if they need him to. But they want Mac Lain to work mostly at guard in camp so he can get that position down and Davis is listed as the starter at right guard. It makes sense to do that since they need someone to start at left guard in the Georgia game because Beasley is suspended thanks to a violation of team rules that occurred prior to the start of spring practice. That leaves Caldwell with redshirt freshman tackle Maverick Morris and true freshman tackle Justin Falcinelli getting a lot of work with the second-team in camp. Clemson might need one or both of those guys to really come along before camp ends.

3. Will someone emerge as the starting running back? There might be some out there that don’t think this is a big deal but Clemson has not gone into fall camp with this big of a question mark at running back since prior to James Davis’ freshman season in 2005. Though it was a question mark of sorts last fall, Roderick McDowell had already emerged as the potential starter due to the momentum at the end of the 2012 campaign and from what he did that following spring. There is no momentum from D.J. Howard, Zac Brooks, C.J. Davidson and Wayne Gallman from last year, and none of the four emerged in the spring as a potential starter. Since 2005, Clemson has just had four running backs that have received a bulk of the load – Davis, C.J. Spiller, Andre Ellington and Roderick McDowell. Why is it important to have a featured back? It helps in a number of ways but mostly it allows the guys who will not start to understand their role on the team much better, which allows everything else to fall into place. In other words, it helps with the continuity of the offense. It’s no coincidence Davis, Spiller, Ellington and McDowell were all 1,000-yard running backs and Clemson won a lot of football games when they were the featured backs.

4. Are the freshmen wide receivers for real? Artavis Scott, Demarre Kitt and Kyrin Priester all had really good springs, but what does that mean for the upcoming season? Can they handle the rigors of camp? Will a long season—they enrolled in school in January—wear on them? Who knows? What we know is this – they all played a good bit in the spring and at times they all showed out and showed off their potential. All three go into training camp as the No. 2 guy on the depth chart and right off the bat—thanks to Charone Peake’s minor knee surgery—Kitt will get a shot to prove himself with the first-team offense. Peake is expected to miss the first week of practice. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney and wide receivers coach Jeff Scott seem to be high on all three as well as Trevion Thompson, who did not get to school until this summer.

5. Is Ammon Lakip really the kicker?  What does that mean? I don’t know, I’m just asking the question. We don’t seem to know much about Lakip because he has played behind Chandler Catanzaro the last two years and let’s be honest here, who asks about the backup kicker? Catanzaro was money when he came into games to kick. No one in the stadium worried about field goal kicking or extra points because “The Catman” was always so consistent. But Catanzaro is in the pros now and all we really know about Lakip is what Swinney told us all in the spring. But is he really as good as Swinney says he is or is he just trying to convince himself that Lakip can be as good as Catanzaro was. Let’s hope it’s the first one and Clemson can head to Georgia feeling really confident about its kicker. In all honesty, I bet this question will not get answered until the Georgia game is over.