Thursday, November 26, 2015

Rivalry Weekend

It's that time of the year again. My house smells of turkey and dressing and that means one thing....it's rivalry week in college football. Families, houses, friendships/relationships are divided and put on hold as our favorite teams square off against that "other" team that we love to hate.

This year is shaping up to be a pretty good one overall across the country. There are several match ups that make you go "hmmmm" on this weekend's slate with four games between top 15 teams. Needless to say the CFB Playoff rankings could undergo a significant face lift after the smoke clears late Saturday night.

Florida State travels down to the Swamp to take on the Gators who struggled with FAU last weekend and survived in overtime. Ohio State looks to get back on track after last week's loss to Michigan State at home....funny how the first time they played a legit team this season they came up on the losing side of the scoreboard. I'm just saying. (For the record I think they lose to Michigan this weekend, too)

A banged up TCU squad squares off against Baylor and Oklahoma and Oklahoma State tangle with a playoff position on the line. Finally, Notre Dame has one last hurdle to clear as they travel to Stanford for a showdown out west.

While all those games would warrant my attention Saturday if I were going to be sprawled out on the couch all day, I will instead be taking in a much less appetizing match up as I venture down to Columbia for my seventh straight Clemson-South Carolina game.

The Tigers are #1 in the country and are big favorites in Saturday's game in Columbia but Clemson hasn't won in the midlands since 2007. Yeah...it has been a while. However, this year's Tigers are far better than the past three teams that have made the 2.5 hour trip ride to our feathered neighbors.

11 games through the season and South Carolina still hasn't really settled on a quarterback and the program that has nearly climbed atop the SEC-East just a few seasons ago is now in shambles and in search of a new head coach with the abrupt exit of Steve Spurrier mid season. On paper, one might say Clemson wins this game by 30. But this is a rivalry game and anything can happen.

That being said, if you're looking for an upset, look elsewhere. It hasn't always been pretty but as Dabo himself said, football isn't a beauty pageant. He's right...to a degree. Clemson wins Saturday but how they win will be important. They need to come out early and shut the show down and not allow the Gamecocks to hang around or build confidence that they can do the unthinkable.

It'll help that the game is at high noon which won't allow the dedicated fans that decide to show up too much time to....you know...."get ready" for the game. Now the atmosphere should still be a good one and I expected it to be the most orange Williams-Brice has seen in quite some time but when it comes down to X's and O's I just don't see Carolina being able to outscore Clemson and match them talent-wise for four quarters.

And let's not forget last year's game...Clemson is better on both sides of the ball and Carolina well...let's just say they sure haven't improved much from last year. Even further, Watson played on a torn ACL in last year's game and you would have never known. Scary to think what he can do against this troubling defense that hasn't been able to stop anyone when he's healthy and has several deep-threat options to choose from. If Citadel can move the ball like they did, in theory the Tigers should carve that defense up like a Thanksgiving turkey.

South Carolina could have some early success moving the ball with an offense that likely throw the entire playbook at the Tigers. They might even get a big play on special teams here or there and Cooper will likely find the end zone a time or two. But Deshaun Watson has just been phenomenal this season and the defense has looked like the best in the country at times with a couple of juniors that will likely declare for the NFL after the season ( Lawson and Alexander) and be 1st or early 2nd round draft picks.

On the injury front, RB Wayne Gallman is expected to be back in the mix after sitting out against Wake Forest as is CB Mackensie Alexander who was also roughed up in the Syracuse game and took the day off against WF to recover. LB Ben Boulware is also expected to be ready to go after leaving the Wake game with a stinger in his shoulder.

I'm fortunate enough to have tickets for the big game in Columbia as well as the ACC Championship the following weekend in the Queen City. Looking forward to the opportunity to follow the Tigers on the road and watch them bring home trophies two weekends in a row. My dream of Clemson winning a national title in football is so close I can taste it but regardless of the outcome of the next few weeks, I'm going to do everything I can to enjoy this historic season. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Pick: Clemson 37 South Carolina 21