Florida State heads into Death Valley this Saturday night to take on the Clemson Tigers. Both teams have taken their lumps this season and had lofty expectations for a BCS bowl berth this year only to have them dashed by some poor play. Both squads are looking for redemption. Both teams have high profile wins, FSU over BYU in Provo and Clemson over Miami in Miami. Both schools also have players with an outside shot at being in New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony, Clemson with CJ Spiller and FSU with Christian Ponder. Both teams also have a chance to be playing in Tampa, FL for the ACC Championship and getting that BCS bowl berth, with Clemson being more in control, in a conference that is still up for grabs. One thing is for sure, after Saturday night one of these two teams will be eliminated from that chance.
Clemson will be relying heavily on CJ Spiller to carry the load whether he is returning kicks, punts, running the ball out of the backfield or catching passes. FSU will no doubt put a double team on Spiller in hopes of slowing him down. The downside to that is that Jacoby Ford will be on the field as well and could explode against a Seminole defense that has shown a propensity to give up the big play.
The quarterback play will also be watched closely as FSU has Ponder under center, ranked as the 13th best passer in the country, while Clemson brings out freshman QB Kyle Parker, who has thrown for over 1,400 yards and ten touchdowns but has also sprinkled in eight interceptions. Ponder is coming into the game with sore ribs, that he is saying will not effect him suffered in the win against NC State. He is also coming off a two interception performance against, his first and only two interception game of the season. Ponder has three total interceptions on the season.
Clemson will be without stand out defensive end Da'Quaun Bowers, who is out with a sprained knee. This will allow the Noles to double team Clemson's other stand out defensive end Ricky Sapp. The Noles are coming off a game in which they ran for over 275 yards and managed over 555 yards of total offense. Clemson is coming off a blow out win over Coastal Carolina.
A side bar to this game is that Mickey Andrews has announced that this will be his last season as the Noles defensive coordinator. The timing of the announcement is the only thing I question. Could this not have waited until the end of the season? I think this might be a distraction for the Noles this weekend and the rest of the season especially with everything else that has been going on in Tallahassee this year.
The game will be televised by ESPN @ 7:45 pm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
comment sent to my e-mail:
ReplyDelete"Don't have a lot to say about this one. i hope they both find some defense, or else they may have to add a third digit to each side of the scoreboard. Even with a little defense, this one could 76-70."