We’re 7 games into the season.  We’re 6-1 and already bowl eligible.  Now we have 5 games left to determine if this season will have 13 or 14 games and which bowl we’ll go to.   Is this a championship season?  That remains to be determined but the potential is there.  And the the biggest remaining question mark looms in the form of Georgia Tech this weekend.  Although the next 4 games are all equal important to the overall ACC Championship Game question.

Georgia Tech:

Stat junky gnome, Clem, has already covered this one.  I’ve pored over the numbers myself.  I’ll even add that Sagarin’s computer rankings put Clemson at #10 and Georgia Tech at #35.

If this is to be a championship season, the team has to overcome all those short term negative trends that commentators and pundits love to spew to sell TV coverage.  This means beating Florida State in Tallahassee.  This means getting the Winston-Salem monkey off our backs.  Moreover it means beating Georgia Tech soundly: none of this 3 point-or-less bullshit.

Statistics and rankings aside, this is Clemson’s game to win.  To our advantage, I think our running game will prevail, Koenning will have a good defensive plan, and don’t forget about the homefield.  Georgia Tech has played only one road game this year.  If Clemson takes care of the ball, they should win by at least 12.  Altough I personally think the actual margin of victory will be closer to 8.

Virginia Tech:

The wheels have fallen off of this team.  They appear to be one brawl away from being officially re-named Miami-North.  They got stunned by Georgia Tech but managed to keep is closer than it appeared.  Then they got really walloped by Boston College.   I don’t think they’ll cover the 17-point spread against Southern Miss this week.  When Clemson comes to Blacksburg for their last road game of the season, I forecast a game like last year’s Thursday night visit to NC State.  Clemson should win by 20.

Maryland:

The Terps, if you haven’t noticed are sitting at 4-2.  I was shocked when I noticed they weren’t actually sub-.500.  They almost lost at home to hapless but tough Florida International one week.  Then they nearly upset Georgia Tech in Atlanta.  The following week they had to overcome a 20 point deficit to win against a pretty bad UVA team in Charlottesville.  They do also have a 14 point win against William & Mary and a 13 point win against Middle Tennessee.

We’re not talking about any kind of particularly strong team here.

Until we play them, they’ll face NC State and FSU.  I haven’t actually seen the Terps play this year, but their record makes me think they’re like NC State, you never know which of their personalities will show up.  Unless they blow the States out of the water in the upcoming weeks — which I doubt will happen — I think Clemson is set to win at home by 20+.

NC State:

See Maryland above.

This team leaves you scratching your head.  With each result I find myself questioning the quality of their opponent more than I question State.  Is Wake Forest that good?  Are FSU and BC that bad?  Don’t forget they lost early to Akron and Southern Miss.

They seem to be playing much better now that they quarterback situation is settled.  I still don’t know how they managed to lose to Wake Forest.  As usual, Wake was beaten in nearly every important statistic except the score.

At this point, they seem to do whatever I don’t expect.  That means they should come out and put a seriously embarrassing hurt on the Tigers.  But like I said earlier, championship teams break molds and avoid the stupid trends.  In addition to the Maryland game, they also play Virginia and GT before we meet.  Look for State to roll into Clemson with a moderately respectable 5-4 record.  Unfortunately for them, Clemson will be their biggest road game of the season.  Clemson is the best team they’ll face all year and they won’t have home field advantage a la FSU, BC, Wake, and Georgia Tech.  Let’s say Clemson should win by at least 10.

Posted on Thursday, October 19th, 2006 at 11:47 am by Broken Gnome

Filed under Football, Georgia Tech, Maryland, NC State, Virginia Tech.

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