Recently I’ve found myself enjoying the early hype and high rankings that Clemson has garnered this year. The first USA Today poll has us in at #18. Knowing that we were able to improve over the offseason without playing a game makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. That #18 is like a warm blanket I can contentedly wrap myself up in.

Well it was great until I looked at our schedule. From last year. Remember that first game against A&M? You know the one where Jad Dean hit his 6th field with like 2 seconds remaining? The one where Clemson took a goose-egg offensive touchdown approach to winning? Remember what A&M was ranked then? No? Well here it is: #17.

Things didn’t get much better for the Aggies after they lost in Death Valley. After a few gimmes against cupcakes, they wound up losing to Colorado, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and Texas. The end result was a 5-6 record and not even a crappy bowl game.

And #18 last year was Arizona State. They finished 7-5 with victories over powerhouses Rutgers and Northwestern as their best wins of the season.

In all, 9 of last year’s pre-season USA Today top 25 finished outside the top 25, with 4 teams — Tennessee, Purdue, Texas A&M, and Pittsburgh — lacking a single vote at the end of the season.

On the other hand, 58, or nearly 1/2 of all D-I teams got at least one vote in the first poll. Others like TCU, which finished 9th, began the season voteless. So while TCU picked up the most spots, about 50, Penn State picked up 30, UCLA 23, Notre Dame went from 41 to 11 to end +30, West Virginia gained 36 to end at 6, and Clemson which picked up 21 after starting 44th.

Players, fans, and bloggers alike should not be letting some silly number go to our heads.

We have been talking preseason for some time now, but you know it’s officially here when the big preseason polls get released. Today, the USAToday Coaches Poll was released (note the absence of ESPN in the tag). The top five in order: OSU, Texas, USC, Notre Dame (tie) and Oklahoma. I personally feel that Texas and ND are overrated, and this will be huge for them as it’s hard to fall when you win or play other top competition early. Look at the effects of Miami/FSU recently vs that of say Miami/Va Tech or FSU/UF in the ’90’s. Obviously the Oklahoma votes were in prior to this week.

On to the important stuff though. The ACC placed 4 top 25 teams with FSU at 10, Miami at 11, Va Tech at 16 (and quarterback-less), and the Tigers at 18. BC is lurking around the chicken coup as Corso would say at 27, and USuCk getting some Spurrier love at 30. Ga Tech, Maryland and Duke all received votes as well. Duke? Votes? Do they think the football team is recruiting former lacrosse players or have some similarly related vendetta?

Not sure when the AP comes out but with under 30 days until they put it on the tee, it’s officially that time of year. Bring it on!

CollegeFootballNews has formed their All-America team, along with player rankings at each position. Here’s where Clemson shows up on the lists.

Running backs: 15 - James Davis
Receivers: 22 - Chansi Stuckey
Centers: 8 - Dustin Fry
Offensive Guards: 11 - Roman Fry
Defensive Ends: 2 - Gaines Adams
Linebackers: 15 - Anthony Waters
Kickers: 6 - Jad Dean

With the exception of young James Davis, all these guys are listed as seniors: sounds great for 2006. 2007, on the other hand…

Check out “Just College Football” over on the sidebar for a site that has the Tigers ranked at #13 coming into the season. Can’t be all that bad now can it! They are also doing previews of teams throughout the nation so keep an eye out for the rest of the ACC and the rest of your teams.

According to Southern Pigskin, Clemson ranks 5th in the ACC for uniforms. (Obviously we’re firmly in the grips of DT.)

And you know what? I couldn’t care less. I just needed to post something/anything.

Although, I do begin to question their football acumen with comments such as, “[w]hen Clemson goes purple and orange, we go for the remote.”

They choose what game to watch based not on the teams, the talent, the excitement, nor what may be at stake. No, they watch based on uniform combinations. Congratulations. Here’s some vagisil.

While checking the results from the previously mentioned Athlon poll, I found that they have published their season previews on line. So instead of purchasing another publication, go ahead and get your fix online. Now we have The Sporting News and Athlon’s picks accessible to the gnomes. I have Tiger Time on order and should have it in hand by early next week. The following are the links to the individual teams, converse as needed and if need be.

Boston College
Clemson
Duke
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Maryland
Miami
N.C. State
North Carolina
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest

All ACC

CU Sporting News has a roundup of 12 different lists.

On Monday I went through the spring rankings for Clemson. It turns out, that there are other teams on those top-25 lists and some of them happen to be in the ACC. What do the “experts” have to say about the rest of the conference?

It’s worth noting, that all of the rankings, aside from CFN are post-spring. CFN published its rankings in January.

What stands out?

FSU is the only team to crack any top-10’s. Even then, they aren’t put up there consisently. I’m betting a lot of writers are wary of the ‘Noles after last season’s ugliness.

After a string of many good years, BC isn’t getting much credit. I’m thinking they, too, will overperform this year.

Miami’s a consistent top-20 pick. I’m sure they’ll be as talented as always in 2006. So far, it seems like Coker hasn’t been able to fully utilize that talent, and the luster is vanishing from that program. After getting mauled in the Peach Bowl last year, and replacing a bunch of coaches, I was initially surprised at the similarity in rankings given all the unknowns. I suppose the writers expect another really good, but not great season out of Miami. I really don’t know what to expect. But I’m still not sure that Coker is the guy to get Miami back to the national championship.

Virginia Tech, sort of like Florida State, has a lot of skew in its rankings. How the season plays out without Marcus Vick is anyone’s guess. He was a talented player and a major bonehead. Tech is no doubt glad to get rid of him.

All this can add up to be really good news for Clemson. The lane is open for them to make a run to the ACC title game. They just have to hit the hole.