Get to know the Warhawks
In 2006 the Warhawks were 2nd in the Sun Belt Conference in offensive and 1st in defensive numbers. With 348 ypg in offense on a 60/40 pass/run distribution this team was scoring an average of 22 ppg. They also amassed 643 penalty yards on 85 penalties. This year they started off heavily in favor of the running game with 212 of 278 yards being on the ground. In the one game that has been played, they acquired 6 penalties for 70 yards. The final damage was 17 points for the Warhawks on the board.
On defense, LaMo pretty much reflected their offensive numbers in what their defense allowed in 2006: 22.3 ppg 346 ypg 60/40 distribution. They also tallied 20 INTs and 16 sacks. In the season opener the Warhawks allowed 35 points to get by them in a similar 60/40 pass/run distribution for 523 yards. They did pick off one pass and I did not find their penalty performance on D.
It seems that coming into The Valley that the Warhawks will keep it on the ground if they continue their trends from the previous game. But that may change if they watch the FSU game and how the front 7 stuffed the line all night long. As previously mentioned in my POV post, the secondary has pretty much been left untested so LaMo could start sending it through the air to test the waters as well. With the amount of penalties that were accumulated in one game it also seems that if the Tigers can get into the Warhawks heads that they will get sloppy and commit a few more whistle blowers.
In the end, this team looked pretty deadly on paper last year but came out sloppy for their first game and let a team come back from 3 behind to win by 18. If the Tigers can beat the Warhawks down early, look for a runaway game in the second half and the debut of Willy Korn in the offense to take Harper out and get reps on the young QB.
Clem’s Prediction: Clemson 45 LaMo 17
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