quote:
What do you think about Clemson-Auburn?

ETA: I think it'll go one of two ways.

1. Clemson rolls them
2. Being the first game of the year, in a hostile environment, it'll go down to the wire.

I believe it will be the latter for a half, but then we'll end with a comfortable-ish 10 point or so win. It won't be an incredibly impressive win that has the world singing our praises, but I don't think it will ever truly feel in doubt.

I think people expecting to see end of the year Bama Deshaun will be sorely disappointed. I expect him to play well, but offenses rarely start as hot as defenses do. I expect some miss communications, maybe some overthrows, all those sorts of things that plague offenses early. We've also got some young starters on defense, and Malzahn will throw the kitchen sink at them with gadgetry and window dressing.

The deciding factors in this game will be Deshaun, our OL, and coaching. If our OL truly is as good as people think it will be, it should neutralize Auburn's DL for the most part. That combined with Deshaun's ability to move should restrict Auburn's DL's ability to really dominate the game.

Then, there's simply no way you can't say that Clemson has a huge coaching edge in this game. Even if you consider Gus and Dabo to be equal (I don't but just for argument's sake), Venables v Steele is a hysterical mismatch. As I told the LSU fans when they hired him, I'd rather Steele feed my dog when I was on vacation than I would have him be my Defensive Coordinator. I think he's as incompetent as they come, literally the definition of what's wrong with the good ole boy network in football coaching that just recycles the same retreads.

I expect a real close game at halftime, Venables will make some adjustments at halftime, Steele won't because he can't walk and chew bubble gum at the same time, Deshaun will hit a big play or two, and we'll walk out with around a 10 point win.

31-20 sounds about right for me.