Clemson Football Schedule 2009: A Game By Game Look at The Matchups

(Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

Each February College Football fans across the country are overcome with a renewed sense of hope for each of their teams as the following seasons schedules are released. This year for the Clemson Tigers, this was even more important because of the long disappointing season that had just passed.

As we look ahead to the 2009 campaign the general consensus outside of Tiger-town is that the Tigers will have a pretty mediocre year. Although the Tigers lost their starting Quarterback in Cullen Harper, one of the two running backs in James Davis, and their two top receivers in Aaron Kelly and Tyler Grisham, the Tigers have reasons to be hopeful on offense.

Cullen Harper's mishaps might have cost a few games for the Tigers last year and most will be happy to see a new man under center, be it red-shirt freshman Kyle Parker, or red-shirt sophomore Willy Korn. Replacing James Davis might not be too big of a deal either, as electric senior runner CJ Spiller will be joined by Sophomore Jamie Harper and red-shirt Freshman Andre Ellington, who both looked very good this spring. Finally replacing the receivers might be the toughest task. Aaron Kelly and Tyler Grisham were both very underrated contributors who did it all for the Tigers. Jacoby Ford is the clear favorite to land the top receiver spot after a very good campaign last season. A large group beyond Ford will be vying for spots and reports out of spring practice were mediocre to encouraging.

Dabo Swinney's style of offense, which will be under the direction of the young Billy Napier, will be more smash-mouth with more reliance on the run. With all 5 starters on the offensive line returning, it appears that what was once a major flaw, might be an asset to the Tigers this season.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Tigers return practically everyone outside of their star safety's. Last year the Tigers were ranked in the top 20 defensively but had troubles tackling in the backfield. The Tigers had very few sacks and the defensive line, which was short star end Ricky Sapp most of the season, lacked the killer instinct to take down the quarterback despite constant pressure. With new defensive coordinator Kevin Steele in town from Alabama, look for the Tigers to send more Blitz packages and try to correct the sack shortage from last season.

Finally, before looking at the schedule, to sum up the Tigers this year its easy to buy into the fact that they aren't going to be a top tier team after a long line of disappointing and underachieving seasons. But as we look ahead to this new season, the Tigers will once again have the talent on the field to win as they have had the last few years, the question is if the new coaching staff can finally utilize the talent to its full potential. Although not the likely scenario the Tigers should have renewed hope as they set out on a new season.

Now on to the schedule:

September 5th, 2009: Middle Tennessee State at Clemson

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