Clemson Tigers: Your 2008 College Football Champions

Special teams look to be good again.  P Jimmy Manners and K Phillip Buchholz both look to capitalize on serviceable seasons.  C.J. Spiller and Jacoby Ford will continue to give the Tigers a dominant return game.

Now to the reason, in my opinion, that pushes the Tigers to the top—their schedule.

The Tigers face what is one of the weaker schedules in the nation and have a fairly easy road to the ACC Championship and onwards.

They open their season against Alabama in a neutral site game in Atlanta.  Now this isn't a cakewalk by any means, but the Tigers should still be able to contain the Tide's main threat (Julio Jones) and in the end win the game.  This will be a big test for their O-line to see if they can hold their own.

They then have an month-long streak of cupcakes until they play at Wake Forest on Thursday night.

They will come into Wake undefeated, and in a tough matchup, I see Clemson coming out alive in its first road game of the year.

Then they face a rebuilding Georgia Tech team at home, followed by back-to-back road games against Boston College and Florida State.

That should be the toughest stretch of the schedule, starting at Wake Forest and ending with the road game at Florida State.

All three of these teams are not at their best this season.  They all still have major question marks, and we doubt whether or not they can hold their own.

While there is a chance that any of these teams could have their game of the year against Clemson, I still feel that the Tigers could in fact handle a game like that.  Though it would be a test, it would be a well-needed test.

They end their schedule with Duke, at Virgina, and finally the Battle of the Palmetto State at home against South Carolina.

These games keep them steady and ready for the ACC Championship game, as they will face quality opponents up until the Championship game.

The only pitfall I can see is if they run the table and go undefeated at 13-0, yet are left out in favor of a one-loss SEC team or something along those lines because of their soft schedule.

With everything set in place—returning players on defense, skill positions coming back, QB Cullen Harper leading the offense—I see no reason as to why Clemson doesn't make the jump.

Now all the naysayers will continually try to tell me how their O-line isn't good enough and how the LB core isn't deep enough—but where Bowden lacks in clinching moments, he makes up for in getting his players ready to play.

But this year Bowden isn't controlling the team.  Cullen Harper is—and after experiencing the letdown at BC last year, he now realizes what it's going to take to win, and he indeed has the hunger.

But need I remind you again: This is Clemson, and talent only goes so far.

This isn't the normal Clemson team though.  There's a newfound hunger eating at the players to challenge each other and a desire to hold each other accountable.

Perhaps this, in fact, is the year Clemson is lucky rather than good. 

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