Now that the warm ups are over, Clemson fans can finally get nervous about a game. And what a wonderful re-introduction into sweating over the outcome of a game it is this weekend as Clemson travels into SEC country and face a top-20 ranked Auburn Tiger squad, led by the super-athlete and recent transfer Cameron Newton.
Auburn presents Clemson with a multi-faceted challenge. First of all, Clemson is a part of the now reeling Atlantic Coast Conference who is desperately in need of a shot in the arm. While few Clemson fans will shed a tear for a conference that has been less than perfect to the Tigers, the rest of the conference will be, more or less, collectively hoping that an ACC team can actually beat a ranked SEC opponent. Second of all, and much more importantly to Clemson folks, is Clemson's reputation. If Auburn beats Clemson this week, Clemson retains the label it has held for nearly a quarter century: mediocre. However, if Clemson can find a way to beat the other Tigers then it would positively propel them into the national spotlight. We all know how ESPN worships the SEC, and the only way to steal some of that attention is to beat one of the twelve of them on primetime national TV.
Clemson has had to deal with the chronic problem of not being taken seriously by most of the country. Sitting at 2-0 Clemson has absolutely no national attention right now. 3-0 would change all that. But getting from 2-0 to 3-0 is going to be a serious challenge as Auburn has all the talent and the coaching and the home field advantage to ruin Clemson's bid for elevated respect. The head of the Auburn beast is Cameron Newton. Clemson fans have way too many memories of opposing quarterbacks creating something out of nothing to beat the Tigers with improvisation and scrambling. Cameron Newton has improvisation written all over him and he can really hurt a defense if he gets rolling. Clemson faithful have been itching to turn one of these athletic, game changing quarterbacks into the next Major Harris. For those of you 3 or 4 Tiger fans that don't get the reference, back in the day, Danny Ford's defense took all of the hype that rolled into the 1989 Citrus Bowl with the former West Virginia quarterback and smeared that hype into his jersey, along with all the orange helmet paint and grass stains courtesy of Levon Kirkland and company. But since those days, good, mobile quarterbacks have tormented Clemson. Considering the uncertainty surrounding the Clemson defense this year, Cameron Newton's potential impact is magnified under the microscope. Clemson fans will be holding their breath and screaming for him to be knocked on his tail until or unless it happens. But Newton is a big dude, and knocking him around isn't something that happens often. But that's why they play the games.
Coming into the Auburn game, it is really difficult to know what kind of team the 2010 Clemson Tigers are. The game against North Texas freaked everyone out about the defense, but how much if any improvement was made over the last week against Presbyterian is impossible to guage because is wasn't even really a football game. The Orange and White game was perhaps a better indicator of the team's quality than the Presbyterian game. This isn't meant to be an insult to them, but that game was merely an un-glorified practice as Presbyterian and Clemson are in completely different worlds when it comes to talent level and athletic department resources. Most of Clemson's starters barely played. So, Clemson is 2-0 and they have some game film to study before lining up against Auburn, but Clemson fans and analysts really have no idea who the heck the 2010 Clemson Tigers are yet. We can assume that Dabo and company have held most of their cards to their chest so we may see a totally different approach to the Auburn game than what we have seen thus far from Clemson. And I don't just mean that the starters will stay in the game and Dabo will call some trick plays. I mean Clemson fans may see entire new formations, a completely different tempo, a completely different defensive scheme and who knows what else. I don't think Clemson Nation has seen all of the fight Dabo Swinney has in store for others teams yet. In this respect, I think everyone may be in for a surprise.
