December 27, 2009, at 3:05 am
Record: 5-4
Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl- Kentucky v. Clemson - Thanks to an abundance of Thursday night match ups, I talked a lot about the A.C.C on College Football Tonight (Fridays-10pm-wcwpsports.com) this season. And I wanted to gag at almost every turn. The conference was one of the most frustrating in college football. The moment a team looked ready to step up, they would fall right back down. Sure its parody, but it’s the bad kind. Everyone assumes that parody always equals good football. While this is true a lot of the time, parody can also equal extreme mediocrity. That’s the bad kind of parody. That’s what the A.C.C was this year.
One of the few teams that didn’t want to make me pull the hair from my eyelids in the A.C.C this season was Clemson. Before a 34-17 loss in the final week of the year, the Tigers six straight wins. They won what was maybe the worst division in a BCS conference in recent memory, the A.C.C Atlantic, by only a game but looked mighty impressive in a loss in the A.C.C championship. Maybe my view is clouded because I thought Georgia Tech would pound the garbage out of them on championship weekend, but I gained a lot of respect for Clemson after that game.
The Tigers came back from a 33-20 third quarter deficit against the class of the conference and actually had a one point lead with under seven minutes to play. If not for two turnovers and an unbelievable time of possession split (nearly 2:1), Clemson could be playing in a BCS bowl right now.
Running back C.J Spiller came up huge when his team needed him most. Against Georgia Tech, Spiller ran for 233 yards and found the end zone four times. He is the man that this offense revolves around. Spiller gained over 1100 yards and had 11 touchdowns this year.
On the other side of the field is a team that played hard in one of the country’s toughest divisions, the SEC East. Three of Kentucky’s five losses came against teams in the top 25. Two of them came against teams in the top 5. They are coming off an overtime loss to Tennessee at home, a team that played almost everyone tough this season.
Watch out for Randall Cobb. He’s a duel threat who can run and catch. Cobb ran for ten touchdowns on the ground this season and caught four. He was Kentucky’s leading receiver with 37 catches.
These two teams had virtually identical defenses (stat wise) in the regular season. Kentucky allowed 23 points a game, Clemson allowed 21. But Kentucky will be without its star, linebacker Sam Maxwell. Maxwell had 80 tackles and 6 interceptions. His absence gives the defensive edge to Clemson. With inconsistent quarterback play all year from Kentucky, if Clemson shuts down the run, the Wildcats will have nowhere to turn offensively.
The Pick: Clemson
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