High stakes for Clemson this weekend

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Now is his chance to prove it.

Clemson owns a three-game winning streak and controls its destiny in the ACC Atlantic Division as it prepares to welcome Florida State to Death Valley. The Tigers seem poised to make their first appearance in an ACC championship game.

That makes this the time of year when Clemson usually stubs its toe. No wonder Swinney is trying to make sure his team doesn’t get caught up in the moment and instead focuses on the task at hand.

“The most excited team is not going to win,” Swinney said. “The most prepared team is going to win, and the team that executes the best will win. I tell the guys not to get caught up in the hype of the ballgame because we have a job to do.”

All too often in the past, Clemson has given its fans reason to get excited, only to let them down.

Clemson soared into the top 10 after a 31-7 victory over Georgia Tech in 2006, but the Tigers followed up that dominant performance by losing four of their last five games.

One year later, the Tigers seemed on their way to the conference championship game before a 20-17 home loss to Boston College in their ACC finale prevented them from winning the Atlantic Division.

Picked to win the conference last season, Clemson instead dropped four of its first seven games in a start that led to former coach Tommy Bowden’s departure.

The run of disappointment continued early this season when Clemson dropped three of its first five games, including a stunning 20-17 setback at Maryland that represents the Terps’ only win over an FBS opponent this season.

But the Tigers haven’t lost since.

Clemson followed up that loss to Maryland with a three-game winning streak headlined by a 40-37 overtime victory at Miami. Clemson (5-3 overall, 3-2 in the ACC) and Boston College (6-3, 3-2) share first place in the Atlantic, but the Tigers would win a head-to-head tiebreaker because they beat the Eagles 25-7 on Sept. 19.

The Tigers boast the ACC’s most explosive all-around player in C.J. Spiller, the first player in conference history to gain 6,000 career all-purpose yards. They have a defense that ranks alongside North Carolina as the league’s best. But do they finally have that intangible quality previous Clemson teams have lacked?

No matter how well Clemson might play for certain stretches of a season, the Tigers’ history of frustration inevitably breeds skepticism about their ability to come through when the stakes are raised. A victory Saturday could remove much of that doubt.

BEST MATCHUP: Florida State QB Christian Ponder vs. Clemson’s defense. Ponder heads into this Atlantic Division showdown as one of the nation’s hottest quarterbacks. Ponder ranks third in the nation in total offense and has thrown for 1,371 yards with nine touchdown passes and only two interceptions over his past four games. Two weeks ago, he went 33-of-40 for 395 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions against a North Carolina team that led the nation in pass defense at the time. Now he faces perhaps his toughest challenge. Clemson ranks 12th in the nation in total defense and 11th in pass efficiency defense. Chris Chancellor and Crezdon Butler give Clemson arguably the ACC’s top cornerback tandem. Ponder will have his hands full trying to keep the ball away from SS DeAndre McDaniel, a Tallahassee (Fla.) Godby graduate who is tied for the NCAA lead with seven interceptions. Clemson also could benefit from Ponder being at less than full strength. Ponder bruised his ribs in a victory over N.C. State last week and didn’t practice early this week, though he’s expected to play at Clemson.

PERSON ON THE SPOT: Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Dave Wommack. It’s a good thing that Georgia Tech has the nation’s second-ranked rushing attack because the Yellow Jackets’ defense isn’t stopping anybody. Georgia Tech has given up at least 30 points four times this season, including a 56-31 victory last week over a Vanderbilt team that ranks 110th in the nation in scoring. Georgia Tech is atop the Coastal Division standings because its offense is good enough to overcome its defense’s shortcomings, but the Yellow Jackets probably will lose at least once more if they continue to let opponents move the ball at will against them. Wommack’s crew could get a break this week. Wake Forest QB Riley Skinner sustained a concussion against Miami last week, so the Demon Deacons might have to turn to backup Ryan McManus this week. Of course, if Wake Forest scores 30-plus points with McManus running the offense, Wommack will be feeling even more heat next week.

NUMBERS GAME: North Carolina State WR Owen Spencer has only 17 receptions this season, but he has averaged 26.6 yards per catch to lead the nation in that category. Georgia Tech WR Demaryius Thomas is averaging 24.2 yards per catch to rank second in the nation.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:

“For 47 years, it’s been about me. Now it’s time to be about us - my family.” - Florida State defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews, explaining his decision to retire at the end of the season. Andrews spent more than four decades as a college coach and has served as the Seminoles’ defensive coordinator since 1984

“Coach Andrews is the best coach that I’ve ever been coached by. His coaching, wisdom and instruction carried over into my personal life and those of all the players he coached. Not a single day goes by when I am coaching, mentoring or teaching somebody that I don’t use things Coach Andrews taught me. He is one of the all-time great defensive coaches in college football history.” - Former Florida State CB Deion Sanders

“If you look at what he has done over the past four weeks, tell me a quarterback that has played better.” - Duke coach David Cutcliffe, discussing QB Thaddeus Lewis to The (Raleigh) News & Observer. Lewis has gone a combined 116-of-173 for 1,532 yards with 10 touchdown passes and two interceptions over his past four games

“We thought it was bad last year. It’s two times as bad this year. It’s got to end sometime … before I die here. I hope I’m the next one hurt. I’ll take a hit for the team if it keeps somebody else healthy.” - North Carolina State coach Tom O’Brien, to the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal about the Wolfpack’s injury problems. G R.J. Mattes tore an anterior cruciate ligament and a medial collateral ligament last week against Florida State, making him the 11th North Carolina State player to suffer a season-ending injury this year

“That play just ran through my head over and over again. It still makes me sick to my stomach.” - Virginia Tech RB Ryan Williams, to The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot about his fumble that led to the decisive field goal in last Thursday’s 20-17 loss to North Carolina. Williams said he didn’t get to sleep until 8 a.m. Friday

“As crazy as it sounds, if we win the next four games, we have a good chance of winning our division. But right now, before we get into those things, we need to win the next game. That’s the goal right now. We need to get back on the winning track. I think that would help a lot of things. It would give our kids some inspiration and create some momentum.” - Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen, to The (Baltimore) Sun. The Terrapins (2-6) must win their last four games to become bowl eligible

ETC.: All four ACC games that took place last week came down to the final minute. The margin of victory in ACC games this year is 11.61 points, the smallest figure of any conference in the nation. Sixteen of the ACC’s 28 games so far this season have been decided by seven or fewer points. … Boston College LB Mark Herzlich will receive an honorary Lott Trophy, which will mark only the second time this has been given out. The family of Pat Tillman received an honorary Lott Trophy in 2004 after the former Arizona State defensive back was killed in Afghanistan. The Lott Trophy is awarded annually to the nation’s top impact defensive player. Herzlich, the ACC defensive player of the year last season, is sitting out this year as he recovers from Ewing’s sarcoma, a form of bone cancer. … The ACC has signed a contract extension with the EagleBank Bowl through the 2013 season. … This marks the first time since 1994 that both North Carolina and Duke have had winning records when they had their annual late-season showdown. That also marks the last season Duke went to a bowl or finished with a winning record. … This also marks the earliest point in the season that Duke and North Carolina have faced each other since 1938, when they met Oct. 29. The game has been played on the final week of the regular season 46 of the past 56 years. … Former Boston College QB Dominique Davis is heading to East Carolina. Davis started for the Eagles at the end of the 2008 season, but he left school this summer and is playing at Fort Scott Community College in Kansas. … Before this season, former North Carolina State QB Philip Rivers was the only player in ACC history to throw for at least 2,000 yards in four different seasons. This season, Duke QB Thaddeus Lewis and Wake Forest QB Riley Skinner have joined the club. … Skinner also has a chance to end his career as the most accurate quarterback in ACC history. Skinner has a career completion percentage of .66937. The record is held by Matt Schaub, who posted a career completion percentage of .66978 while playing at Virginia from 2000-03. … Miami is the only team from one of the Big Six conferences to have three 300-yard rushers (Javarris James, Graig Cooper and Damien Berry) plus four 200-yard receivers (Leonard Hankerson, Travis Benjamin, LaRon Byrd and Thearon Collier). TCU and Idaho are the only other FBS programs with that combination at the skill positions. … Virginia already has played 14 true freshmen this season. The Cavaliers have only 14 seniors on their roster. Tulane has played 18 true freshmen this year to lead all FBS programs.

Steve Megargee is a national writer for Rivals.com. He can be reached at smegargee@rivals.com.

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