No. 8 Tar Heels take long road to ACC championship game

Clemson has held that No. 1 spot in the College Football Playoff rankings for weeks now, but that doesn’t mean it will be there for the Tigers on Sunday. And for all intents and purposes, the playoff begins for the Tigers on Saturday in the ACC Championship Game. North Carolina has the third-longest winning streak in the country at 11 games (they lost to SC 17-13 in their opener) and if they have “ACC Champions” written next to them, it would set them apart from Clemson and Ohio State.

Clemson fields a top-25 defensive unit by every measure, while only passing offense (266 yards per game, 33rd) falls outside of that realm for the Tar Heels. As the Hurricanes prepare for their upcoming bowl game, Richt will begin the process of formalizing a staff that he and the university hopes can get The U back on the national stage, a platform from which they’ve been missing for more than a decade. “There’s only been one 12-0 at Clemson and we’ve tied that record”, Tigers tight end Jordan Leggett said.

The Clemson Tigers play the North Carolina Tar Heels in the ACC Championship Game on Saturday, December 5 start time at 8:00 PM ET, at Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC. Both schools quickly sold out of their 5,500 allotted tickets, but Clemson received 6,000 more to North Carolina’s 2,500. Clemson’s sophomore quarterback has made quite the case as a Heisman candidate passing for over 3,200 yards and rushing for over 750. Wood and Williams have combined for 2,066 rushing yards and 26 rushing touchdowns. But Watson has been susceptible to throwing interceptions – 10 this season – and when he has turned the ball over, his team has struggled.

“It’s ‘How you like this play?”

Which Big Ten team will push its way into the playoff? .

“I most definitely do”, Fedora said. At the risk of regurgitating everything you’ve already heard, let’s just move on to breaking down the game. “He has gotten so much better running the ball as the season has gone on”.

“We kind of have that championship mentality every week, but this one, there is no next week”, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. Although the early home loss to Ole Miss was a bit of a surprise, they rebounded with resounding wins over Georgia, Texas A&M, LSU, and Mississippi State-four teams with at least eight wins-by double-digits. This Saturday, he will have the chance to make up for for his past blunder. He’s a dynamic talent and has an innate ability to make plays without seeming to try very hard.

Clemson QB DeShaun Watson has thrown for 3223 yards and 27 touchdowns thus far on the season. With all of Hood’s ability, it will be interesting to see if he has what it takes to compete with Clemson’s star-studded defensive line. The Tigers enter 6th in the nation in total defense. “Because for all of the talk about the talk about the North Carolina defense – and from a numbers standpoint they’ve been better this year – but when you look at efficiency, and you look at opposing offenses the defense actually hasn’t been that great”, Smith told TigerNet Thursday. Mark Turgeon’s defense is nowhere close to its potential yet, which is expected when incorporating two fresh bodies to the team’s starting big-man positions. I won’t be too surprised regardless of which team pulls out the victory, and the repercussions will be far-reaching with either outcome. “And to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best”. Richt began his coaching journey as a graduate assistant at in-state rival Florida State, but has now come full-circle in a career that’s spanned a decade and a half and 145 wins.

Clemson would also like for its defense to get it the ball back quickly against a team it beat 50-35 in 2014.