W2WF: Clemson

The 2018 college football season began with every team harboring various types of potential. Each roster felt stacked with hope as predictions set popular bars of expectation. The future space filled the unknown with assumptions, though no actual database had been built for the current season.

Potential became reality over the last nine games, and the reality now is that Boston College created more potential. The No. 17 Eagles are hosting the No. 2 Clemson Tigers in the biggest game in recent memory. It's the next culmination in a journey where the Eagles built their own reality, one that includes the potential for more if they can claim victory on Saturday.

"I want to make sure we give our kids a chance to go fight and win this football game," BC head coach Steve Addazio said. "So what we are not going to do is try and make this a chess match-scheme game and try to think on the other side of the ball, where we are going to try to outdo this and outdo that. I want this game to be squarely in the hands of our players. They have earned it and deserved it."

The Tigers enter Saturday undefeated with the potential to clinch the ACC Atlantic Division. A win mathematically seals them into the ACC Championship with one conference game remaining and would officially create the potential for a fourth consecutive league title. It would also continue setting the pace of the College Football Playoff rankings where Clemson is paving a collision course to a potential fourth-straight meeting with No. 1 Alabama.

"We're excited about our last road trip for the season," Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. "This is it for us. Last true road game for the seniors. This has been a special group of seniors that we've had in our program for the last several years. It's kind of the end of the road, if you will, from a road game standpoint. Not just any game either (because it's) an opportunity to compete for our division (and an) opportunity to stay in control of our destiny."

A BC win could alter that reality because both teams control their own destiny. Beating Clemson would tie the Eagles with the Tigers in the loss column with one league defeat. Clemson plays Duke next week with BC's last two games against Florida State and Syracuse. A win on Saturday would clinch a head-to-head advantage and create the potential that the Eagles would represent the Atlantic Division in the ACC Championship.

This game sits squarely at the crossroads of that race, with Boston College looming as a daunting challenge to the Clemson machine. The Eagles came within five minutes of creating disaster in Death Valley last year when they dragged a 7-7 game into the fourth quarter. A late injury enabled the Tigers to pull away with three late scores, but the game serves as a reminder for both programs of what each could create against the other.

"We've got a huge challenge," Swinney said. "Boston College is a really tough, hard-nosed, well-coached football team that I think has had a heck of a year. This will be a major challenge for us. We're excited about it and looking for it. This team is built like us as far as they know who they are, just like we know who we are. There's a lot of veteran leadership and experience on both sides of the ball. We're kind of mirror images of each other. We're both very prideful groups."

There's a huge difference in sports between potential and reality. Potential creates excitement because of what can be. Reality creates excitement because of what is. The gap is bridged by the actual performance between the lines on Saturday.

Here's what to watch for between Boston College and Clemson:

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Weekly Storylines

Punch the clock

Getting into a shootout or track meet with Clemson is a recipe for disaster. The Tigers are too good on both sides of the ball, and attempting to outrun both the offense and defense is asking for an unsustainable pace. They just scored 240 points in the last four games, including 77 last week against Louisville, and they barely broke a sweat doing it. So attempting to outrun an incredibly fast team is to invite the same potential into Alumni Stadium.

Instead, expect BC to adhere to its football fundamentals to control the clock and drag this game out. The Eagles can go no-huddle and introduce tempo, but that tempo has to be controlled. They held the ball for over eight minutes in the first quarter and seven minutes in the third but surrendered 10 minute possession times in the second and fourth a year ago. Unsurprisingly, Clemson scored all its points in the second and fourth.

"It is a trench game," Steve Addazio said. "We are going to have to play really well up front. We are going to have to have the ability to run the football. We are going to have to be smart and we are going to have to get hats on hats and move the front a little bit. Very few people have had the good fortune of being able to do that to them. No one has done it on a consistent basis, that's for sure."

That creates responsibility for one of the most consistent offensive lines in college football. BC has held opponents to only 1.56 sacks per game, and it has helped create an incredibly efficient rushing and passing balance. Pro Football Focus graded out the line as the fifth best in the conference after eight weeks, led by a unit where four players all average a grade over 70.0. It creates the core of the formations that will shift and change around it, something that cannot be understated against a defensive front with over 30 sacks that ranks sixth in the nation against the run.

"You're going to see a lot of 12- and 13-personnels, so two tight ends in the ballgame," Dabo Swinney said. "It's a well-coordinated offense. They will stress you big time with all their action game, the boots and swap boots, the pop passes. They do an excellent job from top to bottom on this offensive side."

When Opportunity Comes Knockin'

Dabo Swinney knows what Boston College's defense is capable of doing to his offense. The Tigers had 482 yards in last year's game because Travis Etienne helped the Tigers run for 164 yards on 21 carries in the fourth quarter. Prior to that, they only had 269 yards on 57 plays, a complete balance against BC's 201 yards on 53 plays.

"You look at our game last year, and it was 7-7 in the fourth quarter," Swinney said. "We popped a couple of big plays on them and were able to get control of the game, but every yard is a tough, dirty yard against BC. They make you earn everything."

There's a direct route to beating the Clemson offense, and it's a blueprint that might already be in Chestnut Hill. The Tigers are going to make plays and get yards, so stopping them altogether is off the table. Instead, defenses need to come up with big, opportunistic plays at the right time.

Kelly Bryant completed 17-of-26 passes last year but only for 140 yards, one less net yard than Anthony Brown. He completed six passes to Hunter Renfrow, a possession-type receiver, but the Eagles limited Milan Richard and Ray-Ray McCloud to a combined five catches for 17 yards. The defense had two interceptions, including one by Lukas Denis, and sacked Bryant once. The Eagles also forced two fumbles, though they didn't recover either of them.

"They've always been really stout and good in the front seven," Swinney said. "But the back group, their safeties and corners, are athletic...guys that can run and guys that can cover. And they ask them to cover. They'll mix up their coverages and play some zone and some man, but I think they're very well-coordinated as far as how they game plan week in and week out, to attack what you do best."

No team can play absolutely perfect in a given game, including Clemson. At some point, a pass is going to be off its mark or a blocker will miss an assignment. A receiver will arrive at a spot a split second too early or too late. It happens in every game to every team, but the difference with Clemson is its ability to limit those mistakes. A missed assignment can be covered by another lineman, for example, who picks up the block. A receiver can accelerate to the ball when he's behind it or can reach back for the pass with agility. That's where BC has to reside - in those margins - since Clemson's offense will, for the most part, be able to get theirs.

"It's really difficult," Steve Addazio said. "On top of it, we're not talking about how good their offensive line is. I'm a line guy, and I've always been impressed with the level of coaching that happens with their offensive line. I think they're fundamentally good. You just see a really talented, well-rounded offense full of very good players with a very good scheme, and they're coached well."

Assume the Mantle, Superfans.

There's a terminal in Boston's Logan Airport where each sports championship won by the four professional sports teams hangs on the wall. It's kind of an embarrassment of riches, and I've always chuckled because I thought it was an "in your face" kind of way to welcome people to our city. To me, it's our unapologetic way of saying, "Welcome to Boston. Your teams won't beat ours." or "Thanks for coming to Boston. Hope that loss didn't hurt too bad."

Saturday presents an opportunity for Boston College's transcendence out of a college football niche and into the Boston sports lexicon. It's an opportunity to welcome the Boston sports community back into the fold, while creating new potential fans who want to experience another sports thrill or high produced by the Red Sox, the Patriots, the Bruins or the Celtics.

"We want to join the party," Lukas Denis said. "It comes with hard work. Those are all championship teams, and if we want to be there, we have to keep our head down and progress."

ESPN College GameDay is in town, providing the impetus for BC to transform into the center of both the college football and Boston city sports world. The GameDay set has become even more of a cultural phenomenon in the social media age as the signs became Twitter and Facebook icons. Lee Corso's headgear pick is its own beast at the end of the show, and it's become an experience to watch social media weigh in just as heavily as the masses around the country.

"There's a lot of winning here," Tommy Sweeney added. "We have to earn our spot our here. We try not to think about it with all of our stuff, but there's a lot of love for all of those teams. If we want to get that love for ourselves, we have to show up and earn something like this."

It's become a jumping-off point for athletic director Martin Jarmond, who worked as hard as anybody to create an atmosphere for fans to electrify. He's been highly visible in his work to extend tailgating hours, and he's done everything the fans have asked. On Saturday, he's helped create a scenario for the city to show the world that Boston will embrace the Eagles on the world's stage.

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They Said It

"There's a lot more people focused or interested in football and want to come out to the games. I think it's cool for the school to have those people come out and support us." -Lukas Denis

"That's nice of him. He's a great coach. That's a nice thing to say." -Tommy Sweeney on Dabo Swinney calling him the "best tight end" Clemson will face.

"If they're not playing on the field on Saturday, they're on a scout team, helping our team out." -Connor Strachan

"We heard you. Four hours, extended tailgating. But I need you in the stadium by 8:00. We're going to start the process of moving everybody, half hour before, to make sure Alumni Stadium is rocking before kick." -Martin Jarmond, in a tweet sent on Wednesday.

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Meteorology 101

Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence admitted this week that he had never been north of Virginia, and he talked about how "awful" the climate was when he played a high school game in 40 degree sleet and wind. He might not want to look at the forecast for Boston this weekend, then, because he's leaving the King's Landing climate of South Carolina for Winterfell.

Rain on Friday overnight will clear out and leave Boston with a considerably seasonal day on Saturday. It'll remain cloudy, but temperatures will hit 50 degrees with gusting winds that will pick off whatever leaves are left on the trees. The early-arriving sunset will chill the ground early, meaning temperatures will drop down to the 30s by kickoff.

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Scoreboard Watching

The ACC bowl selection order specifies that the league champion automatically earns a bid to the New Year's Six and, in particular, the Orange Bowl. Because the ACC champion made the CFP each season, the Orange Bowl automatically selected the second-highest ACC team in the rankings.

This year, the Orange Bowl is part of the CFP, so the league isn't assured of a second New Year's Six autobid, which I originally thought was the case. A second team can be selected to either the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl or the Playstation Fiesta Bowl, which are not part of the playoff rotation this year, but would need to go as an at-large selection.

After the New Year's Six bowl games are filled, the Camping World Bowl has the first pick. All remaining teams slot into the Tier One games at the Belk Bowl, the New Era Pinstripe Bowl, the Hyundai Sun Bowl and either the Music City Bowl or the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. Additional bowls are then available at the Military Bowl, Independence Bowl, Quick Lane Bowl and either the Gasparilla Bowl or the Heart of Dallas Bowl. The ACC used to absorb the Citrus Bowl if a Big Ten team went to the Orange Bowl, but because the Orange Bowl is in the CFP, that can't happen this year.

BC can finish no worse than 4-4 in conference play but haven't clinched any bowl slot entering this weekend because Duke and either Georgia Tech or Miami can still finish with three league losses. The Yellow Jackets play the Hurricanes this weekend, while Duke plays a rivalry game against North Carolina.

There's also the matter of Syracuse breathing down BC's neck in the Atlantic Division, something reflected in the College Football Playoff rankings. No. 13 Syracuse hosting Louisville. Falling a game back in the division was No. 14 NC State, which fell in the final minute to Wake Forest on home on Thursday night and now sits at 3-3 in the league.

In the Coastal Division, Pittsburgh hosts Virginia Tech to decide the frontrunner for the ACC Championship after the Hokies lost to BC last week. That's a 3:30 p.m. kickoff from Heinz Field, which will likely be under the microscope after the cold rains soak its grass surface on Friday.

Non-conference games will also begin impacting the ACC bowl selection process. Florida State plays at No. 3 Notre Dame this weekend. If the Fighting Irish fall out of the New Year's Six process, they fall into the ACC bowl selection wheel. Virginia is also playing Liberty a week after a loss to Pitt knocked it out of first place in the Coastal Division. The Cavaliers have six wins, so any win elevates them into that Tier One consideration.

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Pregame Quote & Prediction

This is the out you've been waiting your whole life for. -Jake Taylor, "Major League"

I believe in a very direct route to beating Clemson. A team can't try to match the Tigers yard-for-yard or point-for-point because that's just asking to be blown out. Instead, a team that can effectively attack Clemson with the right style of play is the team that has the chance to defeat the Tigers.

What makes it so difficult is Clemson's ability to change styles. The running game can explode if the passing game isn't moving, and Trevor Lawrence is capable of throwing for buckets of yards. So a team has to be able to control the pace against the defense while picking its spots against the offense. Even then, the odds likely favor the Tigers, which in turn allows the Eagles to play the entire game with no fear.

AJ Dillon's health is obviously a factor, but I believe that Boston College can look at last year's game because it was before Dillon became the starting running back. He finished that game with 18 carries for 57 yards, but BC matched his production with other backs doing little things well. The Eagles have a number of other options if Dillon can't go.

Everyone at Boston College waited for this game for almost a decade. The city is the center of the college football universe because the Eagles earned the right to be here. That indicates people believe they can compete with the Tigers. Statistics might favor Clemson, but on Saturday, there's still a game to be played. Sure, there's potential, but the team that can grab the brass ring is the one that will alter what potential might say about its reality.

The No. 17 Boston College Eagles will play the No. 2 Clemson Tigers at Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill on Saturday night at 8 p.m. The game can be seen on ABC with Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Maria Taylor on the call and can be heard on the BC IMG Sports Network on WEEI 93.7 FM with Jon Meterparel, Pete Cronan and Scott Mutryn on the call.

Prior to that, ESPN's College GameDay will air live from 9 a.m. to noon ET on ESPN from Boston College's Stokes Lawn. Parking is available in the Beacon St. Garage free of charge beginning at 7 a.m., though all vehicles must be removed from the garage by 1 p.m. or be subject to towing. Parking lots open for assigned tailgating beginning at 4 p.m.

Boston College Athletics

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Anthony Brown

Lukas Denis

AJ Dillon

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Tommy Sweeney

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