W2WF: Clemson (2005)

Last week's game was always going to feel like a Super Bowl for Boston College's football program. A ranked Eagle squad hosted Florida State, a traditional powerhouse on the national scene, under a crystal-clear Boston night sky. A national television audience brought ESPN's College GameDay roadshow to campus for the event and generated a party atmosphere unlike anything the city ever felt during its Big East days.

The big game translated to a Daytona 500-like atmosphere because the "Super Bowl" kicked off BC's new Atlantic Coast Conference slate. The pageantry added to the game by igniting a frothy crowd, and it reimaged the Eagles to a new conference after the dragged-out controversy surrounding their exit from a halcyon era. The Seminoles won the game, but it was almost secondary to the significance of the ACC letters painted on the Alumni Stadium turf.

"I (felt) like a kid at Christmas," athletic director Gene DeFilippo said. "I (had) to pinch myself because we've been waiting for Christmas to come for so long, and now we're going to come down the stairs to see if Santa really did come."

The game released pent-up emotions, but the game's conclusion doesn't totally allow for a gradual cooling because this season is a series of firsts. The first conference game was also the first home game, and this week, BC heads on the road for its first ACC game away from Chestnut Hill when it visits Clemson.

"I think this is going to be fun," senior defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka said. "This is what college football is all about. You want to go down and you want to play in these great storied stadiums."

Clemson is one of the ACC's most traditional programs. It has won a conference championship in at least every decade in league history, save for the current era that's only five years old. It won the 1981 national championship with a perfect 12-0 record under head coach Danny Ford and finished tied for second over a two-year span at the turn of the new century.

The long run of success built a very rich and incredibly thick college football tradition. It turned Memorial Stadium into one of the NCAA's holiest cathedrals where over 80,000 fans spell their school's name. Two years ago, the Tigers defeated No. 3 Florida State behind a stadium filled with orange-clad supporters who eat, sleep, and breathe Clemson football.

Here's what else to watch for in this week's game:

****
Weekly Storylines

Can Porter play?

Quinton Porter knows how to weather a quarterback controversy. Two years ago, Paul Peterson supplanted him for the starting job and played well enough to enter 2004 as the incumbent No. 1 player. It led to Porter's redshirt season with the intention of turning back to Brian St. Pierre's former heir apparent for this season.

For three games, everything went according to plan. Porter completed well over 70 percent of his passes through the Florida State game and showed trademark efficiency with five touchdowns to one interception. His chemistry with both Will Blackmon and Larry Lester was especially apparent and offered a completely different look to the two-headed monster of L.V. Whitworth and Andre Callender.

But Porter is once again under fire as the starting quarterback, this time because of his medical report. He injured his ankle last week against FSU, and head coach Tom O'Brien ruled him as a game-time decision for Clemson.

"It's not all there - no way," Porter said of his ankle. "All in all, from where I've been and how far I've come this week, it feels great."

Porter's a warrior, but he's absolutely up against the wall. His backup, Matt Ryan, took the majority of first team snaps in practice this week and has starting experience after playing against Syracuse last year. Like Porter, he's completed over 70 percent of his passes, but displays more of an explosiveness out of his hand. He's clearly got raw talent, but his propensity for throwing interceptions last year against the Orange overshadowed his command of the offense.

It creates a difficult decision for O'Brien. Every decision over the past two years dropped this season into Porter's lap, and no coach wants to hand the ball in Death Valley to an untested rookie prospect. Ryan might offer tantalizing tools, but BC will be without both Jason Lilly and Ryan Purvis this week. The best bet is likely to roll with experience unless Porter absolutely cannot go against the Tigers.

"You don't want to put him in a position where he can hurt himself further and hurt the team," O'Brien said.

Crack the rock.

The Clemson offense only further complicates matters because quarterback Charlie Whitehurst kept the Tigers in a neck-and-neck race with Miami last week. He went 31-of-55 for 288 yards and two touchdowns against the Hurricanes, and his five-yard strike to Curtis Baham in overtime extended the game into a second session.

Whitehurst is a lethal threat capable of lighting up defenses, and this season marks his third year as the Clemson starter. Two years ago, he took over as a sophomore and promptly threw for a program-record 3,561 yards. His 21 touchdowns matched a record set by his predecessor, Woody Dantzler, and it created a career arc that ends in the NFL.

Whitehurst's numbers torpedoed last year, but he's returned to form in the first three games this year. He threw nine incompletions in the first two games against Texas A&M and Maryland without an interception, and last week put him close to 300 yards for the first time since 2003.

He's going to be a good test for the same pass defense that rallied last week against Drew Weatherford. Florida State scored twice in the first six minutes of the first quarter last week, and Weatherford finished the game with 231 yards and two scores. His 20 completions spread the ball around to seven different pass catchers, and three finished with four receptions, including identical 53-yard games from Chris Davis and De'Cody Fagg.

Whitehurst is likely going to try to put up those numbers, but he's also capable of extending to a higher ceiling. That's a buyer beware type of scenario on the BC defense in a much different environment in South Carolina.

Tiger Den.

Boston College fans are going to be introduced to one of college football's great moments this week when the Clemson Tigers touch Howard's Rock before running down the hill into Memorial Stadium.

The tradition dates back to the 1960s when a friend of head coach Frank Howard presented him with a rock. The rock eventually found its way to a pedestal atop the hill that the team ran down before games. In 1966, before a game against Virginia, Howard told his players to "give me 110 percent or keep your filthy hands off my rock." It turned the rock into a legend, and now, players touch "Howard's Rock" before thundering down the hill.

"I've heard the fans are unbelievable," Mathias Kiwanuka said of the intimidation tactic. "I'm definitely looking forward to it. It'll be hard not to get excited for this game."

This entire first season carries unknown elements into every game because the Eagles have flimsy links, at best, with barely a few of their conference opponents this year. They played Wake Forest in non-conference games over the past two years and drew North Carolina in the bowl game last season, but the bulk of the ACC, including the rest of the Atlantic Division, is new. Nobody knows anything about BC - and vice-versa - outside of the protected Coastal Division crossover game against Virginia Tech.

That newness isn't always a good thing because it goes both ways. BC can't be fazed by Memorial Stadium and the southern charm, but Clemson can't overlook the Eagles as an also-ran that fell into a golden ticket ride into the ACC. There will always be fans, players, coaches and staff members who believe BC doesn't belong in the conference. The only way to decisively end the conversation is by urgently beating one of those programs.

"We've got to have a short memory because every ACC team we play, each week, is good," Ray Henderson said. "Hopefully, they're still thinking about their loss and not focused on us, but we can't rely on that. We've got to play our game and do what we've got to do and take it from there."

*****
Scoreboard Watching

I always said that the Red Sox winning the World Series last year meant I couldn't complain about anything that happened during this baseball season. Everyone told me it would never happen, but the Boston Red Sox, the team with a century's worth of heartbreak, broke the Curse of the Bambino and did the impossible by rallying past the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals.

I can't complain, but I'm still going to dial in this weekend as the baseball season nears a close. The Red Sox enter the weekend with a one-game deficit to the Yankees for the AL East division race and another one-game deficit in the loss column to Cleveland for the Wild Card race. They've been a horrendous team on the road this year, but they still have a fighting shot at the postseason.

The AL East has been decidedly mediocre this year; nobody is within 15 games of the two teams up top, but it's conceivably possible a 90-win team will miss the postseason because Cleveland is chasing Chicago in the AL Central. I'm comparing this to the NL West, where a team under .500 might make the playoffs. I'm not really sure what to say about that, other than that in an era where curses don't matter, I can totally see a team under .500 meet the White Sox in the World Series.

The White Sox haven't won a World Series since 1917 and have been to one championship round since the 1919 Black Sox scandal. I'd hate to be a Cubs fan if the South Siders pull off the impossible and shatter their own curse one year after the Red Sox knocked out an 86-year nightmare. Let's face it, Cubs fans: you're probably never going to see it happen.

*****
Now, back to College Football

The BC-Clemson game is the early-day appetizer to a real treat in the ACC when No. 4 Virginia Tech squares off with No. 15 Georgia Tech at 3:30 p.m. The Hokies won the ACC last year in their first season in the league and haven't lost a regular season game in almost a full calendar year since last September's NC State game. They waxed Ohio last week, 45-0, for their second consecutive shutout after replicating the scoreboard against Duke. Georgia Tech, meanwhile, is coming off of a 28-13 win over Connecticut and earlier defeated the same Auburn team that beat Tech in last year's Sugar Bowl.

Elsewhere, No. 12 Miami hosts Colorado in a non-league game while No. 23 Virginia plays Duke in an ACC Coastal Division matchup. North Carolina plays its in-state rivalry game against NC State at noon, and Maryland heads to Wake Forest at 3:30 p.m.

In other national action, No. 1 USC at No. Oregon and the SEC powerhouses - No. 5 Florida and No. 7 Georgia - host Kentucky and Mississippi State, respectively. No. 20 Alabama hosts Arkansas.

On the local radar, Harvard defends its Ivy League crown against Brown in an early-season mega-matchup capable of determining the league championship. The Crimson only beat the Bears, 35-34, last year en route to a perfect season, arguably their worst game save for the Dartmouth game in New Hampshire.

In high school news, shoutout to Bridgewater-Raynham High School for ending Acton-Boxboro's 52-game winning streak yesterday. It was the Colonials' first loss since a Week One defeat to Chelmsford to start the 2001 season and ended a streak that began with a win against B-R in Week Two.

It overshadowed Brockton's win over Xaverian for its 700th all-time victory. The Boxers, a prohibitive favorite to win the Division I state championship, plays St. John's Prep next week as they continue their run through the prestigious Catholic Conference schools.

*****
Pregame Quote and Prediction

Destiny is calling me. Open up my eager eyes. - The Killers, "Mr. Brightside"

The Killers released this one in 2003, but it's still probably one of my personal favorites. It's one of those songs I can sing at the top of my lungs with a group of friends, and it feels like one I'll probably be screaming for the next 20 years or so until I finally grow too old to acceptably do it in public.

Last week's game against Florida State felt like a crowning achievement for BC. The Eagles somewhat survived their last year in the Big East right up until the final week and finally earned the right to turn the page under a national spotlight. They left their old world behind and assumed a mantle as one of the ACC's programs. It was a relief and a sigh, even though the outcome went against the maroon and gold.

This week is all about football, pure and simple. Clemson is a magical stadium with great people, and the Tigers represent one of the ACC's truest blue-blood programs. This is the perfect contrast of an old-world, southern football program against a new-school, northern-based team. It's the perfect culture clash of the new ACC, one envisioned by commissioner John Swofford when he sought to raid the Big East for a lucrative conference championship game.

BC's destiny is to eventually knock off one of these teams, but it sure would be great if the Eagles could do it sooner rather than later. A longer timeline invariably will generate further questions, so this game is as close to a must-win as it gets. There's still a hunt for a division title, even with a loss, but it needs to start now in one of college football's holiest cathedrals.

Boston College Athletics

Related News

Related Videos