Much of the credit for Clemson's turnaround this season goes to its offense. Let us count the ways.
During Clemson's current five-game winning streak -- the program's longest in three seasons -- the Tigers have scored at least 38 points in each game, a program first. During that span, Clemson has averaged 42 points per game, 425 total yards per game, 6.87 yards per play and 220 passing yards a game.
No wonder the Tigers, who had lost three of their first five games by a total of 10 points, are positioned to clinch their first trip to the ACC title game with a home victory Saturday against struggling Virginia.
Of course, Clemson's success on offense revolves around all-purpose back and Heisman Trophy hopeful C.J. Spiller. Spiller needs 103 all-purpose yards to break the ACC single-season record of 2,054, held by Virginia's Thomas Jones.
In last Saturday's victory over N.C. State, Spiller had a 16-yard touchdown run, caught a 34-yard scoring pass and threw a 17-yard touchdown to Xavier Dye, becoming the first Clemson player to do all three in one game.
Matt Daniels doesn't even want to think about the repercussions if Duke loses to North Carolina Central University on Saturday.
The two campuses are just five miles apart, and locals in Durham, N.C., have been chatting for months about whether the Eagles can compete against a Blue Devils team that already this season has lost to a Football Championship Subdivision school.
"A lot of heads are going to be turning," said Daniels, Duke's sophomore safety.
Yes, I understand that Wake Forest and *shudder* North Carolina are supposed to finish with good records and have dangerous teams (note that Carolina only beat McNeese St. by a touchdown). But still, Clemson, Tommy Bowden, Lightning, Thunder, Hope.
Or, at the very least, I think we all believed that maybe Tommy could take his team deep enough into the season with a high enough rank that the BCS berth they earned vis a vis the ACC title would seem legitimate. Okay, okay, fine. We knew that Clemson wouldn't be flat out embarrassed by Nick Saban and Alabama in Atlanta during week one.
Or, perhaps I'm delusional. Because Clemson got destroyed 34-10 by the Tide on Saturday night, in the ACC's third consecutive national television debacle of the first weekend of the college football season.
These last few months may have been nervous times for Clemson coach Tommy Bowden. Rumors surfaced a while back that star tailback C.J. Spiller was considering leaving the program to be closer to home. Those worries died down and are now a thing of the past as Spiller is on campus and enrolled in summer school.
Bowden seems unwilling to talk about it, but Spiller's situation may have come close to some serious intrigue.
Bowden said he's not naive enough to think Florida's coaches didn't contact Spiller and encourage him to leave the Tigers.
"But he's here, so there's no sense in stirring up anything," he said. "He's here and ready to go play football."
That's a polite way of saying that he doesn't trust the Florida coaching staff enough to have not tampered with a committed player at a time when he was uncertain about his future. Good luck getting anyone to talk about this.
That said, it's interesting that coach Bowden left the door open enough to send a warning shot to anyone considering tampering with Tiger players that he'll at least float your name to the press if he suspects wrongdoing.
Few things awe people more than the act of speed. I sit here writing this while the Daytona 500 plays out on my television screen, cars ripping across asphalt at nearly 200 miles an hour. The main event at the Olympic games is the 100 meter dash. In college football, our fastest players have quite often been amongst the most celebrated.
Reggie Bush and Adrian Peterson came along and spent three seasons simply running right by defenders. They gave way to Ted Ginn who capped his career with a kick return touchdown that was Ohio State's lone highlight in January's BCS Championship Game.
But now that those guys are gone, who is left to fill the void as captivating speedster?
For players already on college rosters, Clemson has two of the zoom zoomiest around in receiver/returner Jacoby Ford and tailback CJ Spiller, both sophomores. There are other players out there yet to make their mark and we'll be on the lookout for them. One such burner is Jamere Holland, a redshirt freshman receiver at USC who clocked somewhere in the 10.3 range in the 100 meters in high school.
Florida sophomore receiver Percy Harvin is also a superb choice, weaving expertly through defenses any time he so much as has a step on a defender. West Virginia junior tailback Steve Slaton has excellent speed and is a worthy candidate. Junior Arkansas tailback and Heisman Trophy runner-up Darren McFadden is an obvious selection here. Finally, there is junior Texas tailback Jamaal Charles who ran somewhere in the 10.2 range in high school and owns several long touchdown runs to his name.
Among incoming recruits, many people have made comparisons between Louisiana's Joe McKnight (a USC signee) and Reggie Bush, but McKnight is probably a step slower with a personal best of 10.71. There are some reports of him having clocked a 10.4, but I have yet to find anything legitimate and official backing that up. He's definitely a playmaker but I'm not sure he's quite in that class of guy who simply runs right by college defenders as Peterson and Bush and Ginn were able to do.
My nominee among this year's incoming freshmen to fill the speed vacuum would be tailback Jahvid Best, a 10.41 runner who has signed with California.
Noble reader: now that you've seen my list, I ask you now who else should be under consideration as an impact player with awe-inspiring speed? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Today's game against Bobby's son's Tigers should prove to be quite the challenge. Even coming off a loss to Boston College, Clemson has more than enough weapons to pull off the upset. There are several key points to focus on in order to be successful. The first is we must find a running game. I don't care how many people (Lee Corso, Bobby Bowden) will say you don't need one, if we don't fix this major problem, we will not make it out of the regular season where we want to be. If Lorenzo Booker and Antone Smith are given opportunities to make plays and aren't doing so, we can't be afraid to see what our more power based backs such as Jamaal Edwards and Matt Dunham can do in the second half. They certainly can't be less productive than what we've had so far. But like I said, Booker and Smith have to first be given opportunities. The next focus point is we have to be able to stop Clemson's trick plays. They will do a lot of quick WR screens, reverses, and maybe even have a RB or WR throw a pass once or twice. If we allow them to make a couple big plays off these, it could be a longer night than we wished for. Also in this category, KNOW WHERE CHANSI STUCKEY IS AT ALL TIMES. Another key is to slow down Clemson's running game. Between James Davis, Reggie Merriweather, and super recruit C.J. Spiller, the Tigers will be putting the ball in their hands early and often. We will be playing a lot more 3-4 defensive schemes with our many DT injuries so the linebackers will need to close gaps hard. There of course are other factors that will play big roles in determining who wins tonight's Bowden Bowl Whatever (Excuse me for losing count, or interest). I drove up to Tallahassee this weekend to take in the game atmosphere first hand so I'm expecting big things from our team. As long as we take care of the above points, I will be drving back to Tampa tomorrow satisfied. If we don't, Bobby's son will have taken 3 of the last 4 against his dad and the debate will surely heat up on who is currently the better Bowden coach.
Much of the credit for Clemson's turnaround this season goes to its offense. Let us count the ways. 
Matt Daniels doesn't even want to think about the repercussions if Duke loses to North Carolina Central University on Saturday. 
These last few months may have been nervous times for Clemson coach Tommy Bowden. Rumors surfaced a while back that star tailback C.J. Spiller was considering leaving the program to be closer to home. Those worries died down and are now a thing of the past as 
