App picked as 28 pt dog to Clemson

[asutrnr81]

We're now discussing the team's attitude, but I guarantee you that Iron Mike has been pumping attitude since day one in S&C training. Being fit to play includes mental outlook and Iron Mike is a motivator. I know that our players are thinking Clemson every rep in the weigh room. Every record set in the weight room, every record set in speed drills come from the attitude that we can not only compete with Clemson, but we can beat them. App State will win on Sept 12th, but it will be close.

'71 I think you are on to something here. When you look into the mirror and see a 6'2" 185 pound guy that can bench 225 8 times and you just won 6 straight games in your conference and the "new" strength comes in and says you are weak and 8 months later you look into that same mirror, and you see a 6'2" 195 pound guy who can now bench 225 18 times (and you are faster on the field and you "feel" different) and your strength coach was in the SEC, and you start to think in the back of your mind, (He told us we were going to work out like they do in the SEC and you like what you feel, see and hear....you start thinking differently....self confidence makes a huge difference.

I am not saying yet that App is going to go into Death Valley and beat Clempson, but I am at least saying they are going to know who we are, and that we came to play. IF we get a couple of breaks it could be real interesting.....at this point I think 28 points is a safe bet!

[AppState1]

http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/297749 ... 015-season

[appmaj]

http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/297749 ... 015-season

Their injury situation may become a story. Especially after the Wofford game

[AtlAppMan]

Apparently we will be facing the country's best cornerback though.

http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/8 ... cornerback

Our team needs to take this as a challenge to show we can make plays against the best.

[moehler]

Clemson seems to be alittle "snake bit" so far this year, they lost almost all their defensive starters to the NFL or graduation, had some kids they were counting on this year kicked off the team during the summer, and this week they lost for the season, perhaps their best linebacker. I bet Dabo cant wait to get this season started.

[Appsolutely]

http://www.underdogdynasty.com/2015/8/1 ... tball-2015

[EastHallApp]

http://www.underdogdynasty.com/2015/8/1 ... tball-2015

Fans of irony will enjoy point #1 in that piece.

[NewApp]

If we lose by 28 points, regardless of the orange home cooking officials, I'm a monkey's uncle.

[T-Dog]

Another two-deep loss for Clemson. This time at Sam LB.

http://www.tigernet.com/update/player/C ... ball-20046

[NewApp]

Another two-deep loss for Clemson. This time at Sam LB.

http://www.tigernet.com/update/player/C ... ball-20046

It's looking better for us everyday it seems!!!

[AppState2014]

Another two-deep loss for Clemson. This time at Sam LB.

http://www.tigernet.com/update/player/C ... ball-20046

Not a huge loss. Their coaching staff seems to love Jalen Williams and Kendall Joseph. Both of them were very good high school players. I'm not trying to be a downer because I think we should challenge for the SBC title but I see us as a 65-80 type FBS team and I think Clemson is a top 15 team. They are the only team we SHOULD lose to for sure with 2-3 others that are tossups in my mind. I expect to win 8-10 games but still don't see Clemson as one of those unless they lose 2 or 3 preseason All-ACC defenders and their QB. They have a lot of skill position weapons and plenty of speed on defense.

[moehler]

agree we probably aren't going to win this game, Clemson offense should be one the best in the country this year, and as good as our defense is, its going to be real tough to hold them under 35, but, that doesn't mean we cant scare the hell out of them, there defense is probably going to struggle early in the season, and it would disappointing if we didn't hang atleast 3 tds on them, and 350 plus yds of offense. I don't think we will be intimidated, and I think we will play well, just don't think, yet, we have enough talent to keep up with them.

[NewApp]

agree we probably aren't going to win this game, Clemson offense should be one the best in the country this year, and as good as our defense is, its going to be real tough to hold them under 35, but, that doesn't mean we cant scare the hell out of them, there defense is probably going to struggle early in the season, and it would disappointing if we didn't hang atleast 3 tds on them, and 350 plus yds of offense. I don't think we will be intimidated, and I think we will play well, just don't think, yet, we have enough talent to keep up with them.

Unless, god forbid, Lamb or Cox get hurt, we may not win, but we surely won't lose by 28 to 35. Clemson has lost a lot of players due to discipline, academics, graduation, and attrition. They basically have the same 85 athletic scholarships as we do. The Belt may not be as strong as the ACC, but we beat at least a couple really good teams last year.

[Saint3333]

If you think we can keep it close you have to also believe that we can rush for over 200 yards on them, that is the key.

[WVAPPeer]

I will say the same thing for Clemson as I told the Michigan fans on the bus going to The Big House - "If we can move the ball on you guys and put up some points, it could be a good game" - Teams just don't shut down the offenses of these Top 10 teams, so we have to score points - a 14 up to 28 point loss would not surprise me - over 28 would surprise me negatively and under 14 would surprise me favorably ---

[mtnjax]

While I think App should be able to cover 28, if healthy we will be playing against quite possibly the best QB an App team has ever faced. Perhaps I'm missing someone.

I will take this time to point out that Devin Stringer was a HS teammate of Watson, so maybe he knows where his weaknesses are and can help our coaches gameplan

[Rekdiver]

I know what we are capable of. I won't know anything about Clemson until they play Wofford. The is a reason Clemson is picked to win the Atlantic Division.

[AppState2014]

agree we probably aren't going to win this game, Clemson offense should be one the best in the country this year, and as good as our defense is, its going to be real tough to hold them under 35, but, that doesn't mean we cant scare the hell out of them, there defense is probably going to struggle early in the season, and it would disappointing if we didn't hang atleast 3 tds on them, and 350 plus yds of offense. I don't think we will be intimidated, and I think we will play well, just don't think, yet, we have enough talent to keep up with them.

Unless, god forbid, Lamb or Cox get hurt, we may not win, but we surely won't lose by 28 to 35. Clemson has lost a lot of players due to discipline, academics, graduation, and attrition. They basically have the same 85 athletic scholarships as we do. The Belt may not be as strong as the ACC, but we beat at least a couple really good teams last year.

We don't have the same roster. They probably have 10 starters who will get drafted. We maybe have 2 or 3 over the next 3 years. Remember that we offered many of their players and did not get them. Look at that article talking about Rogers going down. Jalen Williams was a big time target for us and a player who would have started for 4 years yet he was slated behind a 4-star starter and was not suppose to see snaps as a starter there until 2016, at the earliest. Jalen had a full ride and was a high priority while he chose Clemson over us despite them offering him a greyshirt. They also had a WR from SC who chose a greyshirt with them over a full ride from us. None of our scholarship players were even offered by them coming out of high school.

The Sun Belt is nowhere near as strong as the ACC and they are picked to win the ACC. The 1st SBC team isn't ranked until the 80s in the Sagarin while the lowest ranked AC team is 8 spots ahead of us. We are 104 and Wake Forest is 96. With that said, I do think we could beat 3 ACC teams but we still don't have the starter and depth quality of a team like ACC anywhere except RB.

The big difference between us and Clemson is if we lose a starter then there is a drop off but if they lose one they just replace him with one pretty much as good. I expect us to finish in the top 3 in the SBC all I expect against Clemson is for us to come in and score a couple times and continue to get the kinks out of our system so we are ready for the SBC schedule. I love my team but I don't want to look at things in a delusional, black and gold glasses way. We are getting better and we have a good SBC team but we still have a ways to go before we can expect to compete with top 5 ACC caliber programs. I don't think Clemson beats us by 35 points but I expect to lose by around 20 points.

[AppState2014]

I will say the same thing for Clemson as I told the Michigan fans on the bus going to The Big House - "If we can move the ball on you guys and put up some points, it could be a good game" - Teams just don't shut down the offenses of these Top 10 teams, so we have to score points - a 14 up to 28 point loss would not surprise me - over 28 would surprise me negatively and under 14 would surprise me favorably ---

I feel the same way you do on the point spread here. I'm more focused on us becoming the best team in the SBC, a bottom 3 FBS league, before we expect to beat the favorite in a top 4 FBS league.

Anyone here who says we have a shot to beat Clemson must have us going 11-1 since nobody else on our schedule is even in the top 70 in Sagarin. Expecting Scott to go 11-1 and possibly knock off the preseason ACC champ while entering his 3rd year, with a career losing record because of slow starts, is a big reach. That would mean if we win 9 or less they feel we underachieved in a big way. I'm not ready to put that type of pressure on Scott. It's not fair to him or our staff or players. I think it's fair to expect 9-3 or 10-2 with a top 2 finish in the SBC.

[moehler]

Saints right, the key to keeping it close and respectable is somehow establishing a run game, our goal on every possession is to eat up 4 or 5 minutes of the clock and to shorten the game. This is why Wofford almost always plays them tough, their talent isn't on the same level as ours, but their offense eats up so much of the clock, Clemson's offense spends a lot of time on the sidelines. I predict if we rush for over 175 yds, and keep the turnovers to a minimum, we will finish the game within 17 points, 130-170 rushing yds, 21-24 point spread, less than 100 we are going to get blown out.