Thursday, September 10
Clemson (1-0, 0-0 ACC) at #15 Georgia Tech (1-0, 0-0 ACC)
7:30 PM ESPN
Bobby Dodd Stadium at Grant Field (Natural Grass)
Sports.com Line: Georgia Tech -5.5, O/U 43

Opening night last Thursday went about as well for me as it did for Boise State’s Byron Hout, who was on the receiving end of a vicious right cross from Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount. Actually, that analogy doesn’t really work considering Hout and the Broncos won the game. Me? I didn’t win either of my games last Thursday and went to bed feeling like I had been decked by Mike Tyson. Not a great way to start the year.

That said, the great thing about sports is redemption is only a game, or two, away. So let’s turn the page on last Thursday take a look at this week’s game.

Both Clemson and Georgia Tech opened the 2009 season with a couple of cupcakes, the Tigers dumping Middle Tennessee State 37-14 and Georgia Tech handling Jacksonville State 37-17. The star running backs for both teams – Clemson’s C.J. Spiller and Georgia Tech’s Jonathan Dwyer – got in on the action right away. Spiller took the opening kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown while Dwyer scored on the first play from scrimmage against the Gamecocks, taking an option pitch 74 yards for a touchdown.

Spiller would later tweak his hamstring in the second quarter but all reports are that the a Heisman Trophy hopeful will be 100% for this game. Dwyer, who is also hoping to be considered for the Heisman, ended the day with 109 of the Jacket’s 335 rushing yards.

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Rest assured, both teams will face a considerable upgrade in competition this week.

For the home team, it all begins and ends with a vaunted rushing attack. G-Tech coach Paul Johnson has proven that he could take the unique triple option offensive system that was so successful at Navy and implement it at the next level of college football.

Dwyer, who needs just 74 more yards to become the 10th player in Tech history to run for 2,000, combines with fellow RB Roddy Jones to give the Ramblin’ Wreck a nice 1-2 punch in the backfield. QB Josh Nesbitt is a dual threat who can definitely burn a defense with his arm if they focus too much on the ground game.

Last year Nesbitt found WR Demaryius Thomas from 24 yards out with just 5:22 remaining to lead Georgia Tech to a 21-17 win at Death Valley as a slight favorite. Thomas is back this year and already off to a nice start as the 6-3 receiver went for over 100 yards against Jacksonville State.

On defense, the Jackets are led by All-American candidates DE Derrick Morgan and S Morgan Burnett, who will undoubtedly have one eye on the dangerous Spiller all night.

With all the focus on his star running back, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney knows his team will have to get contributions from other pieces of the offense to be successful. If Clemson hopes to win, some of those contributions will have to come from a star on the Tigers baseball team.

QB Kyle Parker is the first freshman quarterback to start a season opener at Clemson since 1945 and also just happens to be an all-ACC outfielder for the Tigers. Parker’s main target will be the dangerous WR Jacoby Ford, who is also a standout on the track team, as is Spiller.

Unlike Georgia Tech, where the focus is on offense, this Clemson team will only go as far as their defense takes them in 2009. The Clemson defense has been retooled as Vic Koenning is gone as the defensive coordinator, replaced by Kevin Steele who was most recently the d-coordinator at Alabama.

Last season this unit was fifth in the ACC in rush defense at 127.4 yards per game and did a serviceable job against the Yellow Jackets rush attack, limiting Dwyer and company to 207 yards on the ground, 66 under their season average.

Overall, Georgia Tech leads the ACC in returning starters with 10 on offense and 8 on defense while Clemson returns 7 on offense and 8 on defense.

Georgia Tech has won four of the last five against Clemson and leads the all-time series between these two schools with a 47-24-2 record. That said, it hasn’t been easy as the last 13 meetings, 10 have been decided by five points or fewer and from 1996-2001, all six games were decided by three points.

Georgia Tech is planning to stage a "Whiteout" for this Thursday’s game on ESPN. The last time they called for their fanbase to create a “Whiteout” the team responded by crushing Miami, 41-23.