2007 record: 11-3, 6-2 (Atlantic Division champs)
Returning starters: Offense 6, Defense 6.
Quarterback?: No. Matt Ryan was the third overall pick (Atlanta) in the NFL Draft.
Avoid in the ACC: UVa, Duke, Miami
Coaching situation: Jeff Jagodzinski enters Year 2 but really he's starting over without Ryan, the ACC Player of the Year. The cupboard is not completely bare but the real world, and work, begins for Jags.
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Spring issues: If Steve Logan can do anything, it's find and coach-up a quarterback and the Eagles' offensive coordinator has had a year to work with senior Chris Crane, who'll likely to start ahead of juco transfer Codi Boek or redshirt freshmen Dominique Davis and Chris Johnson.
Obviously, Crane won't be able to duplicate Ryan's numbers — 4,507 passing yards and 31 touchdowns — nor will he have his grasp of the offense but if Logan's track record is any indicator, he'll be competent. Crane has good size at 6-4, 240 and he's from a good town for a quarterback — Mechanicsburg, Pa. — but little experience for a senior. He threw four passes in 2007, which, given the number of blowouts BC enjoyed last season, is low and should raise flags about the coaching staff's intentions for Crane. He did start a game in 2006, as a sophomore, completing 17 of 26 passes in a 41-0 win over a pathetic, Duke-like Buffalo program.
BC, albeit a different coaching staff, has had luck going the juco route before in finding Paul Peterson, a two-year starter from 2003 to 2004. Boek, 6-3 and 220 pounds, began his college career at Idaho State, which doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.
The Eagles are counting on freshman Josh Haden, a January enrollee, to assume the running back responsibilities of the departed Andre Callender and L.V. Whitworth, who combined for 302 of the team's 335 carries by running backs. Callender also led the team with 76 receptions.
Defensively, the Eagles lost senior playmakers safety Jamie Silva (eight interceptions), corner DeJuan Tribble and linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar. That trio was as important to BC's 11-win season as Ryan.
They lost another expected starter at the end of April, when defensive end Brady Smith was kicked off the team for an on-campus sexual assault charge.
The good news is senior linebacker Brian Toal, who missed last season with a medical redshirt (shoulder), returns as does defensive tackle B.J. Raji, who was academically ineligible. That gives the Eagles a boost of leadership and talent but they will be hard-pressed to produce as many takeaways (33) as last year's defense.
Fall outlook: Motivation will be Jags' best friend. The Eagles, division champs a year ago, will likely be picked to finish last in the Atlantic. Disrespect can go a long way for a team, especially for a program that has been as successful as BC, which has won eight straight bowl games.
Even a fired-up Eagles team will be hard-pressed to win six games and get to a bowl to continue their impressive streak. The schedule starts soft with a neutral site game against Kent State (at Cleveland) and then three home games — a rebuilding Georgia Tech, a rebuilding Central Florida and I-AA Rhode Island. They should start no worse than 3-1.
Then business picks up. The Eagles will be underdogs in six of their final eight games (they'll be favored at home against Maryland and Notre Dame). They get both conference favorites — Clemson and Virginia Tech — at home but both teams will be looking to repay 2007 regular-season defeats.
The Eagles have to travel to N.C. State, UNC, Florida State and Wake — all coin-toss games. You'd rather have your coin-toss games at home and sure-losses (Clemson in particular) on the road.
With a new quarterback, new running back, the same mediocre receivers and new defensive leaders, BC will be lucky to prove the preseason prognosticators wrong.
2007 record: 9-4, 5-3
Returning starters: Offense 7, Defense 8.
Quarterback?: Yes. Senior Cullen Harper (27 TDs, 6 INTs).
Avoid in the ACC: UNC, Va. Tech, Miami
Coaching situation: Tommy Bowden has won 62 percent of his games (69-42) in nine seasons at Clemson but he has yet to deliver an ACC title or BCS bowl bid, despite having the talent to do so in 2006 and 2007. If Clemson doesn't win the ACC this year, as the heavy favorite in a weak league, Bowden might never and he might not get another chance. That seems like hyperbole but that's life at the ACC's only true pressure-cooker of a program.
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Spring issues: In quarterback Cullen Harper, running back James Davis (1,064 rushing yards), running back C.J. Spiller (768 rushing yards), receiver Jacoby Ford (1,723 all-purpose yards) and receiver Austin Kelly (88 catches, 1,081 receiving yards), the Tigers have the best playmakers in the ACC by a wide margin and as good as a set of returning skill players as any team north of Gainesville. The mystery is who'll do the blocking. Center Thomas Austin is the only returning starter from the offensive line.
Not that Spiller, Ford or Davis, who entered the draft and then changed his mind, need much more than a screen block to get loose. The Tigers scored a school-record 430 points in 2007 and that number is in jeopardy if the offensive line situation can be settled before the Aug. 30 kickoff vs. Alabama.
The early departure of end Philip Merling (second-round pick) does give Bowden pause but end Ricky Sapp, a future first-round pick, and safety Michael Hamlin lead a group of eight starters on a unit which ranked 10th in the country in scoring defense (18.7 points per game) and ninth in total defense (306.8 yards per game).
Fall outlook: Bowden would really have to screw it up to not win the ACC. The league is being served on a platter to the Tigers, who have only two potential pitfalls on the schedule — Thursday night (Oct. 9) at Wake Forest and at Florida State (Nov. 8). Clemson would have to try, I mean actually throw games, to finish worse than 6-2 in the ACC.
There isn't another team in the ACC that can keep up with Clemson's offense. One of Clemson's problems has been padding their stats against lesser nonconference teams and then slowing down against the ACC.
That won't be a problem because their nonconference schedule presents the bigger challenge with two SEC tests — the opener vs. Alabama, the SEC West favorite, and the closer against South Carolina.
How Clemson handles the two SEC teams will go a long way in determining how the rest of the world views the ACC.
Knowing Bowden and Clemson's post-FSU history in the ACC, they'll invent a way to screw it up but it's going to have to be spectacular and beyond the realm of Bowden's imagination.
