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Clemson-Florida St. Preview
Clemson Tigers at Florida State Seminoles
- Florida State has a 17-8 advantage in the series with Clemson that dates to 1970, a 38-13 Florida State win in Tallahassee. While Florida State has the decisive all-time lead in the series, Clemson has won six of the last nine, including each of the last five games played at Clemson.
- This will be the ninth game in ACC history that has been a battle of top 10 teams according to the Associated Press poll. It will be the third involving Clemson. Twelve years ago, a 10th ranked Clemson traveled to a fourth-ranked Florida State and the Seminoles came away with a 54-7 victory.
- Last week, Florida State extended its streak to 11 straight games in which the ‘Noles have held an opponent to 19 or fewer points. That's the longest streak by an ACC team since Virginia Tech had a span of 12 games between the 2004-05 seasons.
- Florida State's defense ranks first in the nation in five defensive categories. The list includes rushing defense (33.67), total defense (103.3), pass efficiency defense (60.50), scoring defense (1.0) and pass defense (69.67 yards/game).
- Chris Thompson added two more 70-plus yard TD runs to his career resume pushing his total to five after scoring runs of 74 yards and 80 yards against the Demon Deacons leading to a nine-carry 197-yard performance.
- Tajh Boyd threw two more touchdown passes against Furman and moved past Woody Dantzler and Cullen Harper into second place on Clemson's career touchdown pass list. He now has 43 and is just six behind Charlie Whitehurst, who had 49 between 2002-05.
- Clemson senior Andre Ellington leads the ACC in rushing with 109.3 yards per game. He has 328 yards on 53 attempts for a 6.2 average and has scored four touchdowns.
By BRENT KALLESTAD
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Florida State needs to do a better job against Clemson's Sammy Watkins when the Seminoles get a second shot at the Tigers' wide receiver.
Watkins blew past Florida State defenders last year in just his fourth game as a collegiate player. He caught seven passes for 141 yards and two long touchdowns in the Tigers' 35-30 win over the Seminoles on their way to the Atlantic Coast Conference title.
The fourth-ranked Seminoles (3-0, 1-0 ACC) host Watkins and the No. 10 Tigers (3-0) on Saturday.
"He's just a phenomenal player," Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said Monday.
"The most impactful freshman, maybe since Herschel Walker," Fisher added, comparing Watkins to the former Georgia star. "Sammy made that kind of impact the day that he came in."
The Seminoles weren't the only team that couldn't contain Watkins, who finished the season with 2,288 all-purpose yards, 13 touchdowns and All American honors.
Watkins, from Fort Myers, grew up a Florida State fan and hoped to become a Seminole one day. That didn't happen as Fisher and his staff recruited wide receivers Rashad Greene and Kelvin Benjamin, who both play key roles for the Seminoles.
"I actually liked them during my recruitment," said Watkins, who never took a recruiting visit to Tallahassee though. "I like everybody I watched. But they just didn't recruit me hard enough."
But he doesn't hold any grudges.
"Not at all," Watkins said Monday. "I just play the game."
And, he concedes, it's not getting any easier as opponents have seen plenty of him, at least on film.
"I'm seeing different coverages, seeing different things," Watkins said. "I just think they're going to be prepared and ready. They're going to have a game plan ready."
Now it's up to Florida State defensive coordinator, Mark Stoops to come up with the answers to slow down Watkins in Clemson's ACC opener.
"Great talent, off the charts," Stoops said at Florida State's media day activities last month. "You just can't zero in on him, their other guys can hurt you in a minute."
Indeed, the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Watkins is far from a one-man wrecking crew with Tajh Boyd, Andre Ellington and DeAndre Hopkins among those in Clemson's offensive arsenal.
"The guys around him are pretty good too and he makes them better and they make him better," Fisher said.
Boyd, who shredded the Seminole secondary a year for 344 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, has already thrown for 747 yards and six touchdowns and ranks second in passing efficiency in the ACC, right behind Florida State's EJ Manuel.
Ellington is the league's leading rusher averaging 109.3 yards a game and Hopkins the top receiver with 26 catches for 319 yards and four touchdowns.
"They can run and throw the ball," Fisher said. "They have very good players."
Although Florida State's players are mostly back from last year, Fisher stresses it's a much different team that will take on a mostly familiar Clemson squad.
He knows there's a lot riding on Saturday's outcome.
"This is a very important game," Fisher said. "But hopefully during our time at Florida State we're going to play a lot of important games."
Updated September 18, 2012
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