Blue and Gold Illustrated

GAME PREVIEW: CLEMSON tempered after the Louisville game," said Larry Williams — the senior writer at TigerIllustrated.com, the Clemson site on the Rivals network. "After the last two games and what they saw last year, a lot of fans thought it was going to be easy at Louisville, and that was obviously not the case. "The offense sputtered a lot more than people thought going in. The defense was still very good, which is probably what everybody is most en- couraged about. Overall, people are still very optimistic and feel there's a very good chance for them to win the ACC." The Tigers' title hopes will ride on sophomore quarterback Deshaun Watson. He completed 58 of 78 passes for 641 yards and seven touchdowns through the first three games of the sea- son, after averaging a school record 8.3 yards per play as a true freshman — better than former Florida State quar- terback Jameis Winston (7.6) and Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett (7.8) in 2014. Still, he wasn't as crisp against Louis- ville as he had been the first two games, throwing two interceptions. Watson spent the offseason recovering from surgery on a torn ACL he suffered in November 2014. He also struggled with other injuries in his freshman season, including a broken right hand. "I think it was surprising to every- one to see him as shaky as he was," Williams said. "There's certainly the expectation that he's going to be better. But there were some extenuating cir- cumstances. They had some protection issues, so anytime you can't step up in the pocket, it won't go as smoothly as you want. "It's also been a long time since he's played in a game where he was really getting hit. Louisville's front seven is pretty good, too, so you definitely have to give them some credit." Redshirt sophomore Wayne Gall- man, a preseason second-team All- ACC selection by Phil Steele, leads the Clemson backfield. He's picked up 310 rushing yards and three touch- downs on only 53 carries (5.8 yards Facts & Figures NOTRE DAME VS. CLEMSON Date: Oct. 3, 2015. Site: Memorial Stadium (81,500). Kickoff: 8 p.m. ET. Television: ABC. Radio: This broadcast can be heard live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (channel 129). Series Facts: This is the third meeting between Notre Dame and Clemson. The series is tied at 1‑1. Coaches: Notre Dame — Brian Kelly (49‑20, sixth season); Clemson — Dabo Swinney (54‑26, eighth season). Noting Clemson: Tigers quarterback Deshaun Watson was ranked as the No. 1 dual‑threat quarterback nationally in the 2014 class by Rivals … Clemson has won 11 straight games at home, with the last loss a 51‑14 defeat at the hands of Florida State on Oct. 19, 2013 … The Tigers played 13 true freshmen in the season opener against Wofford — the most in a single game since 1943 … Clemson also played 14 redshirt freshmen against Wofford, meaning 27 of the 77 players who participated were freshmen — the most in the nation on the opening weekend of college football (Florida State was second with 23 and Syracuse was third with 21, while Wake Forest and Texas played 20 apiece).

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