Clemson at Boston College: 5 Big Questions

1. After playing Florida State, will Clemson be able to “get up” for the BC game?

Most of the time, I try not to get too mired in the intangibles of a game. I’m sure Clemson is plenty exhausted from the Florida State game last week, but they know they’re still #17 in the nation. I doubt their players are saying, “we just lost a tough game against FSU, but now we play a mediocre BC team, so screw it, I don’t care.” If anything, it’s probably more like “let’s beat the crap out of this team like we’re supposed to and move on,” but there’s no way we’ll ever know what they’re thinking.

That game last week probably took a lot out of them, no question, but at the end of the day, they’re a deeper and more complete team. They might not need their best effort to win this game, whereas Boston College would literally have to play their best game in several years to win, considering they haven’t beaten a ranked team since 2008.

Sometimes, teams do have hangovers after big games — if they win, that is. If you’re going to zone in on the intangible stuff like that, then you could just as easily say that Clemson will be pissed off and blast this team into the Atlantic time zone. Last week’s game doesn’t matter, as it’s still going to be a tough game any way you slice it. If BC’s best hope is counting on a beaten-up Clemson team sleepwalking through the game, then that tells you already what the final outcome will be.