Clemson Tigers vs Auburn Tigers Football Preview

They’re 2-0, but barely.

The Auburn Tigers are coming off two home-thrillers with two touchdowns with under five minutes to go in the fourth quarter to spoil Utah State’s upset bid, 42-38, and a fourth-down goal-line stand against Mississippi State to hold off overtime in a 41-34 victory.

The Clemson Tigers trailed at the half against the Troy before a 30-point half to a 43-19 win in the opener, and struggled mightily last week against FCS-opponent Wofford, falling behind three times before two second-half touchdowns to a 35-27 victory.

Neither team has the look of the well-oiled machines that faced off on the Plains at Auburn in last season’s overtime showdown, a 27-24 Auburn win.

A tale of two halves, two passing touchdowns from Clemson quarterback Kyle Parker to running back Jamie Harper vaulted the Tigers from the ACC to a 17-0 lead in the second quarter, but a late first-half field goal by Auburn opened the floodgates of momentum into the third quarter, with Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton leading Auburn to three-consecutive touchdown drives and a 24-17 edge by the end of the period.

But after that third score, Clemson had an answer in the form of running back Andre Ellington’s two-yard rushing touchdown after a 77-yard drive to tie it up at 24 and force overtime.

After Auburn opened the extra period with a field goal, Clemson attempted one of their own from 26 yards out after the previous play, a third-down pass to the endzone went just off the fingertips of wide receiver Jaron Brown. Redshirt freshmen kicker Chandler Catanzaro made the clutch kick, but seconds later after a meeting of the officials, an illegal procedure penalty on the long snapper forced another attempt, which.five-yards back, went wide-left to end the game.

Going into the rematch in Clemson’s Death Valley, both teams feature inexperienced quarterbacks, and depth charts filled with freshmen.

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Between the two, Clemson and Auburn have played 25 true and 22 redshirt freshmen for a total of 47 active freshmen over the first two games. For Clemson, the young guns have paid off with ten touchdowns and three of the top-five all-purpose-yard team leaders.

Through two starts each, sophomore Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd has slightly edged junior Auburn quarterback Barrett Trotter statistically.

Boyd has hit 38-of-59 passes for 525 passing yards, six passing and one rushing touchdown with one interception. He currently holds the second-best passing efficiency rating in the ACC (169.3) and is among the top-25 nationally.

Trotter isn’t far behind in yards and touchdowns at 33-of-46 for 407 passing yards, five touchdowns with an interception, but the starkest difference comes internally for Auburn, with the comparison to Cam Newton at this point.

Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn has had to tweak his scheme as Trotter has minus-six yards rushing on nine attempts on the season. By comparison, Newton rushed for 241 yards and two touchdowns on 33 rushes in his first two starts last season (in the passing game, Newton was 20-for-33 with 222 passing yards, five touchdowns with an interception).

As the reigning National Champions, Auburn is riding the nation’s longest winning streak at 17 games, and also have the edge in close games recently with 10-straight wins in contests decided by eight points or less. 

Clemson is 11-3 under Dabo Swinney at home in his two-full seasons as head coach, but all three losses came against ranked opponents like No. 21 Auburn (losing 14-10 to 15th-ranked TCU in 2009; 30-21 to 16th-ranked Miami and 29-7 to 18th-ranked South Carolina in 2010).

By: Brandon Rink
DFN Sports Staff Writer