No. 21 Auburn Tigers at Clemson Tigers (-3), Total 59 |
The Auburn Tigers have escaped the first two weeks with home victories over Utah State (42-38) and Mississippi State (41-34), but will now head out on the road against an angry opponent.
Head coach Gene Chizik will be looking to lead the program to a 15th consecutive victory in this series and extend the nation’s longest overall win streak to 18 games. It’s currently the second longest in team history, as the 1993-94 squad se the program record with a 20-game winning streak.
“We’s prefer to win football games a lot different that we are, but there’s something to be said when you can fight down to the end when it doesn’t look good and still win a game,” Chizik stated after a second close game to open the season.
The Tigers got their vaunted rushing attack in gear last week in their SEC opener, running for 231 yards against the Bulldogs, including 150 from Michael Dyer and 68 more from Onterio McCalebb.
Quarterback Barrett Trotter is starting to get more comfortable under center in taking over for the departed Cam Newton, completing 33-of-46 passes for five touchdowns and an interception.
Success in September is nothing new for the school, winning 27 of its past 30 such contests and last posting a losing record during the month in 1998.
Auburn has tallied a 6-2 ATS mark as an underdog and the ‘under’ is 4-2 in those contests.
Clemson is searching for its first victory over Auburn since 1951, but has come extremely close in accomplishing that goal in dropping the last two meetings in overtime. The Tigers were handed a 27-24 loss inside Jordan-Hare Stadium a year ago.
Both of these programs have extremely young rosters, as the two have combined to play 25 true freshmen. Five of Clemson’s 10 touchdowns this year have been scored by freshmen and three of the top five players on the team in terms of all-purpose yards are in their first year as well.
Some experience is found on the offensive end, including running back Andre Ellington and quarterback Tajh Boyd. Ellington ran for 140 yards in last year’s contest, while Boyd has assumed the starting role and thrown for three touchdowns in each contest thus far.
college football betting players will be interested in knowing that Clemson is 15-17 ATS versus SEC opponents and the ‘under’ is 17-9.
