This Saturday Clemson hosts Syracuse in Memorial Stadium at Noon on the ACC Network. After completely embarrassing Georgia Tech last week in a 73-7 win, Clemson is the clear favorite against Syracuse and opens up as a 46 point favorite in Vegas. 

There was a time where the Orange brought significant stress to Clemson’s fans not too long ago, as the Orange took Clemson to the final whistle in 2018 and pulled off the unthinkable in the Carrier Dome with Syracuse legend Eric Dungy. Ever since that 2018 upset bid came up short, Syracuse and Clemson went on two completely different paths. According to the 247 Sports Team Talent Composite, a ranking that measures a teams talent based on the past four to five recruiting cycles, Clemson is ranked as fourth in the country compared to Syracuse as the 65th. The talent gap is big, and for those that say recruiting is not everything and instead it is about culture, you are halfway right. Culture is important, but you establish culture by winning games, and you win games by first winning recruiting battles. The Tigers have done both while Syracuse has struggled to even do the former. 

Coming into Saturday Syracuse ranks 68th in total defense, giving up 484.6 yards a game. Just last week, the Orange gave up 338 rushing yards to Liberty, a team that everyone thought they should beat. This Syracuse defense is going to have its hands full trying to stop a Clemson offense that is hitting its stride as of late. But, if there is one thing that Clemson has not had as much success with, offensively speaking as they may have liked, it is in the ground game and running in between the tackles. Travis Etienne and the stable of Clemson backs are licking their chops to play against this defense that could not stop the run at all last week, and gave up 146 yards last week. 

Syracuse does however, have a few hidden gems on defense that could cause some problems for the Clemson offense. One being cornerback Garret Williams, who has 30 targets in coverage and leads the country with the least number of given up touchdowns with zero. Williams will have his hands full trying to stop the deep receiver core that Clemson brings into the game Saturday. As for the Syracuse offense that was once referred to as the college version of the greatest show on turf. An offense that operated at a breakneck pace and could score on you in a hurry, is nothing like it once was when starting quarterback Tommy Devito is hurt and Rex Culpepper gets the start. The Clemson defense should dominate this once. I predict Clemson will win 55-3.