The Clemson Tigers will win the 2012 ACC Football Championship

"Those are the basics, I will expand on my arguments next round so that I don't saturate voters with text to read, but let me recap real quick1) Clemson lost to a lot of teams last year that they will face again this year2) Clemson lost a lot of players this year3) Clemson did not recruit as well as other ACC teams who pose big challenges to Clemson in the ACC"1) The teams Clemson lost to last year all were away games. You failed to answer my claim- being in the friendly confines of Death Valley makes a huge difference as Clemson finished undefeated at home last year (www.clemsontigers.com). NC State defeated Clemson mostly because Sammy Watkins was out with a sprained shoulder (http://www.clemsontigers.com...). Georgia Tech ended up finishing with a mediocre season and a loss in the Sun Bowl to a mediocre Utah team (http://en.wikipedia.org...). Finally, South Carolina will be a toss-up. That will really be depending on how Lattimore returns after his injury. Sometimes great backs have great returns from injuries, sometimes they don't play the same. If Lattimore fires on all cylinders, South Carolina will be tough to stop. Besides, that game is irrelevant to the topic at hand; it is a non-conference game after the ACC regular season concludes for Clemson. The away games that they face this year, Wake Forest, Duke, Boston College, and Florida State; the only real tough one is Florida State. The combination of that and the fact they play the teams they lost to last year at home this year (I hope that makes sense) Clemson comes out ahead from a relatively easier schedule than last year. You know, as a Miami fan, that Death Valley is one of the most intimidating places to play and makes a huge difference in the Tigers' play. So, those teams they lost to last year: GT, NCSU, and South Carolina, all are home games, with a current winning streak of 7-0 at Death Valley coming into the 2012 season. After having one of the toughest schedules last year, Clemson has a favorable schedule that should play into their favor.2) Clemson did lose quite a bit of players, the biggest gaps from the losses being defensive with Branch, Thompson, Sensabaugh, and Moore. Given these losses, I do believe the players that are retained more than make up for this. If you look at the stats Sammy Watkins and Tajh Boyd put up (Watkins: 82 rec, 1219 yds, 12 td; Boyd 298-499, 3828 yds, 33 td, 12 int, 141.2 rat;(http://espn.go.com...)) learning a completely new system under offensive coordinator Chad Morris, they more than over-achieved given their stance last year starting the season unranked. With Boyd, now comfortable in the new system, Watkins, Hopkins, Ellington, Brown, Bryant, Peake, Bellamy, and Howard all returning on offense, it will be hard to stop the Tigers. The losses they had on offense aren't nearly as substantial as the skilled players they retain. For you to think that the losses due to graduation are going to hinder the Tigers this season as much as you do is extremely naive because the core of the Tigers' explosive offense is intact.3) Clemson finished behind Miami and Florida State in recruiting. Like I conceded earlier, Florida State is the only realistic game that the Tigers have a possibility of losing. Clemson does NOT play Miami this year (www.clemsontigers.com), so the fact that they finished behind the Hurricanes in recruiting is irrelevant. They finished ahead of the rest of the ACC teams in their division, as well as Virginia Tech (whom they do play this season) and South Carolina. Being a Miami fan, you must be keen to note that Florida State almost always has great recruiting classes, but seems to choke during the season and fall apart. Look at last year- they began the season ranked 5th (http://espn.go.com...) and had a stellar recruiting class (http://espn.go.com...) yet lost three straight games to 1) an overrated #1 Oklahoma team; 2) #21 Clemson; 3) unranked Wake Forest. The Seminoles always have a chance to be dangerous season after season, but have a proclivity to have a sort of meteoric collapse. If you look at last year's match up at Death Valley (given it was freshman Clint Trickett at QB for the Seminoles), the Tigers outperformed the Seminoles in every offensive category. (http://espn.go.com...) Boyd finished 22-35, 344 yds, 3 td, 0 int with a rating of 173.7; Ellington 23 carries for 71 yds and 1 TD; and Watkins had 7 receptions for 141 yds and 2 td. All three of these top performers from last year's game return this season, and as I said before, all three will be better adjusted to Coach Morris' offense. The true determining factor in this game will be the defensive preparation under Coach Venables, and believe me, he knows how to shut the Seminoles down. At Oklahoma, his defenses defeated Florida State the past two years by scores of 47-17 in 2010 and 23-13 in 2011. (http://en.wikipedia.org...)(http://en.wikipedia.org...)Essentially, he knows how to shut down Florida State's offense, even in 2010 when they had Christian Ponder. As a coach, he is far superior to Kevin Steele, and will run simpler and better defenses at Clemson. Steele's main issue was the complexity of his schemes, and a lot of the young players on Clemson's defense (http://www.orangeandwhite.com...) had problems understanding those defensive setups. Even if Clemson loses to Florida State, they still have a very good chance at winning the division, as Florida State has to face both your beloved Hurricanes and Virginia Tech on the road, both extremely tough wins for the 'Noles to get. (http://en.wikipedia.org...)The West Virginia game was a combination of extremely poor defense (and lead to the swift firing of Kevin Steele) and the 14 point turnaround when the Mountaineer defense caught a break from that strip and run back for a touchdown. In reality, as a true football fan, you know that won't happen again. If you also look, Clemson's offense still put up 33 points on the board. Given the scope of the whole season, as people had already talked about Dabo being fired after the Wofford and possibly if Clemson lost to Auburn again, the overachieving and the feat of beating Virginia Tech twice in one season (neither of which were played at Death Valley), the Tigers had a better season than expected, still won an ACC title very handily and made their first ever BCS bowl. Given the talent that returns, including the only ACC first team All-American, a FRESHMAN, at that, Clemson's outlook is bright and will make a run for the ACC championship this year. (http://en.wikipedia.org...)