Clemson football opens as slight favorites over Auburn
The Clemson football program enters the week as slight favorites over Jarrett Stidham and the Auburn Tigers. Let’s take a look at those early odds.
With the amount of times that Clemson has faced Auburn under Dabo Swinney, they might as well be a conference opponent. The Tigers’ 2017 matchup with Auburn marks the fifth time the two programs have squared off in Dabo Swinney’s nine years in Death Valley.
Clemson has had Auburn’s number during that span of time. Dating back to 2008, Clemson is 3-1 vs. Auburn. According to the early odds for this one, the series is expected to move to 4-1.
SportsBookReview.com currently lists Clemson as eight point favorites over Gus Malzahn’s Auburn Tigers.
Thoughts
Based on the way that both Auburn and Clemson performed in week one, and eight point spread is fair. Both teams took care of business vs. an inferior opponent.
Being as though Clemson defeated Auburn last season, en route to a National Championship, it is only right that they open as the favorite. Yes, Dabo Swinney and his staff were forced to replace a heap of production, but, the Tigers didn’t show any signs of slowing down against Kent State.
Brent Venables’ defense looked as dominant as ever against a one-dimensional Golden Flashes offense; and Kelly Bryant orchestrated the offense with ease. It’s important to keep into perspective that Clemson was playing Kent State. We won’t really know what to expect from the Tigers until Saturday night against Auburn.
More from RTR: Clemson Tigers positional grades vs. Kent State
Now to Auburn. They have seemingly found their quarterback of the future in Baylor transfer, Jarrett Stidham. He was impressive in his debut vs. Georgia Southern, throwing for 185 yards and two touchdowns, also scampering for a short rushing touchdown.
On the defensive side of the ball, Auburn’s front seven pitched a tent in Georgia Southern’s backfield, posting five sacks and 12 tackles for loss. Jeff Holland really stood out coming off the edge.
Similar to Clemson, you can’t read to far into Auburn’s blowout victory, because it was against Georgia Southern. With all do respect to Tyson Summers and the Eagles, they were no match for Auburn.
Coming into this contest, I am most interested in seeing the battle in the trenches. Both Clemson and Auburn have talent at the skill positions, but, games of this magnitude are decided at the line of scrimmage.
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Continue to check back throughout the week as I will be giving updates on the odds and a thorough review of the Auburn Tigers.