Sammy Watkins is a big game player. Players of his caliber seize the moment when the spotlight is on them. Watkins will have a huge impact on the outcome of Clemson prime-time match up against Florida State.
Watkins will be appearing in only his 2nd game of the season after serving a suspension. Against Furman, Clemson ran a simple offense and didn't give number 2 an abundance of looks. Clemson just wanted to get him in and get him used to game speed without using a big part of the playbook while getting his first game jitters out of the way. That likely won't be the case on Saturday night.
" I wasn't moving as fast as I was last year, but a lot of that was first game jitters," Watkins said. "I'm pretty sure that at Florida State, I'll be moving pretty quickly."
Watkins, a Florida native, had one of his biggest performances last season against Florida State. He torched the Noles with 7 catches for 141 yards and 2 touchdowns. Watkins exposed weaknesses in the FSU secondary and led the Tigers to victory over the ACC favorite.
Saturday's matchup sets up very similar to last season. Florida State is being hyped as the unquestioned favorite for the ACC Title. The college football experts are talking about EJ Manual and the FSU defense and not Clemson or Sammy Watkins. Not many have picked the Tigers to win, but if Watkins takes over, the home team will have to have a huge offensive performance to win over the Tigers.
Clemson is the underdog for a reason, but the Tigers are capable of winning easy against FSU. Offensive coordinator Chad Morris has only showed 50% of his offense in the first 3 games and will certainly find creative ways to get Sammy Watkins the ball. If Watkins is able to dominate the FSU secondary like he did last season, Clemson will be the frontrunner to make the ACC Championship Game.
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