LSU vs. Clemson Showdown: Preview & Nussmeier's Health

Watch LSU vs. Clemson Showdown: Preview & Nussmeier's Health - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Let's get started here and talk about the big showdown between LSU and Clemson

00:03at night on August the 30th. Right now, Clemson three and a half point favorites.

00:09We've seen this open up at two and a half, and it seems to be the steam

00:12going toward the Tigers here, Joe. Certainly all eyes will be on Garrett Nussmeyer because of the

00:17injury that he had in practice. Of course, Brian Kelly says no big deal. Is it a big deal at all?

00:22And do you see Clemson being able to take care of business in their own version of Death Valley

00:27on opening night for them? Yeah. Battle of the Tigers, Craig. And when you think about it,

00:31this line got up to four and a half earlier in the week. We saw some money come in on Clemson

00:36and the home team, Cade Klubnick. And you're talking about a team in the Clemson Tigers that

00:41have been basically dominant at home for an eight year span. They only lost three home games. We

00:47saw them get knocked off at the end of the regular season by Lenora Sellers in South Carolina, but

00:52they're deserving to be favored, especially when you look at LSU. They've lost three straight

00:57week one matchups in Brian Kelly's tenure, and it all hinges on Garrett Nussmeyer. He needs

01:05to be healthy in order for the Tigers to put up points and win this matchup. Early on, I'm inclined

01:11to take the points in the ballgame, but it's not going to be easy for LSU, especially if Clemson

01:16can run on the front seven of the Tigers defense. Yeah, and he's practicing right now with a sleeve

01:22on his leg, but he's back to fully practicing. And the good news for him, Joe, is that there's still

01:28a few weeks until this game begins. It's not like it's this week, so it should be okay. And by the

01:31way, week one is going to feature two players that could potentially win the Heisman. As we know,

01:36Joe, the Heisman Trophy Award in the last few years, seemingly it hasn't been determined until

01:40October, November. So I don't know that anybody right now I could honestly say should be the

01:45favorite. I mean, Arch Manning is the popular name, so he's seven to one on FanDuel, followed

01:49by Cade Klubnick, Garrett Nussmeyer. One of those two will move up and the other one will

01:54move down after week one. And then Jeremiah Smith of Ohio State is 11 to one. But I got

01:58to tell you, I don't know, Joe, maybe something tells me it could be somebody not on this list

02:02that wins the Heisman too. Oh, it's possible. We always talk about the late season push from

02:07November straight through the college football playoff. Can a quarterback potentially steal it

02:12or another outside player, even Notre Dame running back, Jeremiah Love. Can we go back

02:17to the rushing attack and just how dominant running backs have been? I'll just say this

02:23about all three quarterbacks, Arch Manning, Nussmeyer. And when you look at Cade Klubnick,

02:28they have an opportunity in week one to really, I want to say, separate themselves for the Heisman

02:34race. Because when you talk about Manning at 17, seven to one going up against Ohio State,

02:39if he lights them up and puts up over 300 yards and they win that ball game as a two and a half

02:44point road underdog, he's definitely going to be in the area of about three to four to one.

02:50And when you look at Klubnick and Nussmeyer, depending upon how that matchup plays out in

02:55Death Valley, whoever wins and by margin, if they have a dominant game, they could potentially

03:01be in front of Arch Manning come week number two. So that's where the odds are right now.

03:06I do give the inside edge to Arch Manning because of the name and because of the team,

03:11Texas, the AP and coaches, number one. But if they lose that week one matchup to Ohio State,

03:17look for Klubnick and Nussmeyer to jump Arch Manning after that game.