RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -Michael Palmer won’t deny it. The Clemson tight end can’t help but consider a division crown and a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game.
Just not too much.
And definitely not with one of the league’s strongest finishers up next.
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you that it’s not in our mind,” Palmer said. “The ACC championship is just around the corner. Anybody that’s around here understands that. … There’s no point in looking to next week – if we don’t win this week, it puts us in a real bad spot. We do understand what’s at stake right now. We understand what’s around the corner. But at the same time, we’ve just got to worry about this week.”
region of central North Carolina.
While Georgia Tech can wrap up the Coastal Division by beating Duke up the road in Durham, Palmer and the 24th-ranked Tigers are more concerned with taking another step toward clinching the Atlantic against North Carolina State. Clemson (6-3, 4-2) will sew up the division with a win against the Wolfpack and a Boston College loss to Virginia.
“You’re going to think about it – that’s regardless of whether the coach tells you or not,” defensive back Rashard Hall said. “You’re going to think about it. But if you’re smart enough to know how to get there, you’re going to focus on the next game, the next play.”
That might be more challenging than it perhaps appeared a few weeks ago.
N.C. State (4-5, 1-4), the last ACC team to win a league game, is coming off a 38-31 victory against Maryland – the only conference team to beat the Tigers – and is 7-2 in November games in coach Tom O’Brien’s third season. Last year, they reeled off four straight wins in that month to claim their first bowl berth since 2005, and they hope last week’s win was evidence that another turnaround is forthcoming.
Before that win, the Wolfpack dropped four straight while losing a total 12 players to season-ending injuries.
s all that we have. This is it, and we’ll make the best of the bad hand that we’ve been dealt and we are going to go on.”
They hope their defense has solidified enough to slow down one of the country’s most explosive players.
C.J. Spiller kept himself in the Heisman discussion with a pair of performances with 300-plus all-purpose yards, including last week’s school-record 312-yard outing against Florida State. And, through the years he has tortured the Wolfpack – racking up 479 all-purpose yards, including 339 on the ground with three touchdowns, while going 3-0 against N.C. State.
Perhaps lost in the buzz about Spiller is a defense that’s the ACC’s second-toughest to score upon, allowing an average of 17.3 points.
It’ll try to slow an N.C. State offense that under all-ACC quarterback Russell Wilson might be finding its rhythm, generating at least five touchdowns in two straight games.
“I think everybody’s just believing in one another,” offensive lineman Jeraill McCuller said. “Guys are flying around (at practice). It just speaks volumes about the character of this team, because we’ve been through so much. Guys are still in it, like we’re undefeated. That’s positive in itself, and it shows on (recent) Saturdays.”
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Associated Press Writer Jeffrey Collins in Clemson, S.C., contributed to this report.
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