Clemson at Georgia Tech: 5 Things to Watch For

For many years, Bobby Dodd Stadium was a house of horrors for the Clemson football program.

However, when the top-ranked Tigers visit Georgia Tech on Saturday, Clemson will be looking for its third consecutive road win over the Yellow Jackets and sixth straight overall in the series.

While the Tigers are one of the elite programs in the country, the Yellow Jackets are just in the second season under head coach Geoff Collins. After spending more than a decade running the option under former head coach Paul Johnson, Collins has brought a more traditional system to the Georgia Tech program.

Clemson enters the game as huge road favorites over the team attempting to establish a new identity and today All Clemson takes a look at five things to keep an eye on when two teams face off on Saturday:

1. Travis Etienne: The Tigers senior running back enters the game having scored either a rushing or receiving touchdown in 39 career games, an FBS record. With 35 more rushing yards, Etienne will pass Dalvin Cook for second most in ACC history and is just 173 yards shy of the conference record (4,602) held by NC State's Ted Brown. The Yellow Jacket defense is having issues stopping the run, allowing more than 189 yards per game on the ground and 4.3 yards per carry. Twice this season Georgia Tech has allowed a team more than 240 rushing yards. Expect to see Etienne early and often.

2. Clemson Defensive Line: The Tigers enter with 18 sacks on the season, good for second-best in the country. The Georgia Tech offensive line comes in tied for seventh in the nation in sacks allowed (two). This Clemson defense likes to get after the quarterback and the Yellow Jackets have been good at protecting the quarterback. Something will have to give on Saturday.

3. Trevor Lawrence: It is hard to get off to a better start than Lawrence has this season. The junior signal-caller enters this one having gone 355 pass attempts without throwing an interception and needs just 25 more to break the ACC record held by Russell Wilson. Lawrence has excelled at taking what defenses are giving him this season and the Tigers aren't having to rely on the chunk plays as much as last season. Can he keep up the torrid start in the stadium in which he originally won the starting job back in 2018?

4. Turnovers: Only Duke and Mississippi State have more turnovers than the 12 Georgia Tech has through their first four games. Quarterback Jeff Sims has already thrown eight interceptions in just 119 pass attempts. The Yellow Jackets can ill afford to start turning the ball over against the Tigers. This Clemson offense is just too good to give them any extra possessions.

5. Special Teams: After getting off to a fantastic start, the Clemson special teams struggled mightily last week in the 42-17 win over Miami. B.T. Potter had all three of his field-goal attempts blocked last weekend, with one being returned for a touchdown. The Tigers have to get the right side of that protection on field goals shored up and it will be interesting to see if they were able to do that this week in practice.

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