Tony Barnhart - Finally Clemson's year?

I'm not sure Barnhart answers the question, but the thing that interests me in these two stories is the talk about is it good for Clemson and Alabama to be playing in game 1 and the two coaches' take on what the positives of the situation are.

First, on Friday, Barnhart asked if Alabama benefits from playing Clemson in the first game, win or lose. Saban's answer was basically, "You find out a lot about your team real quickly by throwing them into this situation. You know what you need to work on to beat good teams".

Today, Barnhart follows up with "Why is Clemson playing Alabama?". Saban wants to throw his young team in to the deep end of the pool and see how they do. Bowden on the other hand says it's all about recruiting - win or lose this game generates publicity for the program.

The contrast in the comments of the two coaches is intriguing. Bowden's been criticized heavily for his press conference style and avoiding answering questions since day 1 at Clemson, but I don't think there's a whole lot to criticize him for in this case. He's right - the publicity surrounding this game has done nothing but help Clemson's profile since it was announced back in January. Face it - if Clemson was playing Louisiana Tech it wouldn't be on national TV and wouldn't have the interest of the national media.

Saban on the other hand knows his team is young and needs to find out who can play and who can't. He's got to get ready for a conference full of tough teams which have talent that either equal or better Clemson's. While not your typical SEC pre-conference fodder, the Tigers don't scare Alabama. For Saban it's a no lose situation - win and you started the season by beating a top 10 team. Lose and you weren't supposed to win any way (except to your fans and alumni).

Both schools heavily recruit Georgia. Clemson has 7 players on it's roster from the state of Alabama. It's a natural. It's exciting.

For me, my job isn't riding on the wins and losses of the Tigers (as Bowden's is) so I love the thought of playing Alabama on national TV on the season opening weekend instead of playing Louisiana Tech at noon. I've got a little bit of both coaches in me - hey, it can't hurt recruiting (Cullen Harper and James Davis are from the Atlanta metro area after all) and if this Clemson team is going to do some of the things written about it there is no better time to start that than in game one against an SEC team in prime time - we'll learn more about Clemson in this game than we ever would if they were playing Louisiana Tech.