Considering Clemson won the ACC title in 2015, had Alabama on the ropes in the National Championship Game and most importantly return junior quarterback Deshaun Watson, it’s hard to fathom many people picking against the ACC’s Tigers in their season opener at Auburn Sept. 3.

However head coach Dabo Swinney doesn’t want to be roped into that group.

As Swinney pointed out Monday during the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Challenge golf tournament, Auburn has plenty of talent to compete with any team in the nation.

“They’re talented,” Swinney said according to SEC Country. “They’re a really talented team. Go back and look at their recruits over the last two or three years.”

Swinney’s right about that. In fact, according to the cumulative recruiting class rankings for the last five years, Auburn should have more talent playing in the game than Clemson.

Of course Clemson’s biggest advantage in the game should be at the quarterback position. While Swinney’s team will have the likely Heisman frontrunner heading into the season, Auburn doesn’t even know which player will be starting for them heading into fall camp. While that seems like a disadvantage, Swinney believes it could be an advantage for the home team.

“We still don’t know much about them offensively because we’re not sure who the quarterback is,” said Swinney in reference to the aforementioned quarterback battle. “We’re continuing to prepare for what they do, and openers are always tough because there’s always new faces for both sides. There’s a lot of unknowns.”

Facing off against Sean White or Jeremy Johnson should be drastically different than having to prepare for John Franklin III. At least Clemson’s defense will have several months to prepare for all circumstances.

If Auburn springs the upset in the opener, it could springboard them to fantastic turnaround season. However if the Tigers lose at home in an embarrassing fashion, the heat will only continue to rise for head coach Gus M