With the news that lead receiver Justyn Ross will miss the season following neck surgery, perception has changed. Rivals.com national analyst Mike Farrell replaced Clemson with Ohio State as his favorite to win the national championship, and we suspect plenty of others will moderately dock them as well as the Tigers are assessed on paper before the season. That’s natural, if not reasonable.

Join Tigerillustrated.com subscribers on The West Zone message board!

Make no mistake, here’s believing Clemson would be better off with Ross than without him, and differential talent certainly matters.

How opponents will defend the Tigers changes now until the other pass-catchers prove potent enough to command respect. Teams are going to put stopping running back Travis Etienne atop the to-do list and send pressure at Trevor Lawrence to put the onus on the receivers to quickly separate and make plays under fire.

Which brings us back to what we had viewed as the leading question mark for the offense, and that’s the offensive line.