THE WEST ZONE message board | SHOP NOW: DEALS on CLEMSON apparel

LARRY WILLIAMS: My, how things have changed when you look at the post-FSU slate now compared to before the season. Back in August, you looked at those four games and figured Clemson could kind of sleep-walk through them and still win each of them handily.

Now, not so much with the exception of South Carolina. The Gamecocks are so positively brutal on offense that it's hard to see them putting up double digits when they visit Death Valley on Nov. 26.

The other three games, though, look somewhat hairy in their own ways. The visit from Syracuse comes a week after a game at Florida State that should be draining and exhausting regardless of the result. You spend two weeks gearing up for such a showdown, and there's going to be a letdown. On top of that, the Orange look like they can create some real headaches with their super-fast offense that has made them far more formidable than they were under Scott Shafer. You have to give an enormous amount of credit to first-year coach Dino Babers, who got a huge win with last week's smacking of Virginia Tech in the Carrier Dome.