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Rex Brown

Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden addresses a group of reporters during his annual media golf outing on Tuesday at The Cliffs at Keowee Vineyards in Sunset.

SUNSET — For much of the summer there has been a great deal of hype surrounding the 2008 edition of the Clemson football team.

The Tigers, who capped last season with a 9-4 record and ranked No. 21 in the final Associated Press Top 25, seem to be everyone’s pick to win the ACC. Well, that was until Tuesday.

Clemson coach Tommy Bowden did his best to fan the flames on his team’s hot projections while talking with the media following his annual media golf tournament at The Reserve at Lake Keowee. Bowden even speculated whether his team deserves to be a top 10 squad when the AP and the Coaches polls debut in a few weeks.

Thus far, every preseason magazine has picked Clemson as a preseason Top 10 as well as the favorite to win the ACC’s Atlantic Division.

“I would say it would be premature,” Bowden said.

The Tigers head coach felt there are still too many questions along the offensive line and at linebacker for him to feel completely comfortable that his squad, which features 14 starters and 39 of the top 44 players back from last year, deserves to be classified at such an elite status.

“I’m just trying to put the cards on the table as they lie,” he said.

Those cards are four new starters on the offensive line, while all three of his starting linebackers will be young and inexperienced as well.

But there’s also a good mix of veteran players, which starts at quarterback with second-year starter and senior Cullen Harper. Harper led the ACC in passing efficiency, while setting 21 school records.

There’s also at least three years of experience at tailback with James Davis and C.J. Spiller, plus the Tigers are loaded at wide receiver, including All-ACC wideout Aaron Kelly along with Tyler Grisham and Jacoby Ford.

Like the offense, the defense is also loaded with veterans. Safeties Michael Hamlin and Chris Clemons return to lead a secondary that also features the return of two of the best cover corners in the ACC in Chris Chancellor and Crezdon Butler.

The defensive front is loaded with veterans such as Dorell Scott, Rashaad Jackson and Ricky Sapp.

Bowden himself even admitted this was the best senior class he has had returning, pointing out that a number of them contributed to the team as either starters or key role players. But, he says he can’t ignore the one area of the team that doesn’t have many veterans at all, and that’s why he is leery of saying that his team has arrived before their first game, which is still six weeks away.

“Replacing four of five offensive linemen is not a veteran team,” Bowden said. “That’s the key to your offensive productivity and that’s where we have the least amount of experience.

“I don’t see that as a loaded veteran team myself. That’s where, as we’ve talked, that’s where the concerns lie.”

Taylor to redshirt. Bowden said he is likely to redshirt senior Rendrick Taylor this upcoming season. He said he plans to redshirt the wide receiver converted to running back in the spring to help with the depth at the running back position next year.

Bowden admitted there is a good chance Spiller, a junior, could declare for the NFL draft following the season and he wants to make sure he has a veteran player available in the backfield in 2009. He said the extra year will also be good for Taylor who is still trying to learn the position after playing wide receiver for the majority of his football career.

“The transition from outside to inside is a whole new ballgame,” he said. “Just his familiarity with the position, and then next year I will have an older back and then two young puppies and our signees.”

Those two puppies, Jamie Harper and Andre Ellington, are two members of the freshmen class Bowden says will more than likely play.

A marked man. Bowden said the criticism he has received in the past and already some this year for being a coach that can’t win when it matters the most is well deserved.

“Until you win a championship that’s always going to be the analogy and accurately so,” he said.

Bowden said this is a label he has to carry until he proves to those naysayers that he can lead Clemson to an ACC Championship.

“There is always that frustration of not winning that championship,” he said. “You have to carry that label. My father carried it for a long time. Mack Brown carried it for a long time and I will have to carry it until I do it.

“That’s just the lay of the land. I will stop answering that question once I do it, then there will always be another question, but I have not been able to answer that one yet. It’s deserved until I do it. It’s a legitimate question.”