Well, it’s that time of the year again when there is little left to do in these parts than to maybe sip on a glass of sweet tea on your front porch while looking ahead with your friends to the upcoming football season.

I know I’m already guilty of these two simple pleasures – I love sweet tea and I probably love football even more – but what do you expect from a guy who was born and raised in South Carolina? Football is a way of life here. Always has been and always will be.

Just the other day I was sitting on my porch wondering what this football season might be like, especially for the Clemson Tigers. Tommy Bowden’s team is loaded and I just don’t mean with starters. As a guy who gets to see a lot of the ends and outs of the program on a regular basis, I can tell you this is perhaps Bowden’s best team to date.

When you look at the potential of a football team, you just can’t take a look at how many starters are coming back, especially considering a football season is now a week or two longer, maybe three, if your team plays in a conference championship game, than it was 10 years ago.

Granted, the Tigers return 14 starters on offense and defense, including guys like running backs James Davis and C.J. Spiller, quarterback Cullen Harper, wide receivers Aaron Kelly, Tyler Grisham and Jacoby Ford, defensive end Ricky Sapp, defensive tackle Dorell Scott, safeties Michael Hamlin and Chris Clemons and corners Chris Chancellor and Crezdon Butler, but there’s a bigger picture to look at when judging the potential of a football team. That picture – the number of lettermen that return.

In all, Clemson returns 50 players that earned letters during last year’s 9-4 season. That’s 50 players who played significant minutes during a 13-game season that saw the Tigers come a dropped pass away from playing in a conference championship game and maybe a BCS game. Remember, Clemson was on the board for a possible Sugar Bowl invitation had Hawaii not beat Washington in the final game of the regular season.

But let’s get back to this 50 lettermen thing. What’s the significance in returning lettermen? Well, this pretty much sums up the amount of quality depth a football team has because as you know, injuries, academic casualties and suspensions will occur during a football season that kicks off with fall practice on August 1, and doesn’t end until late December or early January.

Of those 50 players, 40 are first and second team players. That’s right, 40 of Clemson’s top 44 players return. That, my friend, is what you call depth. And when you throw in another Top 15 recruiting class, that has talented freshmen such as Da’Quan Bowers at defensive end and Jamie Harper at running back, it seems like Clemson, who missed out on the top talent for so long because of insufficient facilities, is getting richer.

Is it really a coincidence the Tigers have chalked up four Top 20 recruiting classes, including three straight Top 15 classes, since breaking ground on the WestZone following the 2004 season?

A lot of the talking heads and national columnists in the sports world are rating Clemson as one of the nation’s more overrated teams coming into the season. They don’t understand why Clemson is getting so much love and is the overwhelming pick to win its first ACC Championship since 1991.

They like to bring attention to years past when the Tigers entered a season full of hope, only to finish in mediocrity and in the middle of the pack in the ACC, like 2001 (7-5), 2004 (6-5) and 2006 (8-5). All good examples, but an unfair assessment when comparing those teams to the potential of the 2008 squad.

Think about this. How many seniors on those teams were selected in the NFL Draft that following spring? I mean seniors during that season only. If you think about it, you will realize just six seniors combined were drafted off those squads.

Just to compare and why I believe the 2008 Clemson team is not overrated, there are seven seniors on this team that will more than likely be drafted in the NFL next spring, and perhaps four could go in the first two rounds. That’s something that has never happened in the Clemson football program.

Granted, there are concerns with this year’s team. The offensive line will be young and there are questions at middle linebacker that need to be addressed.

But let me tell you what I know. The offensive line is young, and will have some growing pains, but a little birdie told me some encouraging things about this group, including this line is more talented top-to-bottom across the board than the 2006 team which led the ACC in fewest sacks allowed, while being the primary reason Clemson led the ACC in rushing offense and ranked fifth nationally.

As for middle linebacker, remember this name – Brandon Maye. The coaches are excited about his potential and there is also a freshman by the name of Stanley Hunter from nearby Byrnes High School that’s drawing up comparisons to that of Keith Adams and Leroy Hill.

Watching this Clemson team should be fun, and though you should not book your travel plans just yet, I would seriously start looking into, and maybe comparing, possible travel rates for a trip to sunny south Florida in January. At least that’s what I was thinking about the other day when I was sitting on my porch and sipping a glass of cold sweet tea.