Clemson does not have...

a super star DE. Clemson will not win games with their DL nor will the DL be expected to win games for us. I agree completely with what Ryan said, in fact I pretty much restated it below. But yes, your DE situation is much better than Clemsons. I agree, Clowney is great.

I think everyone needs to get off Connor Shaws back. How many practice/scrimmage game back up QB heros have we seen through the years that sucked once they became the true starter? How someone handles being the starting QB is much different that competing for it and I believe Shaw will be the key to your success. He simply does not get enough credit, Thompson walks in the game and puts a defense in a bad situation as he is a totally different type QB from Shaw. If defenses are able to scheme just for him things may or may not be different. You just will not know until he becomes the starter for Scar.