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Orange Bowl 2012: West Virginia Defense Will Focus On Sammy Watkins

The Clemson Tigers are one of the more athletic teams in the country, but arguably their fastest player is true freshman wide receiver Sammy Watkins. The ACC Rookie of the Year lines up all over the field and even returns kicks for the Tigers, and he does it all with game-breaking ability. According to Jack Bogaczyk of the Daily Mail, he will be the focus of the West Virginia defense.

"He has the ability - and they do really a great job of getting him the football in a bunch of different ways. Obviously, they're going to throw him the ball, but he'll get it as a running back, and they're going to screen him. They'll throw the ball down the field, and he goes up and gets it.

Keying in Watkins all game long will be difficult. Because of his speed, you can have him locked up for three and a half quarters and then he makes one play late in the game that breaks it wide open. Shutting him down will take a full team effort for 60 minutes.

We'll have coverage of the Orange Bowl up to and through the big game in this StoryStream. For more on the two teams, check out Tigers blog Shakin' The Southland and Mountaineers blog The Smoking Musket.

Photographs by dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.