Clemson season picks: First half tests start with Georgia, also feature key ACC clashes |
Entering the 2023 football season, optimism reigned supreme. Clemson had fallen short of the 2022 four-team playoff but rebounded enough to upgrade from the Cheez-It Bowl to the Orange Bowl. Late-season losses to South Carolina and Tennessee left everyone feeling less-than-satisfied, but Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney’s bold move to bring in Garrett Riley following the 11-win 2022 campaign showed he wasn’t satisfied. Additionally, the switch from DJ Uiagalelei to Cade Klubnik brought loads of excitement.
I was admittedly a believer. I predicted Clemson to improve on their 10-2 regular season in 2022 by going 11-1 in 2023. I had a loss in Raleigh to NC State as their only regular-season blemish. At the time, most felt I was negative to even pick that loss. Sadly, we were all too optimistic. Clemson fell three wins short of that 11-1 regular season, finishing just 8-4. Now, the situation is similar, but the mood is different. Just like an offseason ago, Clemson made bold moves to upgrade the staff. Matt Luke and Chris Rumph take over as the offensive line and defensive end coaches, respectively. While the quarterback is the same, excitement swirls around a wide receiver room that returns leading receiver Tyler Brown, gets Antonio Williams and Cole Turner back from injury, and adds two exciting freshmen: Bryant Wesco and TJ Moore. So how optimistic are we willing to get this year? Let’s dive in: Aug. 31 – Clemson vs. Georgia Clemson has only lost to two schools 40 or more times. One is South Carolina, who Clemson has beaten an astounding 73 times. The other is Georgia, against who they are 18-43-4 all-time and 1-7 since 1991. Can they break the trend in this year’s opening in Atlanta? On the one hand, it sure feels like Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has lost a bit of control. Georgia players are getting arrested left-and-right all offseason. Has their success made them lose focus? Is Clemson the underdog who wants it more? Part of me says yes. On the other hand, perhaps they’re like the old Miami, Florida State, or even the Urban Meyer Florida teams that were always in trouble with the law, but still winning on the field. Is their talent so immense they can win with even their B+ game? Carson Beck threw for nearly 4,000 yards last season and is a likely first round NFL draft pick in 2025. They lost TE Brock Bowers but added TE Benjamin Yurosek (Stanford) from the portal. Clemson has historically won about 30% of their battles with Georgia, and those odds seem about right for this contest. Loss… Record: 0-1 Sep. 7 – Appalachian State at Clemson The Mountaineers are odds-on favorites to win the Sun Belt. QB Joey Aguilar threw for 33 TDs and 3,757 passing yards last year and returns for his senior season. They won’t be a push-over, but they also lost five games last year with four coming against Group of Five teams. App State is solid, but there’s no excuse for Clemson to lose this game and they won’t. Win… Record: 1-1 Sep. 14 – Open Date Sep. 21 – NC State at Clemson Gone are the days when you could assume a Clemson win in the Textile Bowl. Clemson won 15 of 16 contests before dropping two of the last three. I was high on NC State last year and predicted the Wolfpack win over Clemson before the season – to the dismay of our readers. I think they’ll once again be among five teams with a legitimate shot to win the conference. Coastal Carolina QB Grayson McCall and Duke RB Jordan Waters joined via the transfer portal, which gave them a huge boost. KC Concepcion may be their most important player though. The dynamic slot receiver had 839 receiving yards with 10 TDs plus another 320 on the ground last year as a true freshman. This should be a challenging battle, but even with NC State’s strong usage of the portal, they’re still the less talented squad going on the road to a raucous venue where they haven’t won since 2002. Win… Record: 2-1 Sep. 28 – Stanford at Clemson Ashton Daniels returns at quarterback as does 1,000-yard receiver Elic Ayomanor, but that won’t be enough to challenge for an upset in Death Valley. Stanford was very poor at stopping the pass, ranking dead last in all of college football allowing 298 passing yards per game. Additionally, they ranked just 103rd in rushing offense so keeping opposing offenses off the field was a problem too. Stanford struggles to get undergraduate transfers in academically (two of their four transfers came from the Ivy league), so there’s no quick fix. Clemson will roll. Win… Record: 3-1 Oct. 5 – Clemson at Florida State Last year, it took a missed field goal, a scoop-and-score touchdown, and one overtime period for Florida State to break their losing streak against Clemson and eventually win the ACC. As close as that win was, two in a row would represent a taking of the mantle for who runs the ACC (while they’re still in it). This is the game of the year for both teams. Florida State lost QB Jordan Travis, RB Trey Benson, and their superstar wide receiver duo of Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson to the NFL. They brought in 17 transfers (the 7th rated transfer class by 247 Sports) to help mitigate the losses, but I still have my doubts. Excellent wide receiver play was a huge part of their success last season, but now it could be a weakness. The offensive line will be good, and the defense will have their usual dangerous pass rush, but Uiagalelei throwing to WRs Malik Benson and Kentron Poitier is such a step down from the talent at those positions last year. Seeing friends and former teammates Klubnik and Uiagalelei battle will be fascinating. I’ll bet on the one who wrestled the starting job away from other – Clemson’s Klubnik. Win… Record: 4-1 Oct. 12 – Clemson at Wake Forest A loss to Wake Forest ended the Tommy Bowden era and the Tigers haven’t lost to the Deacons since. It is now 15 in a row although the last two have been decided by only a combined 11 points. Wake Forest should be improved from last year’s disappointing 4-8 performance. Their offense stands to improve from 98th in passing yards per game (197.3 passing yards/game) with the addition of QB Hank Bachmeier. He spent four years at Boise State and another at Louisiana Tech. Further boosting the passing game is the return of Donavon Green who had 642 yards in 2022 before missing all of last year. Clemson won’t be able to play as poorly as they did last year at home vs. Wake Forest if they expect to win again, but they’ll be road favorites for a reason. Win… Record: 5-1 This would have Clemson firmly in the playoff picture before hosting Virginia and then going in the open date. We’ll continue the rundown in a forthcoming article. Be sure to let us know what you think of the prediction so far in the comments below.
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