Clemson season picks: Will the Tigers clinch ACC Championship spot with strong finish? |
In Part 1, we had Clemson dropping the opener to Georgia but bouncing back with five straight wins, including critical ACC victories over NC State and Florida State to reach 5-1. Now we continue with Game 7 against Tony Elliott and the Virginia Cavaliers.
Oct. 19 – Virginia at Clemson Coach Tony Elliott, RB Kobe Pace, CB Malcolm Greene, and TE Sage Ennis will face their former team when they come to Death Valley in late October. They didn’t run the ball well last season, and just like Clemson’s offense in Elliott’s final year as Clemson’s offensive coordinator (2021), a lack of balance spelled doom. I expect Clemson to win the battle of the trenches and make life tough for RB Kobe Pace and the Virginia offense. Win… Record: 6-1 Oct. 26 – Open Date The second open date of the schedule comes after five straight games and gives them a respite before their toughest back-to-back of the season. Nov. 2 – Louisville at Clemson Jeff Brohm is a great offensive mind and will make the Cardinals a challenging opponent most years. Their returning players now have another year of experience in his system, and they have used the portal to replace departing talent. TE Mark Redman had 408 yards for San Diego State, more than all Louisville TEs combined in 2023, and now gives the Cardinals a new weapon at the position. QB Jack Plummer was replaced with Texas Tech transfer Tyler Shough, a 7th-year redshirt senior. If he is healthy on November 2nd when the Cardinals come to Clemson, Louisville has a very real chance of finally knocking off Clemson. The past two seasons Clemson has lost their game immediately after their open date (Notre Dame in 2022, Miami in 2023) and they struggled their way to a 17-14 win over Syracuse following their 2021 open date. Despite that, I don’t know if Louisville has the depth of talent to win in Death Valley late in the season after a long stretch of challenging games right before their own open date. Win… Record: 7-1 Nov. 9 – Clemson at Virginia Tech Last year, I suggested Louisville would take advantage of a weak schedule and make a run at the ACC Championship, and they did. This year, that team for me is Virginia Tech. They play the likely three weakest teams in the ACC (Stanford, Duke, Virginia) and avoid Florida State, NC State, and Louisville. This very well could be a battle of 1-loss teams with the winner having an inside track to the Championship game in Charlotte. The Hokies return their offensive line fully intact and bolstered it even further by adding Montavious Cunningham from Georgia State as a transfer. QB Kyron Drones is back after a strong season that ended with a bang (four straight games with 267 total yards or more). The game is already sold out. While it could be like 2017 when Lane Stadium was crazy but Clemson’s defense smothered the turkeys, this very well could become the “Hokies are back” game. Loss… Record 7-2 Nov. 16 – Clemson at Pittsburgh The Panthers finished just 3-9 last season, breaking Coach Narduzzi’s usual consistency in Pittsburgh. The transfer portal QBs they added (Slovis and Jurkovec) did not deliver for two years in a row. Now, they’ll turn inward and give redshirt junior Nate Yarnell a chance. That doesn’t mean they avoided the portal, though, as they took 14 commits, but only rank 50th in the transfer portal rankings. That’s not ideal. Instead, you’d like to see quality over quantity (e.g., Ohio State only took seven transfers but is ranked 9th). Pittsburgh is 2-2 vs. Clemson since joining the ACC and has won the only matchup in Pittsburgh, but Clemson should hold a significant talent advantage this year. Barring some sort of November snowstorm, I expect Clemson to handle business in the Keystone State. Win… Record 8-2 Nov. 23 – The Citadel at Clemson The Citadel was 0-11 last year. The Tigers have not dropped a game to an FCS opponent, and I don’t expect this to be the first. Win… Record: 9-2 Nov. 30 – South Carolina at Clemson QB Spencer Rattler and his top three pass catchers are all off to the NFL. That includes Xavier Leggette (1,255 yards), TE Trey Knox (312 yards) and Ahmarean Brown (265 yards). That’s a ton to replace for a team that couldn’t move the ball against Clemson in Columbia and finished 5-7. Former 3-star LaNorris Seller will take over at quarterback and hope to add a Kelly Bryant-esque run dynamic. To aid him, they brought in 22 transfers (including RB Rocket Sanders who had 1,443 rushing yards at Arkansas), but lost 27 to the portal. I’m not overly high on the Gamecocks this year, and their schedule is daunting with road trips to Alabama and Oklahoma and home games against LSU, A&M, and Missouri all before having to come to Death Valley where the home crowd will seek revenge for what happened on their last visit to Clemson. Win… Record: 10-2 A 10-2 (7-1) record would almost certainly send Clemson to the ACC Championship. Miami (who the Tigers avoid in the regular season) would be a likely opponent, though if Clemson were to lose to Virginia Tech, a rematch could be on tap. That game would of course be for an automatic bid to the playoff with a bye as a top four ranked champion. After that, all bets are off. A return to the playoff – barring an embarrassing blowout loss – would prove Clemson is headed in the right direction and can compete while still doing things Dabo’s way. Time to spot the ball in Atlanta and see it unfold!
Upgrade Your Experience!
Unlock premium boards and exclusive features (e.g. ad-free) by upgrading your account today.
Upgrade Now!
