Clemson’s season to crescendo in Championship Phase

We'll know more about the Tigers after an intriguing matchup with Louisville.

Ryan Kantor - Contributor - Tuesday, October 29 2024

This is the best time of year. The heat of the South Carolina summer finally gives way to the crisp but not yet cold temperatures of autumn. Clemson basketball tips off next week while the Major League Baseball season marathon crescendos with the World Series. Likewise, Clemson’s football season enters its crescendo over the next five weeks with the four most exciting matchups since the season opener.

The Tigers’ ACC schedule is extremely backloaded. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Several people expected the back-to-back contests against NC State and Florida State to be the toughest point of the conference slate, but that duo has disappointed to the tune of a combined 2-9 ACC record. Instead, the final three games of the conference slate are where Clemson’s admittance to the ACC Championship Game will be earned.

Clemson is a perfect 5-0 in the ACC, but its five opponents are a combined 7-18 in ACC play. All five are currently in the bottom half of the ACC standings. Their next three opponents—Louisville, Virginia Tech, and Pittsburgh—are a combined 9-3 in ACC games.

The Virginia Tech Hokies started the year terribly with losses to Vanderbilt and Rutgers but have since righted the ship and started collecting ACC wins, including a 13-point win over Georgia Tech on Saturday. The Pittsburgh Panthers are having the best bounce back season in the conference and arguably the country. They were 3-9 (2-6) last year but currently sit at 7-0 (3-0) and have a chance to earn a berth in the ACC championship if they can beat SMU and Clemson the next two weeks. They demolished Syracuse on Thursday thanks to a defense that intercepted Kyle McCord five times. He only had six interceptions all season prior to the game.

Clemson will have to face Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh on the road, making those contests especially dangerous, but first, Clemson will host the Louisville Cardinals. The Cardinals have had an interesting season. On the one hand, they’re very predictable. They’ve beaten all five teams you’d expect them to beat (Austin Peay, Jacksonville St., Georgia Tech, Virginia, Boston College) and lost to their three opponents that are currently ranked in the AP Poll (Notre Dame, Miami, SMU). On the other hand, they’ve proven to be dangerous when they’re not turning the ball over. They rank 15th in total offense with an impressive 460 yards per game. QB Tyler Shough has 512 more passing yards than Cade Klubnik (albeit with an extra game). If not for three turnovers against Notre Dame and a fumble scoop-and-score against Miami, they may have won both games.

This will give Clemson’s defense their best test since Georgia. Louisville has scored at least 24 points in every game, including 45 against Miami. In fact, this will be the first quality opponent that Clemson and Miami share and should provide some measure of comparison between the two potential ACC Championship teams. Their only other shared opponent thus far is Florida State

Offensively for Clemson, it will provide another opportunity for Klubnik to regain his accuracy and form. He badly missed several opportunities against Virginia, including a wide-open touchdown in the end zone (which Mafah later ran in), and threw what was probably the silliest interception of his career (thrown into quadruple coverage right to the defender). Though he ended with a solid stat line (308 yards), the Tigers will need him to be sharper to beat their remaining opponents. We’ll see if he can return to the dominant form he had earlier in the year, especially against NC State.

Clemson has faced one playoff team and lost. They’ve faced six teams who will be lucky to make a bowl game and beat them all soundly. Now, they’ll face an opponent that falls somewhere between those two extremes, and we’ll learn more about this team than we have in any game thus far.