Re: 2024 predictions

captaindavidcollins · 2023-12-31T17:25:55.727Z

Wins: App State, Coots, Citadel, Stanford, UVA, Virginia Tech, Pitt, Wake Toss up: FSU, Louisville, NC State Loss: UGA I’m feeling a 11-1 ceiling with a 8-4 floor.

DougKingsmoreCrusade

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Solid list, few minor disagreements

Dec 31, 2023, 9:35 PM

Georgia's gonna be a tough one (duh).

Citadel should be easy W. One of the worst teams in FCS.

App State makes me a little nervous because of their reputation as a giant killer and as a good mid-major that has frequently fought well above their weight class in recent years. But they did not have a good season last year and did not seem to be playing up to their usual standard. So for that reason and especially because it's at home, I feel a lot better about this one than I would otherwise. Should be a W, but don't overlook it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but NC State at home doesn't scare me much. I feel like they're almost an entirely different animal home vs road. All of the recent losses I can remember to NC State have been on the road. That's not to say I think it'll be a walk in the park, but I believe that's a game Clemson should win at home. Are they supposed to be good next year? I know they rather quietly had a good season this year, but unless I've fallen out of the loop, they don't have any big-time names on offense that really scare me at all.

Same deal with Louisville. I'd be a lot more worried if it was a road game. I agree with you that their new coaching has shown some promise, but they got exposed as frauds pretty hard at the end of this year, and until they actually prove they have some good players I'm not going to be too concerned about them.

Stanford and Virginia should be comfortable wins at home, neither team has shown much of any life recently.

The only reason Pitt and Wake concern me is because they're on the road. Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but they were both bad last year and have shown me no signs that any improvement should be expected next year. I'm not aware of any impact players either program has picked up in the portal either. The one thing that worries me about Wake is what happened this year with how inexplicably close that game was, but that was probably due more to Clemson's own offensive ineptitude than anything else really. So I'd say both should be W's, but road conference games should never be taken for granted.

Virginia Tech on the road concerns me. I think that team has really improved, and I think Drones is legit. I'm predicting they could take a big step forward next year. How big remains to be seen. Hopefully the Tiger defense comes to play and shuts their offense down. Right now I'd say that's still a game Clemson should win because I have confidence in our defense, but that one could go in the toss-up category.

Florida State on the road won't be easy, despite how close Clemson played them this year at home and how hectic things became for them at the end of this season. They're almost certainly gonna retool in the portal again this year, and probably get either DJ or Cam Ward to play QB. I don't know exactly how talented they're gonna be, but at the very least I think they'll be good enough to be a significant challenge, especially on the road. This one's a toss-up.

Coots at home should be a W, but not necessarily an easy one. We all know that they're hiring their talent, but they have landed some portal players that you must admit are significant. I think with them it's going to be almost impossible to tell how good they're actually gonna be until the season starts. Who knows how well all of those transfer portal pieces are actually gonna fit together, how much they'll actually improve the team, or what their identity will be. It's just gonna be very difficult to predict because we haven't ever really seen most of the best players the coots have even playing together before because they're all portal players, so it's tough to get a sense of how good that team will actually be. I feel like there could be a high ceiling there but also a very low floor, so there's just no telling with them.

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2024 predictions

If we beat the Dawgs, we'll absolutely go undefeated***

Kind of agree. I would put

VT is improving but I don't think they'll be on our level next year