Re: TNET: What’s next for Clemson football?: Takeaways from the opener and looking ahead

Mascot [16]

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Posts: 18

Joined: 8/26/13

Sep 7, 2021, 4:54 PM

I think the odds of Clemson going 12-1 and winning the ACC are pretty good, but let’s face it: We no longer control our own playoff destiny. The rest of the schedule does not contain a single team which can help our ranking. We will be dependent upon others failing in order to get in. We can’t play our way in. Miami was humiliated by Bama. UNC lost to Va Tech—and looked bad doing it. Georgia Tech lost to Northern IIllinois. Duke lost to Charlotte. Louisville was crushed by Ole Miss. The ACC, apart from Clemson, is laughably weak right now. And let’s face it: If an unbeaten Georgia team plays an unbeaten Bama team in the SEC title game, they’ll both get in—and that is precisely what seems likely to happen. The BiG 10 champ, be it Iowa or Ohio State, is likely in if they have 1 loss or less. That leaves one more spot. If either the Big 12 or the PAC 10 have an unbeaten champion, that team is likely in—and if they have a one-loss champion, it’s a tossup. That doesn’t even take into account Cincinnati, who will play both Indians and Notre Dame on the road this season. An unbeaten Cincy team with those two scalps on the wall may get in ahead of us, too.

And the odds of ALL of those teams failing? Not likely.

I think we’d better be prepared to do something unfamiliar during playoff season. With our weak schedule, we are truly dependent upon “the charity of strangers.”

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Every year there seems to be one Clemson squeaker. That game is usually one where Clemson is supposed to win with relative ease. The Georgia loss was not that game, and a squeaker likely loiters out there somewhere. The Bulldogs are simply better than us at this point, and their victory was no accident. I can certainly see them in the BCS and perhaps in the championship game. Clemson will get better, but a weak schedule will continue to camouflage some team weaknesses, so a relatively easy ACC schedule is not a plus. I doubt a one loss Clemson will make it to the BCS unless the other top teams suffer repeated and unexpected disasters. The country is tired of the same four in the BCS, and the Committee will have lots of motivation to look elsewhere for their four entrants. In Charlotte we made it easy to rationalize the first replacement, and there may be others before the season is over.

TNET: What’s next for Clemson football?: Takeaways from the opener and looking ahead