The final third of the Clemson football season is upon us. Yes, we spend all summer long just WAITING for football to begin, and now that it has, POOF!!!!! Eight games have come and gone, and we are looking at the last four games of the regular season. The life of a college football fan.
Looking back, if someone had said the Tigers will be 8-0 going into the bye week, about 50% would be like “YEAH GO TIGERS!!!”. The other 50% would be like “Yeah, but we almost lost four games, we were lucky.” If in doubt, listen to Coach Dabo Swinney. “Winning is hard. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.”
Looking ahead, there are still some tough games, especially the next one.
Dabo always responds when asked who is Clemson’s toughest game with “The next one.” Well, the next one is Notre Dame. The Irish, under new head coach Marcus Freeman, got out to a slow start, losing the first two games to Ohio State and Marshall. Unfortunately, the Irish lost their starting quarterback, Tyler Buchner, to injury. Since those two losses, ND has won four of their last five games under new QB Drew Pyne. Freeman and his charges must travel to Syracuse this weekend. With the Orangmen convinced they should have or DID win the game against Clemson, the Irish might have a tough road to hoe.
After playing 5 of 9 on the road, the Tigers finally return to the friendly confines of Death Valley to play the last three games of the season, starting with Louisville. We will need to rename this team to the Louisville Rollercoasters. One never knows which team will show up on any given Saturday. Louisville opened the season with a loss to Syracuse, then a solid win against UCF. After a loss to Florida State, they pummeled USF (who hasn’t this year, right?) 41-3. The Cardinals then traveled to Boston College, lost 34-33 on a last second field goal and have beaten Virginia and Pittsburgh since then. Louisville has to face James Madison and Wake Forest before traveling to the Valley on November 12th. Which Louisville team will show up?
The Hurricanes have fallen on hard times of late, especially after all the preseason hype of new coach Mario Cristobal coming to town. It hasn’t really turned out the way the fans had hoped. With all the hype/hope of massive NIL deals flying around, the big money corporations aren’t exactly getting what they had hoped for in returns. Losing four out of their last five, including an embarrassing loss to Middle Tennessee State, this is a team that was expected to compete for the Coastal Championship. Yeah, that’s not going to happen this year. The Canes are limping right now with QB Tyler Van Dyke getting injured against Duke and is uncertain this Saturday against Virginia. Miami had 8 turnovers in their loss against the Blue Devils, getting hammered 45-21. The Canes play at Virginia, home to Florida State, and at Georgia Tech before playing the Tigers in Clemson. It’s called “limping home” for Mario.
Finally, the “25th ranked South Carolina Gamecocks!!!!!” will be coming to Clemson for the first time since the 2018 season. Last year, the Tigers shutout USC-e 30-0 and has now won seven in a row in the series. In 2020, the SEC (so they say) mandated no out of conference games due to Covid (still doesn’t make sense to this day), thus, canceling USC-e’s visit to Clemson that year. The cocks recently upset ranked Kentucky 24-14, taking full advantage of Kentucky QB Will Levis missing the game due to injury. USC has gotten off to a 5-2 start, and has a good chance to win the next two games, hosting Missouri and going to Vanderbilt. The schedule gets a little tougher from there, traveling to Florida for a game against the Gators and hosting Tennessee. Oh yeah, then they will face a Clemson team that has their number.
The Final Third. Last year at this time, the Tigers were 5-3 and their fate for the ACC Championship was not in their hands. This year, it is. Win out and Clemson heads to the Conference Championship game in Charlotte, a town Clemson fans had become accustomed to visiting the first week of December.
