CLEMSON, S.C. — There is something very different about Clemson-Miami week.
It isn’t simply that one of the nation’s hottest teams is coming to Death Valley. It isn’t simply the 7:30 p.m. kickoff on ABC, the national television audience or the potential implications inside the ACC.
It’s the number sitting beside Clemson’s name.
Clemson is a massive home underdog.
Depending on the sportsbook, Miami opened around a 17½-point favorite, with the number settling around 16½ at some books by Monday.
Read that again.
Clemson. At home. In Death Valley. Getting more than two touchdowns.
For a generation of Clemson fans, that sentence almost doesn’t compute.
The Tigers haven’t been a double-digit home underdog since 2003, when No. 3 Florida State came to Clemson favored by 17 points. Clemson responded by beating the Seminoles 26-10 in one of the landmark victories of the Tommy Bowden era.
That doesn’t mean history is destined to repeat itself Saturday night.
But it does tell you just how unusual this situation really is.
And maybe, for this particular Clemson team, unusual isn’t necessarily bad.
Miami Has Earned the Respect
Let’s get one thing out of the way: Miami isn’t receiving this kind of respect because of preseason hype.
The Hurricanes have earned it.
Miami enters Clemson 4-0 and has looked explosive doing it. The Hurricanes are averaging more than 50 points and nearly 590 yards of offense per game, according to current statistical rankings, while allowing only nine points per contest.
Quarterback Darian Mensah has been at the center of it.
Miami’s latest performance only added to the hype. Mensah threw for 338 yards and three touchdowns and added another score on the ground as the Hurricanes crushed Central Michigan 52-3 Saturday.
Earlier this season, Miami hung 77 points and 856 yards on Florida A&M.
This isn’t a team limping into Clemson with a lofty ranking attached to its name.
Miami is rolling.
Right now, there may not be an offense in college football playing with more confidence.
The Hurricanes have speed. They have explosiveness. They have quarterback play. They can run it. They can throw it. And, perhaps most importantly, they seem comfortable playing fast and putting opponents under pressure almost immediately.
Miami looks every bit like one of the elite teams in college football through September.
That’s the challenge walking into Death Valley.
But Clemson isn’t standing still either.
The Tigers Are Quietly Moving in the Other Direction
Go back to September 5 and Clemson looked like a program staring directly into a crisis.
LSU came into Death Valley and dismantled Clemson 51-10.
Everything was questioned afterward.
The offense.
The defense.
The quarterback position.
The coaching staff.
The direction of the season.
Three games later, the picture looks considerably different.
Clemson has won three straight and now sits 3-1 overall and 2-0 in ACC play.
Most importantly, the Tigers appear to be developing an identity.
That identity begins with defense.
Clemson went across the country Friday night and beat California 24-10, leaning heavily on its defense and running game rather than asking the offense to win a shootout.
That’s important heading into Miami.
Because trying to beat the Hurricanes by simply matching them touchdown for touchdown might be the worst possible approach.
Clemson’s path has to look different.
Slow the game down.
Run the football.
Control possession.
Win third down.
Make Miami work for every yard.
Create a turnover or two.
And turn Death Valley into an increasingly uncomfortable place as the game progresses.
That formula sounds simple. Executing it against Miami is anything but.
But Clemson at least appears to have developed the type of defense capable of making the conversation interesting.
Maybe Being the Underdog Is Exactly What Clemson Needs
For most of Dabo Swinney’s tenure, Clemson has lived on the other side of this equation.
Clemson has been the ranked team.
The favorite.
The hunted.
The program everyone circled on the schedule.
The team expected to win.
Saturday night offers something Clemson hasn’t experienced at home during the Swinney era:
Almost nobody outside that locker room is expecting the Tigers to win.
There is a freedom that can come with that.
For once, Clemson doesn’t have to explain why it isn’t beating somebody badly enough.
Nobody is wondering whether Clemson covered the spread.
Nobody is expecting a four-touchdown victory.
The Tigers can simply play.
And the crowd can embrace it.
The 16½- to 17½-point spread isn’t merely a betting number. It can become a rallying cry.
You think Miami is coming into our stadium and beating us by three touchdowns?
Good.
Put it on the video board.
Put it inside the football facility.
Put it in front of the student section.
Let 80,000 Clemson fans hear all week about how little chance their team supposedly has.
Because Death Valley is a very different place when the crowd feels disrespected too.
Clemson fans spent much of the last decade arriving at the stadium expecting victory.
This Saturday could feel different.
It could feel defiant.
The First Quarter Could Tell Us Everything
Miami has been overwhelming teams with offense.
Clemson’s challenge will be surviving that initial surge.
If Miami walks into Death Valley, scores 14 quick points and silences the crowd, Clemson could find itself playing exactly the kind of game the Hurricanes want.
But what happens if it’s 7-7 after one?
What happens if Miami’s offense gets stopped twice?
What happens if Clemson puts together a long drive, Gideon Davidson breaks a run, the defense forces a turnover and suddenly the stadium realizes the Tigers aren’t going anywhere?
That’s where the dynamics of this game could change.
Pressure is supposed to be on Clemson because the Tigers are playing at home.
But psychologically, Miami is the team expected to dominate.
Miami is the team laying more than two touchdowns.
Miami is the team receiving national attention.
Miami is the team being treated like a championship contender.
The longer Clemson hangs around Saturday night, the more interesting that burden becomes.
A Chance to Find Out How Far Clemson Has Come
That’s ultimately what this game represents.
Clemson doesn’t have to prove that everything has been fixed.
It doesn’t have to erase the LSU loss.
It doesn’t have to suddenly resemble one of Swinney’s national championship teams.
But Saturday will tell us considerably more about where the Tigers really are.
Clemson has responded to adversity.
The Tigers have won three straight.
The defense has begun playing faster and more confidently.
The running game showed signs of becoming something Clemson can lean on in California.
Now comes the measuring stick.
Miami isn’t Cal.
Miami isn’t North Carolina.
Miami arrives with one of the country’s most explosive offenses, an unbeaten record and legitimate national championship expectations.
That’s exactly why Saturday night matters.
Death Valley Gets Its Chance
There has always been something different about Clemson when the Tigers feel like the world is lined up on the other sideline.
For years, Swinney built his program around that mentality.
BYOG.
Bring your own guts.
Little ol’ Clemson.
Nobody believes in us.
Eventually Clemson became too successful to convincingly play that card anymore.
Well, for one week at least, nobody has to manufacture anything.
The betting line is sitting there in black and white.
Miami by 16½.
Miami by 17½ in some places.
Clemson hasn’t been in this position at home in more than two decades.
And maybe that’s what makes Saturday night so fascinating.
Miami comes to Clemson appearing to be one of the most complete and explosive teams in America.
Clemson enters having finally started to look like Clemson again.
One team arrives with enormous expectations.
The other arrives with almost none from the outside.
And somewhere around 7:30 Saturday night, 80,000-plus people dressed in orange will get an opportunity to decide whether that underdog label feels like an insult — or an invitation.
For the first time in a long time, Clemson gets to play the role of the hunter inside its own stadium.
And Death Valley may absolutely love it.
