After a 9-4 season, the Tigers are looking to gain some of the momentum they’ve lost. It just so happens that Clemson has a relatively easy schedule to do it, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be roadblocks.
On the “Cover 3 Podcast,” Bud Elliott sat down with Austin Hannon of 247 Sports. “It’ll be important to start fast,” said Elliott. “In the first five games, they play Georgia neutral, [at home] against NC State, and at FSU. That’s not super easy.”
After Florida State, the Tigers have a relatively easy path to the ACC Championship. The hardest games left will be at Virginia Tech, vs. Louisville, and vs. South Carolina. Having two of the three at home helps, too.
However, its record against Georgia, NC State, and FSU will be early indications of how the season will unfold for Clemson. If the Tigers drop all three, they might as well kiss the playoffs goodbye. On the other hand, if Clemson wins just one and sweeps the rest of the season, they’ll at least be in the conversation.
Unfortunately, it won’t be as easy as that. Between those three games, Clemson will play a bottom-of-the-conference Stanford team and a Group of Five team in Appalachian State. Hannon discussed just how dangerous the latter could be. “If they go to Atlanta and get beat around by Georgia like some people expect, [and then] you got to come home and play App State the first game next the home opener, and that’s not really a pushover,” said Hannon.
App State famously knocked off No. 5 Michigan in 2007. It was the first time an FCS team beat a ranked FBS team. Only two years ago, the Mountaineers did it again. Although they were an FBS team, App State went into College Station and dominated Texas A&M.
They are the giant slayers of college football. If Clemson is caught licking their wounds from a Georgia loss like Hannon stated, or looking ahead toward NC State, it might be the next victim on Appalachian State’s list.