3. Clemson will lose two regular season games
File this under the Will Keep Throwing This Against The Wall Until It Sticks category, because whether it was Georgia two years ago, or Clemson last season, or Alabama a few times here and there, this type of call never seems to come through.
I’m going to keep on hacking at it, though.
In 2014, Clemson got rocked by Georgia in the season opener, lost two weeks later to Florida State, and got shut down by Georgia Tech late in the year. That was the last time the Tigers lost two games in the regular season, and 2017 was the only time in the last five seasons that they’ve lost more than one game.
It took an injury to QB Kelly Bryant against Syracuse, and a CFP semifinal loss to eventual national champion Alabama for that to happen. This program just doesn’t lose regular season games.
It’s going to be the No. 1 team in the country to start the season – top three at worst – and personnel-wise, there’s nothing there to expect anything less than another ACC Championship to go along with the annual trip to the College Football Playoff.
So what could possibly go wrong?
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The rest of the ACC will be better after being used as a speed bump.
Oh sure, North Carolina was terrific last year in a 21-20 loss, but all that did was anger the beast. After the trip to Chapel Hill, a 45-14 win over Florida State became Clemson’s idea of a nail-biter over the final six dates against league foes.
This year – unless there’s a key injury or five – the Tigers will likely be double-digit favorites against everyone on the schedule. However, Louisville will be dangerous, Virginia will still be good, a trip to Florida State will be interesting, and …
It’s going to take something totally wacky for Clemson to lose an ACC game.
It’s not as if there haven’t been a few close calls to go along with the needed-something-epic-to-pull-off-the-upset losses in ACC play over the last five years, and all it might take is one to screw everything up.
So if there’s just one shocker in conference play – or even against (gasp) South Carolina if the planets align correctly – then there has to be one other loss to make this call happen.
That’s where this comes in …