Clemson has five goals entering each season that, if accomplished, head coach Dabo Swinney believes will be good enough for the Tigers to deliver a national championship.
Win the opener.
Win the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Atlantic Division.
Win the state championship (against South Carolina).
Win the ACC.
Win the closer.
Clemson won’t go 5 for 5 this season.
The first goal fell by the wayside with a whimper Saturday in the Tigers’ 10-3 loss to Georgia in the premier matchup of college football’s opening weekend at Bank of America Stadium. While a defense that was without Tyler Davis and Nolan Turner did everything it could to give Clemson a chance, the offense wilted under the constant pressure of the Bulldogs’ defense, which held the Tigers 48 rushing yards not counting sacks (just 2 if you do), got to D.J. Uiagalelei for seven of those and turned what has been one of college football’s more explosive offenses in recent years into a shell of its former self.
“When you play a top-5 team, you have to execute with precision,” Swinney said afterward. “And we didn’t do that.”
Now one game doesn’t make a season. Swinney made sure to point out afterward that all of the Tigers’ remaining goals are still in front of them, but there was a reason why many pegged Saturday’s top-5 clash as more important for Clemson in terms of the big picture.
The Tigers’ first chance at a signature win for their College Football Playoff resume may have been their only one. While a competitive loss to a top-5 team doesn’t completely eliminate Clemson’s chances of being a playoff participant for a seventh straight season, the Tigers are facing an uphill climb with no more room for error considering what the rest of their schedule looks like.
In-state FCS foe South Carolina State will be a sacrificial lamb this weekend inside Memorial Stadium before the Tigers get back to playing teams their own size in their ACC opener on Sept. 18 against Georgia Tech, which fell to Northern Illinois on Saturday. And there aren’t many opponents after that that are going to move the needle in terms of helping Clemson’s playoff cause.
In fact, unless a team like Boston College or N.C. State or Pittsburgh can sneak into the top 25 by the time Clemson plays them, the Tigers won’t face another ranked team until a potential ACC championship game tilt. And even the quality of opponent the Tigers could get matched up with back in Charlotte in December isn’t looking as promising after what’s transpired over the last couple of days.
North Carolina and Miami, widely viewed as the favorites in the Coastal Division, each took it on the chin after beginning the season in the top 12 of the Associated Press preseason poll. As part of a no-good, very-bad weekend for the ACC, UNC was upset by an unranked Virginia Tech team on Friday while Miami was no match for reigning national champ Alabama in a 31-point loss Saturday. Both teams — the only other ones from the ACC besides Clemson to start the season ranked — figure to tumble in this week’s polls.
How far Clemson drops will also be interesting to see. One wouldn’t think far given the competitiveness of Saturday’s top-5 clash, but the Tigers’ offense likely didn’t inspire any confidence for voters who watched, particularly given how immense the struggle was against a playoff-caliber team.
“I’m concerned,” ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said on SportsCenter following Clemson’s loss. “I know they’re in the ACC and they’re going to be a lot better than most teams they play. But their offense has got to find an identity.”
The good news for Clemson is there’s still time to do that. The Tigers have 11 more chances in the regular season to redeem themselves, and while those games won’t come against the level of competition they faced Saturday, they’re just as important.
Because winning the division, winning the state championship and winning the conference are just as much of a requirement as they are goals at this point if Clemson hopes to get back to the kind of closer the Tigers are used to at the end of the season. If they run the table the rest of the way and finish as a one-loss conference champion, there’s no doubt the Tigers will be in the CFP discussion.
If not, there likely won’t be any reason to talk about it anymore.
“We’ll go back to work, look up somewhere down the road and we will see a lot of growth from this game,” Swinney said. “I don’t have any doubt about it.”
Football season has finally arrived. Time to represent your Tigers and show your stripes!
