If anyone is still sugarcoating things including Dabo Swinney, let it go. The 2023 Clemson football team is just bad. They are bad and getting worse.
The OT performance against Florida State that apologists keep pointing to was fool’s gold. Clemson in that game faced a diminished QB in Jordan Travis, was at home, and to their credit played reasonably well that day.
That’s been the exception though.
The reality is Clemson is a turnover-prone team, that has no playmakers on offense and a decent defense that cracks late in games. They are exactly what their record says they are a 4-4 (2-4) team that’s in the bottom half of the ACC.
Saturday against NC State it was more of the same. It was a 24-17 loss where you never got the sense Clemson could win after falling behind by double digits. QB Cade Klubnik looks talented but is showing no signs of progression. There still haven’t been any wide receivers to step up and become go-to players. RB Will Shipley looks to have suffered a neck or back injury, and his status is up in the air. Against a defense as good as NC State, Clemson already inept offense struggled to move the ball consistently. There was a bit of a spark in the 4th quarter, but by then it was far too late.
With Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, UNC, and South Carolina left, Clemson’s bowl hopes are astonishingly in real jeopardy. None of the four are given, and only Georgia Tech looks like a probable but not guaranteed win even with three of the four at home.
Clemson is a bad team left playing for pride.
Dabo Swinney has a major effort ahead of him not to completely lose this team and miss a bowl game.
Yep, it’s gotten that bad at Clemson.
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