Where does Clemson even begin to try and salvage something out of its season?

Clemson’s disappointing season turned into a nightmare Saturday after a 34-21 loss to an opportunistic Syracuse team.
Death Valley, once one of the most feared places for an opponent to play a game, has hosted 4 straight losses to P4 teams.

Once considered a national title contender, the Tigers now may do well to reach a bowl game.

Is there anything they do well at all?

They have a converted WR playing RB. QB Cade Klubnik may be the single most underachieving player in college football, given expectations. The supposed vaunted talented defense gave up close to 200 yards in the first quarter Saturday, and ended up giving up 503 against Syracuse.

OC Garrett Riley is in his 3rd year at Clemson, and the offense looks as unimanative as ever. DC Tom Allen was brought in from Penn State to fix the defense that rarely plays to its potential. The early returns have left a lot to be desired.

Dabo Swinney? He appears to be in denial about how far things have sunk at Clemson.

I would never say winning an ACC Title is a bad thing, but I think one could argue it masked issues that were simmering under the surface at Clemson. Starting in November of 2024, Clemson was boatraced at home by the Louisville Cardinals 33-21 and struggled to beat Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh. There was a meaningless win over the Citadel before collapsing late at home to South Carolina.

The Tigers backed into the ACC Title game, beat SMU before getting thumped by Texas 38-24 in the playoffs.

Now at 1-3, can they salvage anything out of this season with the playoffs, and very likely the ACC Title a distant memory?

This team is too poor to even think of long-term goals. They need to beat a P4 team. They have a BYE week before playing a bad UNC team. Frankly, you can’t even consider truly salvaging the season unless you win that one first.

Clemson was 4-4 in 2023 and won their final 5 games. Dabo Swinney needs to tap into whatever motivation he got out of that team and find it again. That team had effectively nothing to play for but pride, and they showed it to end the season. If they don’t find it fast, Clemson could find itself quickly free-falling into a 2024 Florida State-type season.

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