Clemson Football: The one team that can beat the Tigers in 2018

There’s only one team on the 2018 regular season schedule that can beat Clemson football. Can you guess who that team is?

The 2018 Clemson football season is less than three weeks away from kickoff.

The vast majority of analysts pick the Tigers to go 11-1 and lose one to the schedule, but when asked most can’t come up with a game. It’s one of those deals where people believe that the team will just lose one because it’s so hard to go undefeated.

While that may be true, there is one opponent that can beat Clemson football in 2018.

Here are a few hints about them:

• They have a dominant defensive line
• The skill position players are very good
• They’ve got a great mixture of veteran and young talent needed to compete

Care to take a guess at who I’m talking about?

It’s not Boston College, it’s not Georgia Tech, it’s not Florida State, it’s not Texas A&M and it’s certainly not South Carolina.

It’s Clemson.

Who can beat Clemson?

We’ve heard Dabo Swinney say it a number of times: “The only team that can beat Clemson is Clemson.” That statement has never been truer heading into a season.

The Tigers are head and shoulders better than any team on their schedule. They have talent across the board. Of course injuries can happen, but when you look at each match up on paper, there would be no reason to pick any team other than Clemson in each of the Tigers’ 12 games.

Could Boston College, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Texas A&M or even South Carolina beat Clemson? Yes, it’s College Football, so anything is possible.

But I would be willing to bet that if one of those teams (or any of the others on the schedule for that matter) beat Clemson, it will be because they had some help from the Tigers and played a near-flawless game. Clemson can be beat any given week. If you turn the ball over three times and the defense gives up big play after big play, you could lose to any team.

But if Clemson comes focused, prepared and ready to go, there’s no team on this schedule that the Tigers should lose to, regardless of who is at quarterback.

The talent is great and Clemson football fans should really enjoy this season. There’s going to come a time where the Tigers aren’t at this same elite level.

There’s also going to come a time where teams like Florida State-maybe even Notre Dame or LSU in the future– return to prominence and are elite programs with equal talent. Then you’ll be involved in a couple of toss-ups that could go either way.

So my advice is simple: Enjoy the ride, Tiger fans.

Could we see a loss in 2018? Absolutely. But if it does come, it won’t be because the Tigers have less talent, it will be because they weren’t the better team on the field that particular day. Talent doesn’t win championships, but I think this team is focused and ready to go. If they are, the statement is true:

“Only Clemson can beat Clemson.”