One thing that bowl practice allows coaches to do is look at what they’ll have on next year’s team. Here’s an early look at Clemson football in 2019.
We’re not going to spend too much time talking about the 2019 Clemson football team. I mean, there are still too many questions to be answered by next year and the Tigers are about to compete in the College Football Playoff for a fourth-straight year.
With that being said, though, we received a question here a few days ago asking about the prospect of next year.
Will the Tigers have a chance to get back to the playoff again next year?
The short answer is yes.
2019 Clemson Football Team: An Early Look
Offensively next season, you return basically everyone at the skill positions. Trevor Lawrence will be back as quarterback.
You’ll have a full stable of running backs (Etienne, Feaster and Dixon) assuming health and no transfers. You’ll have Tee Higgins, Amari Rodgers, Justyn Ross, Derion Kendrick and many other talented wide-outs returning. There will also be a talented group of skill position players coming in as freshmen.
The biggest questions on offense next season will be the offensive line’s depth and if someone can replace Hunter Renfrow’s consistency. That will be your “weakness” offensively. The Tigers still should have a talented offensive line, though, with the likes of Jackson Carman, John Simpson, Sean Pollard, Cade Stewart, TreMayne Anchrum and others returning.
Defensively, I think we should plan on losing the entire starting defensive line and possibly a linebacker or two. There’s a chance that Clemson could lose more depending on if any upperclassmen decide to declare for the NFL Draft early or not.
Players to watch for in that regard include: Clelin Ferrell, Dexter Lawrence, Trayvon Mullen, Tre Lamar, Tanner Muse, K’Von Wallace and Isaiah Simmons.
I think Ferrell and Lawrence are locks to leave early while Mullen and Lamar are probably questionable. Most likely Muse, Wallace and Simmons will return.
If you have those guys return, the secondary could actually be the strength of Clemson’s defense next season, which would be strange since it was the weakness this season. The question defensively really will be depth at defensive tackle. I think the defensive ends are going to be very good, but the interior defensive line is going to be rather thin (you’ll have Pinckney, Kelly and Williams returning from the three-deep).
Overall, though, Clemson is going to have a great chance to get back to the College Football Playoff next year because of that explosive offense. The defense will come along as the season progresses, in my opinion, and you should see an elite team take the field in Death Valley for yet another season under Dabo Swinney.