Clemson Football: Who’s the biggest competition to the Tigers in the ACC?
As we approach the 2019 Clemson football season, the Tigers are heavy favorites to repeat as ACC Champions. Could any competition emerge for the reigning champs?
Right now, there doesn’t seem to be anything in the way of Clemson football getting back to the ACC Championship and winning a fifth-straight conference title.
The Tigers are seemingly the more talented team by leaps and bounds compared to the rest of the conference, and most of the nation for that matter.
Honestly, it wouldn’t matter what conference you put Clemson football in. The Tigers would, without a doubt, be the favorite- or at least one of the favorites. The program is just that good.
But, are there any teams or programs that could make a run at the Tigers in 2019 in the ACC?
Here’s a look at the biggest competition.
ACC Competition:
Starting with the division, I don’t see many teams that could consistently compete with Clemson. Florida State still has one of the worst offensive lines in the nation and just lost an elite pass-rusher in Bryan Burns.
The top two trending teams in the Atlantic may very well be Syracuse, NC State and Boston College. The Orange will be without Eric Dungey, but still are trending in the right direction. NC State lost Ryan Finley, as well as a pair of talented wide receivers in Kelvin Harmon and Jakobi Meyers. In some ways, though, I still think the Wolfpack will be better now that Finley is gone.
Boston College returns AJ Dillon and they’ll be a factor, but I still don’t expect them to win more than nine games.
As we move outside of the Atlantic, I’d say Pittsburgh, Virginia and possibly a Virginia Tech or Miami could be in the mix to win the Coastal.
Virginia could take a big step forward with Bronco Mendenhall at the helm, but I still don’t see the Cavaliers being more than a ranked team.
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In the end, the ACC may have a few more teams inside the top-25 this year as they continue to move toward improvement, but I don’t see any teams creeping inside the top-10, meaning that competition for the Tigers will be hard to come by.