Clemson Football: What’s the worst case scenario for 2019 season?

What’s the worst case scenario for Clemson football in 2019? Here’s perhaps our most pessimistic post of the entire preseason.

There’s a reason that Clemson football is a favorite to get back to the CFB Playoff in 2019.

We’ve spent the entire offseason giving in-depth analysis about how the Tigers have a favorable path to the playoff and how they’re going to be a tough team to beat. There’s no doubting the talent, depth and skill that the 2019 Clemson football team possesses.

So, what’s the worst case scenario for this team? Instead of looking on the bright side as we tend to do, let’s just spend a little bit of time looking at the other side of the coin.

Worst Case Scenario?

In my opinion, the Tigers would have to suffer a lot of injuries and suffer from lack of focus to have anything worse than an 11-1 season.

I can see, realistically, the team coming out flat one time or getting beaten in a fluky type of way one time just because things like that happen in College Football, but much more than that would be absolutely surprising.

So, is 11-1 really the worst case scenario?

Probably not. If there were a lot of injuries, perhaps this team could falter again down the stretch and fall to 10-2, but it just doesn’t seem likely.

When we look at this team, the schedule and the depth it possesses, it’s just hard to see Clemson football finishing with anything less than 11-1 barring an absolute meltdown or a ‘sky is falling’ situation. If the team were to lose to, for example, Syracuse early in the season and then the Orange went on to finish with a 7-1 record in the ACC, the Tigers would be left out of the ACC Championship game despite going 11-1.

To me, that’d be one of the worst case scenarios. That, despite having just one loss, the goal set forth for the season would be gone and with no conference title, the likelihood of the Tigers reaching the CFB Playoff would be greatly diminished.

The Tigers could also win the ACC with an 11-1 record and get left out of the playoff due to their perceived easy schedule. It definitely wouldn’t be surprising to see the committee favor a one-loss SEC team without a conference championship or a one-loss Big Ten or Big 12 Champion over Clemson.

That being said, there’s certainly more room for the best case scenario (15-0 with another National Championship) to happen or at the very least something in the middle, rather than the scenario we laid out.