Clemson Football: Florida State’s Upset Checklist vs. Tigers

How does Florida State come out victorious Saturday against Clemson football? Well, there’s a long list of things that would have to happen.

Clemson football fans will be the first group to tell you that upsets can happen each and every week.

That’s what makes the Tigers’ 20-game winning streak so impressive. For 20 weeks, the Clemson football program has yet to lose a game and they’ve continuously beaten opponents who have all given them their best shot.

Two Saturdays ago, though, the Tigers admittedly lost focus. They ran into a North Carolina team that was well-coached, gave great effort and didn’t make any mistakes. As a result, the Tar Heels led for part of the afternoon and had an opportunity to win the game.

Eventually, they elected to go for two after scoring a touchdown that made it a 21-20 game and failed on the conversion. The Tigers held on for the victory and escaped Chapel Hill, hopefully learning a valuable lesson: The only team that can beat Clemson football is, indeed, Clemson football.

What has to happen for Florida State to pull off a huge upset Saturday? Well, it’s fairly simple.

Here’s a look at the checklist for what it would take for the Seminoles to come away with the win.

FSU Upset Checklist:

• Tigers come out unfocused
• FSU forces Clemson into mistakes
• FSU doesn’t make mistakes
• Seminoles break off a few big-time plays
• FSU limits Clemson’s explosiveness, frustrating the offense

This is exactly what North Carolina did Saturday. The Tar Heels took advantage of a less-than-focused Clemson bunch and forced the Tigers to make a few mistakes (i.e. Travis Etienne’s fumble). In turn, North Carolina limited their mistakes and broke off a huge passing touchdown early in the game.

Defensively, the Tar Heels played back in Cover-2 for most of the day and let the Tigers play in front of them. North Carolina allowed Clemson to gain short yardage, but didn’t give up the big play- until late in the game.

That frustrated the Clemson offense, limiting the Tigers to just 21 points all afternoon.

This is the formula to pulling off an upset- well, at least keeping the game close. The Tigers are too talented and deep to be beaten without a few things going in the opponent’s favor. Florida State will need to take advantage of Clemson mistakes and play a near perfect game.

So, looking from the eyes of the opponent, this is what it would take for Florida State to somehow pull off the improbable upset.