The temptation to look ahead hasn’t been this high in quite some time for Clemson football
One of the cornerstones of the Clemson football program has been the fact that the Tigers take it one step at a time and don’t get caught looking ahead.
There has been just a handful of examples over the last decade where the Tigers have come out looking unfocused in a game under Dabo Swinney‘s watch and even some of those moments saw some strange instances occur.
As we look at the Clemson football game this weekend, though, the Tigers will certainly have the temptation to look ahead and the reason two-fold:
- The last time this team played Virginia, they beat the Cavaliers 62-17 and it could’ve been worse
- And the bigger reason: A top-10 team in Miami is coming to town next weekend for a game that will be nationally televised and featured.
Clemson football hasn’t even played a top-10 team in the regular season since Louisville in 2016
The last time the Tigers played a top-10 team, Deshaun Watson was the quarterback and we saw an absolute classic between two all-time greats in Watson and Louisville QB Lamar Jackson.
Now, with a win this weekend against Virginia, we will see another top-10 matchup in Death Valley in a game that will televised at 7:30 p.m. on ABC. The magnitude of that kind of matchup- whether you believe in Miami or not- is something that will get players, coaches and fans alike excited.
That being said, it’s not time for the Hurricanes yet.
Clemson has to remain focused and this game against UVA will do a good job of showing just how dialed-in the Tigers are and what their leadership looks like as we progress through this season. There’s no reason Clemson shouldn’t win this one by multiple touchdowns. Honestly, they could probably show up unfocused and still win the game handily.
That being said, we want to see the Clemson football team come out completely prepared and focused on the task at hand with no thoughts at all about what awaits them the following week.
That’s what this program has done and that’s what we expect to continue seeing from this program.