Clemson football is beginning to look a little like Alabama
As we prepare for a long 2021 offseason, the Clemson football team is set up to look somewhat familiar to the reigning National Champions.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: That Alabama team had five first-round picks on its offense alone. That Crimson Tide team was the most dominant of the 2020 season and the offense was basically unstoppable.
Clemson, on the other hand, just lost its top two offensive playmakers in Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne. So, how could the Tigers look anything like Alabama?
It doesn’t have to necessarily do with personnel. It’s about attitude. It’s about focus. It’s about proving naysayers wrong.
No one came into the 2020 season thinking that Mac Jones was going to be a Heisman finalist. Even though we knew that DeVonta Smith was a talented wide receiver, no one thought he would win the Heisman Trophy.
But it’s the premise of what they were able to do.
People were writing off Alabama, just as some are doing to Clemson football now
After an embarrassing loss to Clemson in the 2019 National Championship game followed by missing the CFB Playoff altogether during the 2019 season, many were saying that the Alabama dynasty was over.
That’s when the Crimson Tide had a whole host of upper classmen- Smith, Jaylen Waddle and Alex Leatherwood, to just name a few- who decided they were going to return for one more season because they wanted to leave on top.
They did just that.
Now, after two blowout losses in the CFB Playoff, some of those same sentiments are beginning to be whispered about Clemson football. Now, the Tigers have guys like Nolan Turner, James Skalski, Justyn Ross and Derion Kendrick returning for another season and they’re going to be more focused than ever before.
Clemson is going to have an improved and more experienced offensive line to couple with a blooming star in D.J. Uiagalelei. The second-year QB is going to have the deepest room of wide receivers that we’ve seen in quite some time to throw to and, oh yeah, all 11 starters are going to be back defensively.
It won’t be done the same way, but the some of the vibes coming out of Tuscaloosa in January of 2020 are now feeling eerily similar to what we’re feeling here in Clemson in January of 2021. Will the results be the same? Only time will tell.