Three teams due a whipping from Clemson football in 2021
The 2021 Clemson football season is still more than seven months away from kickoff, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun looking ahead.
The latest from ACC sources is that the 2021 conference schedule could be released as soon as the end of January and the plan moving forward is that we’ll see the Tigers return to a full 12-game schedule that includes four non-conference games.
Even though we’re in for a long offseason and Sept. 4th seems like forever away, here are three teams that are going to be due a whipping from Clemson football when the fall does come back around.
3. Florida State
Don’t think that Dabo Swinney will forget anything when it came to the Florida State saga that ensued this past season.
The Seminoles refused to play a game against the Tigers after a positive test- though Clemson met all the ACC’s guidelines and even offered to move the game back a day or two to allow for more rounds of testing- and that wasn’t all.
FSU insinuated that Clemson was irresponsible and took this ‘moral high ground’ that the media just ate up. The result? Florida State suffered outbreaks and missed several more games while Clemson didn’t have another positive test for more than a month.
Questioning Swinney’s character is something he doesn’t take kindly to and we can expect that the Tigers will have this game circled with a big red marker when the Seminoles come to town.
2. Georgia
The rivalry is finally being renewed.
For the first time since 2014, we will see Clemson and Georgia match up on the gridiron. Do you remember what happened the last time these two teams played?
The Bulldogs blew out the Tigers 45-21 led by an impressive effort from Todd Gurley. Of course, that was the year that a freshman named Deshaun Watson eventually took over the starting job and, well, things turned out alright for him.
That being said, there hasn’t been a team to beat Clemson football in back-to-back tries since Florida State in the same year.
Dabo Swinney typically has a little extra focus from his team in revenge spots and this is certainly that, even if the game was played more than six years ago.
This rivalry game- especially being played as the season-opener- is going to lead to a bunch of fun discussions and banter between the two fan bases in a big way.
1. South Carolina
A little bit of respect should be given to South Carolina for trying to salvage their in-state rivalry against Clemson during the 2020 season, but that doesn’t change the fact that the SEC canceled the rivalry matchup and cost the Tigers a home game as a result.
Clemson currently has a six-game winning streak over the Gamecocks and there’s no reason to believe the Tigers can’t extend that to seven this time around.
South Carolina fans are getting a little more chirpy than they normally would- they lived vicariously through Notre Dame & Ohio State this year, as well as Alabama- and it won’t be long until they’ve convinced themselves that this might just be the year and that new coach Shane Beamer is cycling the Gamecocks in while the Tigers are ‘cycling out.’
The result for Clemson football needs to be another victory and there’s no team more deserving of a good, old fashioned ‘whipping’ than the Gamecocks.