The Clemson football team will enter the 2021 season as one of the favorites to compete for a spot in the CFB Playoff, but that doesn’t mean the Tigers don’t have their fair share of doubters.
As we inch closer to the start of preseason camp, we are seeing more and more national analysts predict a potential CFB Playoff without Clemson and we are seeing many more have the Tigers outside of their top-three rankings to begin the season.
When looking at the on-the-field product, there are three narratives in which people have used to debunk Clemson football and the success the Tigers will have this season.
Here’s a look at the three most common perceived weaknesses for Clemson football and how the Tigers will address them in the preseason and as we get into the fall of 2021.
Quarterback Depth
D.J. Uiagalelei may be considered one of the best quarterbacks in the nation, but one of the major concerns that Tiger fans have is the depth behind him.
With Taisun Phommachanh out for the season, Clemson only has one guaranteed quarterback on campus this fall- walk-on Hunter Helms- and the Tigers are hoping that at least one of their QB signees- Bubba Chandler and/or Will Taylor- will stick around instead of heading off to begin a professional baseball career.
If both Chandler and Taylor leave, there is only one that the Tigers can address the quarterback depth issue: Head to the NCAA Transfer Portal.
It may seem to be out of Dabo Swinney’s character, but you want to at least have a backup that you can trust to not lose a game if Uiagalelei was to be out for a couple of quarters or something of that nature.
In the end, is the ‘quarterback depth narrative’ as big of a deal as many make it out to be? No. Any program in the nation that loses its starting quarterback for a lengthy amount of time likely won’t be winning a National Championship. But it’s still an area that the Tigers have to address in some way.