Clemson football: Ranking all 12 games on the 2021 schedule by difficulty

The Clemson football team will enter the 2021 season as one of the favorites to compete for a spot in the CFB Playoff.

Though the Tigers lose a couple of historically-great talents in Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne, they return an experienced and deep defense and will have a 5-star in D.J. Uiagalelei taking over at quarterback.

While some are skeptical of what Clemson football might be able to accomplish in 2021, there’s no doubt that the Tigers have the ability to compete at a high level and achieve all of their goals heading into the season.

Here’s a look at our rankings of the 2021 Clemson football schedule by difficulty.

12. vs. SC State Bulldogs (Sept. 11)

There’s a lot of respect from Dabo Swinney when it comes to in-state programs and that’s why Clemson always makes its best effort to schedule one game a year with an FCS program from the state of South Carolina.

This will be Clemson’s first game back in Death Valley at full capacity and there’s going to be something special about seeing 80,000 Tiger fans gather together again after a year of limited capacity last season.

That being said, there’s nothing about this game on-the-field that will scream ‘excitement.’

Clemson simply has too much depth and the Tigers will be looking to put the Bulldogs away early and work on development for the vast majority of the afternoon.