Clemson football fans need to become huge fans of Pittsburgh

The 2021 Clemson football season hasn’t necessarily gotten off to the start that most Tiger fans had hoped.

Clemson dropped its season-opener to Georgia a couple of weeks ago and even though the Tigers got in the win column this past Saturday against S.C. State, there remains a ton of work to be done if they want to make the CFB Playoff.

Unfortunately, the schedule the rest of the way isn’t going to do the Tigers any favors when it comes to resume.

Right now, Clemson has no ranked teams remaining on its schedule and the only top-25 matchup might come in the ACC Championship game. That’s going to put the Tigers at a disadvantage if they’re being compared to a one-loss team from another conference who has multiple ranked wins.

For example, even though Ohio State has a worse loss, there would be many who are willing to forgive that loss if the Buckeyes come out unscathed and have several ranked wins– Iowa, Michigan, Indiana– on their resume.

Clemson football fans need to become huge fans of the Pitt Panthers

There was a point where we believed N.C. State and Boston College could potentially become ranked teams. The Wolfpack threw that out the door when they laid an egg on the road at Mississippi State and now they have two of their best defenders injured for the remainder of the season.

Boston College, who we thought would finish second in the ACC Atlantic, will now be without its dynamic QB Phil Jurkovec for the rest of the season.

So, who does that leave as potential opponents who could crack the top-25? The Pitt Panthers.

Pitt picked up a road win over Tennessee this past weekend and now they’ll have three games in which they’ll be heavily favored– vs. Western Michigan, vs. New Hampshire and @ Georgia Tech. If they win those three, that will set up a potentially ranked matchup against Virginia Tech (currently ranked 15th) in Blacksburg on October 16.

If Pitt was to come away with a win in that one, they’d have a 6-0 record and potentially would be a top-15 team when Clemson traveled up to Heinz Field the next weekend. A perfect opportunity for the Tigers to showcase their improvements against a team that would have some clout behind it.

If Pitt could finish the year at 9-3 or 10-2 and ranked, that could go a long way in building Clemson’s case to be a team in the field of four for the CFB Playoff. That’s exactly why Clemson football fans need to be cheering the Panthers on the rest of the way.

Unfortunately, other than Pitt, I don’t see another ranked team on this regular season schedule. In a year where there could be a ton of one-loss teams vying for two spots, it’s going to be important that the Tigers have some kind of resume to fall back on.

The Clemson football fans saying all of this doesn’t matter aren’t really paying attention. The Tigers could realistically go 12-1 and still miss the CFB Playoff if certain teams– ie. Oregon, Oklahoma, etc.– don’t lose and even if they do, there’s going to be a conversation to be had by the committee on how to rank these teams, for better or for worse.