This is not your typical Wake Forest team. And this is not your typical Clemson football team, either.
If you had said at the beginning of the 2021 season that a top-10 would come into Death Valley looking to clinch the ACC Atlantic Division in late November, Clemson football fans would assume you were talking about the Tigers. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Wake Forest, No. 10 in the latest CFB Playoff rankings, is currently sitting at 9-1 on the season with a perfect record in conference. If the Demon Deacons win Saturday, they’ll clinch the division. If they don’t, they’ll still have a chance to clinch with a win the next week against Boston College.
Clemson, on the other hand, will need a ton of help if the Tigers are somehow going to get back to the ACC Championship game.
Clemson football will need its best game of the season if the Tigers want to beat Wake Forest
It’s not a fun conversation, but to be frank, if Clemson plays to the caliber that we’ve seen the Tigers play in any of the first 10 games, they likely won’t beat Wake Forest on Saturday.
The Demon Deacons have one of the nation’s best offenses, led by super-senior Sam Hartman at quarterback and a whole host of talented wide receivers who’ll hear their names called in future NFL Drafts. They run a scheme that is compared to ‘the triple-option on steroids’ and Hartman does about as good of a job as any in the country at making the right read and getting the ball to the open play-maker.
While Clemson’s defense will certainly be a challenge for the Deacons, we are willing to admit that even the Tigers will give up some points to this explosive offensive attack. What needs to happen for Clemson to win is the defense needs to play to its best– bending and not breaking– and the offense has to have its best game of the year.
Unfortunately, 17 or 20 points isn’t going to get the job done in this one.
Wake Forest will have some struggles and, hopefully, Brent Venables will be able to make Hartman uncomfortable and force him into a few mistakes. But, if that happens, the Tigers have to capitalize.
The offense couldn’t score a touchdown on UConn last week starting a drive at the Huskies’ 17-yard line. Wake Forest’s defense might be bad, but they’re not as bad as that defense.
So, what does that mean?
It means the offense is going to have to clean up a lot– starting with the QB and the offensive line– and then attack with a different mindset. They’re going to have to come into this one with a different amount of confidence and remember who they are and the talent that they possess.
If they don’t, this could be a long day.
We never would’ve guessed that it would take a Clemson football team’s ‘A’ game to beat Wake Forest at home, but honestly, that’s exactly what it’s going to take if the Tigers are going to get the job done.