Clemson football: Counting down the toughest games of 2022 – Part 1 of 3
By Casey Cregan
With about two months left until Clemson football opens the season in Atlanta, let’s look at the games ranked easiest to toughest on the Tigers schedule.
Clemson football is on the horizon and we are well into “talking season” as recruiting is heating up for the Tigers and schedules are being scrutinized. The next logical step is for Dan Wolken or Stuart Mandel to put out their yearly biting commentary on something they deem Dabo Swinney is doing wrong.
Personally I am not a big fan of pre-season anything. There is something infuriating about getting a pre-season strength of schedule metric put out by some talking head or Big Game Boomer-type that feigns knowledge but drums up engagement. How can strength of schedule be determined before there are any games played? Now, I am not a complete moron, I get that people like to try to put together what is known and what is unknown and come up with a concrete solution. I just do not agree with placing arbitrary ratings on kids 18-22 years old.
Clemson fans can tell you first-hand how excited we were in getting DJ Uiagalelei under center at the start of last season, and then because of whatever may have happened, realized that maybe he was not the same guy that we saw in South Bend, Indiana the year before. So things happen, things change.
Sorry for that diatribe. Those that know me know that I am apt to go off the rails and off on some tangent away from the original point of the column. Yet, strength of schedule rings true here in this three-part series counting down Clemson’s toughest games of the season.
Today is part 1 (of 3): from 12th toughest to 9th toughest or the 2022 season, with little notes as to reasoning.