With the Clemson Tigers firmly on their bye week, you as a fan can do one of two things. You can either enjoy some fresh air and take a break from some college football action for a minute, or you can plop right back down on the couch and watch other intriguing games. At the midway point of the season, Clemson is 3-2 overall and 2-1 in conference play, holding onto its playoff hopes by a thread.
For Clemson to miraculously find its way back to Charlotte, the Tigers not only need to win out in all likelihood, but will need some help along the way. Of course, five of their seven remaining regular-season games are of the ACC variety. As expected, it would serve Clemson fans to keep close tabs on a few notable games across league play, especially if the Tigers will have to play them later on.
From a purely Clemson perspective, it may be worthwhile checking out any of these five ACC games.
Florida State Seminoles 3-2 (1-1) at Louisville Cardinals 2-3 (1-2)
Friday, Oct. 9, 7:00 p.m. ET (ESPN)
The Friday night kick at Louisville should pique Clemson fans' interest for three reasons. One, the Tigers will have to face Florida State in Tallahassee on Halloween. Two, with how well the Seminoles played Virginia last weekend, maybe Mike Norvell's team has a bit more life to it than we expected. And three, have you seen how bad Louisville has looked of late? The Cardinals have lost three games!
Since the chances of Clemson playing Louisville in Charlotte this year are about zero, this is all about seeing what Florida State can become in the middle third of its season. In the Seminoles' two losses to SMU and Alabama, they kept it interesting for a while before eventually falling apart at the seams. From an outsider's perspective, that massive home blowout over Virginia felt like two wins for them.
If Florida State hands Louisville its fourth loss of the season, maybe we should be a little more worried about FSU?
North Carolina Tar Heels 2-2 (0-1) at No. 25 Pittsburgh Panthers 5-0 (2-0)
Saturday, Oct. 10, 12:00 p.m. ET (CW)
Even though Clemson owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over North Carolina and does not play Pittsburgh this season, the early afternoon kick on Saturday should matter to the Tigers from an optics standpoint. To be frank, Clemson should root hard for North Carolina in every game the Tar Heels play the rest of the way. It would help elevate the Tigers' come-from-behind victory over them.
As far as Pitt is concerned, while the No. 25 Panthers could be in line to get to Charlotte, they lost starting quarterback Mason Heintschel for the season after a torn ACL suffered in last Friday night's win over Virginia Tech. Pitt appears to have a defense, but a one-dimensional Panthers team could get beat by an improving team in North Carolina. The outcome of this game should carry some clout.
Clemson fans should hope for UNC to stop the bleeding by handing Pitt its first loss of the season.
Duke Blue Devils 4-0 (1-0) at Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 1-3 (0-1)
Saturday, Oct. 10, 3:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2)
Duke at Georgia Tech is the only ACC game on the slate this weekend that features two opponents that Clemson will have to play this season. Fate would have it, the Tigers draw them back-to-back to close out ACC play in the middle of November. While Georgia Tech may be the worst team in the ACC, Duke may very well get a shot at repeating as conference champs. Manny Diaz has this team rolling.
In short, we could be looking at the second-best team in the ACC going against the worst team this league can offer right now. While it could be a trap game for the Blue Devils, it is far more likely that Nate Sheppard is going to run all over the Georgia Tech defense down on The Flats. This is the range of ACC opponents Clemson could be going up against later on after the bye, so pay close attention.
Right now, a win over Duke would do wonders, while a loss to Georgia Tech might prove catastrophic.
Virginia Tech Hokies 4-1 (1-1) at California Golden Bears 2-3 (1-1)
Saturday, Oct. 10, 3:30 p.m. ET (ACCN)
The other mid-afternoon ACC kickoff of note from a Clemson perspective would be Virginia Tech playing Cal in Berkeley. While the Golden Bears may have hired the wrong head coach in Tosh Lupoi, James Franklin already has the Hokies on a better trajectory than Brent Pry ever did. Yes, they lost at home to Pitt on the most beautiful missed field goal you will ever see; Clemson still has to play them.
While Duke is the likeliest team to be ranked at the time of its meeting with Clemson, if Virginia Tech takes care of business at Cal and Pitt refuses to lose without Heintschel, that first ACC game after the Charleston Southern kick could be mighty tasty. In short, a home loss to Virginia Tech would knock Clemson out of the playoff picture entirely. It would need Virginia Tech to lose three more ACC games.
We will have a better idea of how good Virginia Tech looks -- as well how bad Cal is -- after this game.
Syracuse Orange 2-2 (0-2) at Virginia Cavaliers 3-2 (1-1)
Saturday, Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m. ET (ACCN)
The last ACC game Clemson fans should at least be monitoring from afar is Syracuse at Virginia. The Cavaliers were humiliated last week at Florida State. Clearly, we overstated their Week 0 victory over North Carolina State. This is a team that has since lost to West Virginia and the Seminoles to sit at 3-2 on the year. However, it may be more important to see what 2-2 Syracuse looks like in this ACC game.
Clemson will have to play at Syracuse in November. This game will be sandwiched between a pair of rivalry games for the Tigers: at Florida State on Halloween and at home versus Georgia Tech on Nov. 14. If Syracuse is an afterthought -- after all, the Orange did lose to Cal -- that might give Clemson an extra boost in the heart of ACC play. Clemson needs to beat Syracuse if it wants to be bowl-eligible.
While the winner of this game matters, it might actually say more about the loser than anything else.
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