With the Clemson Tigers firmly in their bye week, now is a good time to assess what is coming down the pipeline for them in the second half. Clemson is 3-2 on the season and 2-1 in ACC play, with wins over Georgia Southern, North Carolina, and Cal, but the Tigers also suffered blowout losses to LSU and Miami on opposite sides of their three-game winning streak. What could the Tigers' record be?
Coming off a disastrous 7-6 season, there is a strong possibility that Clemson exceeds that mark by a few more wins. In a best-case scenario, Clemson wins out to finish the regular season at 10-2 (7-1). It may need some help, but that could be good enough for the Tigers to get to Charlotte with a playoff berth on the line. In a worst-case scenario, this team might need to beat South Carolina to go bowling.
Although a playoff berth seems highly unlikely at this time, Clemson has a chance to go on a run after its bye week. It hosts Charleston Southern in Week 6 before hosting Virginia Tech in the first of five straight ACC games. With dates at Florida State, at Syracuse, home versus Georgia Tech, at Duke, and then home versus arch rival South Carolina, there are certainly more wins to be had for Clemson.
3 ACC games will largely determine what record Clemson ends up with
Of their remaining seven opponents, only three have a winning record: Virginia Tech (4-1), Florida State (3-2), and Duke (4-0). Syracuse is a .500 team at 2-2 after the first third of the Orange's season. Charleston Southern, Georgia Tech, and South Carolina have all had varying levels of struggle during the first month and change of the regular season. Clemson has won all the games that it should have.
In short, Clemson should get to six or seven wins easily by handling the four teams on their schedule without winning records up to this point. While the road date at Duke seems to be the most difficult, home versus Virginia Tech may not be as hard as expected. James Franklin is a good head coach, but this is only Year 1 for him in Blacksburg. To be honest, it may all come down to the Florida State game.
If Clemson is going to drop any of its seven remaining games, it will probably come at Duke on a short week during the penultimate week of the season. With the way Duke's schedule shakes out, there is a halfway decent chance the Blue Devils could be 9-0 heading into their road date at Miami. Manny Diaz will be so fired up for that game! After that, Virginia Tech and Florida State are probably two and three.
So we are looking at Clemson being no worse than 7-5 this season, in all likelihood, possibly as good as 10-2 if everything comes up aces for the Tigers in the second half. Assuming a potential loss at Duke, we are looking at a team that can win between eight and nine games. With it being a bit of a transitional year for Dabo Swinney and his staff, there are far worse outcomes to be had for Clemson.
That being said, Clemson can overachieve to get to 10 wins, based on the navigable remaining slate.
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