Saturday night saw a rare occurrence in Death Valley. Not only did the Clemson football team drop a home night game to an unranked opponent, it essentially put up no fight in a 33-21 loss to Louisville in a game that wasn't even as close as the lopsided final score would indicate.
The defeat dropped the Tigers to 6-2 overall and 5-1 in ACC play. While those records are not dire, Clemson has now lost control of the race for a spot in the conference championship game.
Miami and SMU are each undefeated in ACC play to sit ahead of the Tigers. Unfortunately, neither of those teams plays a ranked opponent for the remainder of the regular season meaning Clemson will need the help of a stunning upset to play for the conference title.
Also, the Tigers now have two losses on their resume after they dropped the season opener to Georgia 34-3. Having two blowout losses to explain means the Tigers are almost certain to be left out of any conversation for an at-large College Football Playoff bid.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise to find out that Clemson fans are irate after Saturday's shocking loss to Louisville. The sentiment is that this program is stuck in neutral under Dabo Swinney's leadership as the stubborn head coach appears to be paying the price for failing to adapt to the changing landscape of college football.
Of course, the bar at Clemson is higher than it is at almost any other college program. But that also means that fans aren't going to tolerate mediocrity.
Saturday night, many of those who were upset took to social media to voice their immense displeasure with this loss and the state of the Clemson football program. Here are some of the most telling comments from X.
Clemson returns to action next week at Virginia Tech. It will be interesting to see how the team reacts after Saturday's reality check. Certainly, Tiger fans will be watching closely to see what type of effort their team puts forth following such an inexplicable loss to the Cardinals.