In one of the more intriguing games of the young season, the Clemson Tigers will travel to Berkeley to take on the California Golden Bears under the bright lights local time on a Friday night. Yes, it will be a 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT kickoff time. So while Saturday night will become Sunday morning before you know it, Clemson has a much better chance of upending the Golden Bears than initially expected.
According to FanDuel Sportsbook, Clemson will be getting 1.5 points from Cal on Friday night. The moneylines for this game are Cal -114 and Clemson -105. This means you would need to wager $114 on Cal to win $100, as well as $105 on Clemson to win $100. The projected point total is a combined 49.5 points. The opening line suggests that Cal could beat Clemson by the final score of 25.5 to 24.
One could argue that Clemson's Week 3 home win over North Carolina was more impressive than Cal's three-point road win over Syracuse two weeks ago. Their early-season schedules match up favorably. Both have tough losses to solid Power Four teams in LSU and UCLA, while their other win came against lesser opponents in Georgia Southern and Wagner. The odds are telling us something.
Clemson's chances of improving to 3-1 (2-0) on the year are more alive than we probably expected.
Dabo Swinney needs to take advantage of Tosh Lupoi's inexperience
While Cal has the allure of Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele under center, Clemson too has a promising young quarterback starting for them in Tait Reynolds. Although the time and travel heavily favor Cal in this one, Dabo Swinney has much more in-game experience than Tosh Lupoi does as a head coach. Last week saw Clemson lean on Swinney's motivational tactics to pull off a big comeback over UNC.
Lupoi may eventually get it going at his alma mater, but this is still only his first season on the job. Ask yourself this. How would we be viewing this game between the Tigers and the Golden Bears if it were being played in Death Valley? Clemson would be more than a 1.5-point home favorite in all likelihood. Therefore, Clemson is arguably the better team coming in. It only has to overcome its road obstacles.
In the event that Clemson takes care of business and gets to 3-1 on the year and 2-0 in ACC play, the Tigers could be getting some top-25 votes ahead of their huge Week 5 home date versus Miami. Although the Hurricanes could be incredibly motivated coming in, Clemson would be playing with so much positive momentum. Three straight wins in a row and a 2-0 start to ACC play would be amazing.
Right now, Clemson needs to be as focused as possible heading into the Cal game. If the UNC home win was a litmus for how the season could go, the Cal road date can be a springboard into something even better. The only way Clemson is going to be ranked this season will require them to beat Cal on the road, and then stun Miami at home in two weeks. So a pair of upsets is what it would take. Alrighty!
The next big opportunity for Clemson is right in front of them, so it will be up to the Tigers to seize it.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
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