Even if Miami is the runaway favorite to come out of the ACC this year, Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal is not about to overlook the Clemson Tigers this week. Cristobal has been leading his alma mater for the better part of a decade now. He knows what his program is capable of, as well as its bad tendencies of losing dumb games it never should. Right now, he seems well prepared for Clemson.
During Monday's meeting with the media, he outlined Clemson's secret sauce of late. Clemson has made excellent second-half adjustments so far, highlighted by its 42-6 point differential in the final two frames of its last three games. In all three of Clemson's wins this season, the Tigers have yet to surrender a second-half touchdown. It is why Cristobal knows Miami will have to build an early lead.
The primetime kickoff at home with some questionable weather gives Clemson a puncher's chance in this one. Miami has bigger and tougher opponents on its schedule later, but these are the type of spots where the Canes regularly lose under him. Even if they do not lose in primetime as they did to Louisville last year, Miami can be pushed to the brink as it did versus Cal and Virginia Tech years ago.
Cristobal notes that Clemson has out-scored its opponents 42-6 in the second half of its past three games without allowing any touchdowns https://t.co/q5clQCEly2
— Chapel Fowler (@chapelfowler) September 28, 2026
Mario Cristobal knows Miami is about to get into a rock fight at Clemson
What Cristobal may be getting at in his early evaluations of Clemson is that the Tigers are quite disciplined and increasingly well-coached. Rich Bisaccia's special teams unit has been a revelation for the Tigers. Tom Allen's defense continues to impress, week in and week out. While Chad Morris' offense has been a slow burn, to put it kindly, we are starting to see Clemson has a strong run game.
In a way, Cristobal might be jealous of this aspect of Clemson's team, more so than he may ever want to admit. Miami is a tremendously talented football team, but discipline has rarely been this program's forte, no matter who is in charge of it. Even though Miami is a traditional power, the Hurricanes do not have anything close to the home-field advantage that the Tigers do prowling around in Death Valley.
To put it bluntly, Clemson is starting to emerge as a program that is tough to kill. The urgency this team plays with coming out of halftime is light-years better than the team we saw squander one lead after another a year ago. In short, the way Clemson responds to adversity, especially after halftime, has made other teams nervous about making a critical mistake versus them. It becomes quicksand.
Even if Miami proves to be too much for Clemson, the Tigers feel like a team that may be more inclined to cover the massive point spread than to get blown out. Dabo Swinney can truly play the us-versus-them card to his players in his pre-game speech. As long as the Tigers can get something going on offense, they might have their chance to pull off the biggest upset of the season thus far.
Right now, Cristobal not overlooking Clemson coming in is a sign that this team is rapidly improving.
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