Your Team Can Win a Championship: Clemson Edition

Starting in descending order, I will be doing a write up on every playoff team explaining how and why their team can win the championship this year. But don’t worry, I will end every post with what I deem the most likely reason(s) why they won’t win the championship.

Clemson can win the national title because they have Dabo Sweeney. As much as people like to poke fun at, criticize, and doubt Dabo, he is one of two active coaches to win a national championship at the FBS level. Not only that, Dabo and Clemson have played 10 playoff games, and have won 6 of those, which is more than any other active coach in all of college football. Dabo may not have the vintage Clemson roster of years past, but he still has the experience and that could be a huge factor, especially if Clemson can upset Texas in the first round and the format moves to the neutral site games.

Clemson can win a national title because of Cade Klubnik. Much like Clemson this year, after the Georgia loss, the public has stopped paying attention to Cade Klubnik and what they have done. Klubnik was a 5-star recruit and was supposed to bring elite quarterback play to Clemson, but unlike Trevor Lawrence he did not excel right away. No there was some struggles for Klubnik in his first year, so Clemson went out and got Garrett Riley to be his OC. After a disappointing 2023 season, and slow start this year, Klubnik and Riley have figured out. Klubnik has limited turnovers, used his legs well, and made plays when plays have needed to be made. Plus, Klubnik is a gamer. He is not the superhuman that Lawrence was and that is okay because he plays with a swagger and toughness that can rally his team, and any given game he can go for 400 total yards and 5 scores.

Clemson can win the national title because no one believes in them but themselves. Clemson’s playoff run started last week with a win and in game against SMU in the ACC Conference championship. Many believed SMU would win that game because Clemson hasn’t looked great against tough opponents (but neither did SMU, so?) and Alabama would take the last playoff spot. Well Dabo and Clemson had another plan, and after taking an early and commanding lead, they were able to hold of the Mustangs and punch their ticket to the CFP. They currently have one of, if not the, lowest odds to win the title, they are the only team with 3 losses, and also are matched up with Texas, the highest ranked at large team. A team with nothing to lose and that’s playing with house money, is a very dangerous team. So, Clemson, F*** it. Play your ass off, win state, be perfect, all that shit.

Clemson CAN’T win the national title because they haven’t played up to their competition this year and when their roster has been matched or outclassed, they lost, and bad. Georgia with a much better roster, and Louisville with a relatively close roster were able to put up points and make Klubnik and the Offense sputter. Georgia only allowed 3 points when they matched up with Clemson, and the final of the Louisville game was not indicative of the whooping that was laid on the tigers. They also got the draw of playing Texas first who has handled every team this year on their schedule not named Georgia. If they make it past Georgia, their path would ease up with Arizona State, but that would be short lived because they would then face Oregon, Ohio State, or Tennessee whose rosters would all pose major matchup issues for the Tigers.