All eyes are on Notre Dame, but Clemson has another team to watch out for in 2020.
The story for Clemson this season is the same as it always is. An easy conference schedule with one big non-conference showdown. One of the weakest strengths of schedule in the ACC and the expectation of the College Football Playoff once again.
While Clemson’s schedule is largely the same, everything else about the 2020 College Football season is not. The coronavirus has rocked offseason training plans, with Clemson being one of the hardest hit of all, while the season itself sits in the balance. The ACC has been largely quiet on the season’s status, but some things are bound to change.
All that may still be up in the air, but things are clear when it comes to Clemson’s chances on the football field. They will be vying for the Playoff and Notre Dame seems to be the only team standing in their way of another perfect season. However, there is one other team that will give the Tigers an unexpected fight in 2020: Louisville.
Clemson hosts the Cardinals in their Week 2 home opener, after what should be a relatively easy win over Georgia Tech to begin the season. The first thing working in Louisville’s favor here is the timing. Due to the truncated offseason, the top teams are more vulnerable than ever before. Clemson has suffered mightily this offseason, enabling Louisville to potentially catch them off-guard to begin the season.
Beyond that, Louisville itself presents the weapons to challenge Clemson. In order to win, you need to be able to score points, which is exactly what Louisville can do. Their defense is not going to stop Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne, nobody is, but their offense may be able to score enough points to keep pace with them.
Since Lamar Jackson‘s departure, the Louisville offense had been abysmal. 2018 specifically, the team held a 2-10 record with an offense that failed to do any real damage. Last year, things changed drastically. New head coach Scott Satterfield brought in an entirely new offense and an 8-5 record, a massive improvement for a team that had been heading in the wrong direction.
Micale Cunningham cemented himself in the quarterback role, with a terrific 62.4% completion percentage, 2,000 yards and over 20 touchdowns. He also presented the dual-threat Lousiville had been sorely missing, rushing for almost 500 yards on the year.
Louisville also made tremendous jumps in the backfield. Javian Hawkins redshirted his freshman season, setting himself up for a breakout year in 2019. Hawkins had just that, rushing for over 1,500 yards and an impressive average of 5.8 yards per carry.
Louisville has the offensive ability to keep up with the Tigers.
The best part is, things should be even better for the Cardinals in 2020. Cunningham and Hawkins are back for another year along with an experienced receiving corps. Star receiver Tutu Atwell returns after an unbelievable 2019 with 1,276 yards through the air and a dozen touchdowns. He is joined by Dez Fitzpatrick, who enters his senior season with high expectations after grabbing 635 yards and six touchdowns.
Justin Marshall looks to move from special teams into a leading receiving role, with the potential to grow into an important wideout this season. Lousiville’s offense collectively poured in 33.1 points a game last season, tied for second in the conference to only North Carolina, a team that gave Clemson a lot of problems in a last-second 21-20 victory for the Tigers.
That is not to say Lousiville is a perfect team, as for as good as the offense is, the defense struggled equally as much. Dead last in the ACC in points per game at 33.4 with an inability to stop the running game, allowing over 440 in total per game, a shocking difference when compared to Clemson’s 288.5. That’s exactly why Clemson dropped 45 on Louisville last season while the Cardinals scored just 10.
Clemson is missing some noticeable pieces on defense, primarily Isaiah Simmons to the NFL and the offense took a major hit in Justyn Ross, leaving some question marks for the Tigers. Perhaps the early season may test the Tigers and Louisville, who played particularly poor against Clemson last season, hits their stride at the right tide.
An irregular offseason and focus on the future combine to present an early-season challenge for the Tigers. If all goes right, Louisville may be the team to put an end to Clemson’s dominance.
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