In an episode of The Joel Klatt Show , the lead Fox Sports college football analyst did his “check-in” after Week 2 and checked in with some fan bases across college football, including Clemson fans.
Klatt explained why he is cautiously optimistic about Clemson (1-1) coming off its blowout 66-20 win over App State last Saturday, which came on the heels of the Tigers’ disappointing season-opening, 34-3 loss to Georgia.
Klatt weighed in on what we should make of Clemson after two dramatically different games to start the 2024 campaign.
“Which one is it? Clemson fans, let’s check in. Which one is it?” Klatt asked. “And you know what? Cautiously, I’m optimistic. Because for the first time since last year, I can honestly say this is kind of what I wanted to start to see last season when Garrett Riley became your offensive coordinator. …
“In hindsight, the prediction that I was most off on before last season in 2023 was this idea that Garrett Riley coming from TCU after that national championship run with Max Duggan, and going to Clemson, he was going to improve Cade Klubnik and the offense, which had become very stagnant at Clemson. That was the thought. And I thought to myself, you know what, I trust it, I think that Garrett’s really good and I think Cade is talented and I think that this is going to work. And I thought you know what, Clemson’s going to win the ACC, and then it didn’t happen. It didn’t happen at all. Maybe I was just a year early. Maybe we’re just starting to see this come to fruition… This is what I thought 15 games ago. Maybe it just took 15 games in order for them to develop and really learn the system.”
Klatt added that “we wrote Clemson off because of the fashion in which they lost to Georgia,” but maybe the Tigers are “starting to turn the corner here offensively” after a 66-point, 712-yard explosion against an App State team that is no slouch, and “maybe that was a sign of things to come.”
The Tigers have an open date this weekend before they return to action in Death Valley on Sept. 21 for a noon ET kickoff against NC State. After hosting Stanford at Memorial Stadium on Sept. 28, Clemson will then travel to Tallahassee for an Oct. 5 game at Florida State.
“The opening schedule doesn’t look so bad now that NC State in a couple of weeks and Florida State in four weeks don’t look that great,” Klatt said. “Should they be favorite in the ACC? Probably not because of the way that Miami looks. But this is their toughest remaining games – NC State, Florida State, Louisville, Virginia Tech, Pitt, South Carolina. All the sudden, it doesn’t look so bad. And the fan base, I would frame, as we check in here, I would frame this as maybe this is a moment where Klubnik and Garrett Riley and the offense start to turn the corner.
“You don’t have to face Georgia every week, and in fact you can get better and you know what, maybe down the road you’re going to get another chance at Georgia, and maybe down the road you’re going to get a chance at Miami in the ACC Championship Game. … (App State) is maybe one of the top 33 teams in the country, and they absolutely hammered them. It wasn’t even close. I believe they scored their like 42nd point at like the 12-minute mark of the second quarter. It was wild.”
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