Clemson’s 2017 football schedule was released on Tuesday. Here are my initial thoughts after seeing what the Tigers will face beginning a little more than seven months from now:
- (Insert quarterback here) will get a trial by fire.
There is plenty of time to debate whether Kelly Bryant, Zerrick Cooper, or Hunter Johnson will be the starting quarterback. Not up for debate is whether the new starter will be tested immediately upon winning the job.
The opener against Kent State provides an adjustment opportunity, but after that, the challenge gets significantly more difficult. There’s a home game against Auburn, arguably the toughest defense the Tigers faced last season. After that, Clemson must travel to Louisville. This means the new quarterback’s first road environment will be Papa John’s Stadium against a team hell-bent on revenge.
Next comes a get-well game against Boston College, but then the Tigers must travel to Virginia Tech. One could argue this isn’t as tough as playing the Hokies in October or November, given the new players Justin Fuente will be breaking in due to early departures.
Clemson’s two toughest road tests of the season come in a three-game stretch within the season’s first month. That’s not exactly how you’d draw it up if you wanted to ease a new offensive group into action.
- The bye week doesn’t hurt Clemson.
This specifically doesn’t say what it doesn’t say—namely, that Clemson overtly benefits from its bye week. At this point in the maturation of the Tigers’ program, rarely will a bye week provide any additional positives, but it could easily make achievement difficult—like the mid-September bye week two seasons ago that forced the team to play ten consecutive games to close the year.
This year, the bye week comes on October 21st. Clemson plays seven games before the bye, so it essentially comes at the halfway point. The Tigers get an extra week to prepare for Georgia Tech, but that isn’t nearly as important as it was when the option was new to the league. In 2016, Clemson’s defense totally demolished the Tech offense with only four days of preparation.
Dabo Swinney’s staff would probably rather have that extra week to get ready for the Seminoles, Hokies, or Cardinals. And speaking of the Seminoles…
- The league clearly feels Clemson-Florida State will decide the Atlantic.
Although the ACC didn’t give tandem bye weeks to these two teams leading into their matchup, the league clearly expects this to have division title implications. Neither team has another ACC game scheduled after they play each other on November 11th.
A year ago, the Tigers and Seminoles provided some late-night drama for the college football universe on national television. It was good for the conference, even though Clemson didn’t sew up the Atlantic Division title with a victory. Kudos to the ACC for attempting to conjure up even more intrigue this time.
- There’s only one weekday game, and it’s on a Friday.
The Tigers avoided the Thursday night time slot, which has been a source of much consternation and debate over the past couple of decades. However, Clemson received a far worse fate—a Friday night trip to Syracuse in October.
As has been stated many times over the past couple of seasons, Friday night high school football is important for local communities and school districts. Simply moving games to Thursday night doesn’t make up for all of the losses. Clemson fans will get to see a full Saturday’s worth of games, but it comes at the expense of the Friday night experience.
Also, going up to Syracuse with one less day of preparation to face a Dino Babers offense in year two—after shutting his offense out last season—doesn’t exactly scream “free win” to me. That might be the most difficult game on the schedule that doesn’t seem tough on the surface.
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