The chapter has closed on the 2023 college football season and all eyes turn towards next year. It’ll be a complete landscape change with conference realignment in full force as the 12-team College Football Playoff makes its debut.
For Clemson, the last note from this season couldn’t have gone better with five-straight wins and optimism that carries over into the offseason. The transfer portal still drew Tiger blood and a mass graduation will lead to a lot of new faces. Here’s the difference though: this young team has proved its potential and youth stars were plentiful in 2023.
ESPN ranked the top 25 for 2024 way too early, and Clemson placed at No. 19, the second-highest ranked ACC team.
Expected key losses: RB Will Shipley, LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr., CB Nate Wiggins, DT Tyler Davis, DT Ruke Orhorhoro, WR Beaux Collins, S Andrew Mukuba, DE Xavier Thomas, C Will Putnam
Expected key additions LB Sammy Brown, WR Bryant Wesco, WR T.J. Moore, S Corian Gipson, TE Christian Bentancur, S Ricardo Jones
2024 outlook: The current state of Clemson football can be perceived as both a glass half-full and half-empty. The Tigers won nine games in 2023 for the 13th season in a row, and they’ll probably finish in the top 25 of the final AP poll for the 13th consecutive season as well. That being said, they were 4-4 at the end of October and out of the CFP race for the third straight season. If the Tigers are going to return to the sport’s upper echelon in 2024, quarterback Cade Klubnik must continue to improve, and coach Dabo Swinney needs to find some weapons. Shipley entered the NFL draft, and Collins, the team’s second-leading receiver, transferred to Notre Dame. Hiring former Ole Miss coach Matt Luke to coach the offensive line should help an inconsistent unit. The Tigers lost a handful of players to the transfer portal but haven’t added any yet.
The key additions are all led by incoming freshmen, and the hopes will be high after Clemson’s 2023 class set the bar exponentially. With the Tigers current roster, it could be some early growing pains but we’ve seen what happens when Dabo Swinney and the coaching staff make it click with a young group.