What would it mean if Clemson loses at Georgia Tech on Saturday?

ESPN personality Paul Finebaum weighed in on that, during an appearance on fellow ESPN analyst Greg McElroy’s Always College Football show.

Of course, 12th-ranked Clemson (1-1) has gotten off to a disappointing start through its first two games after coming into the 2025 campaign as a trendy pick to be the No. 1 team in the country and a trendy pick to win the national championship.

So, what’s the narrative for Dabo Swinney and the Tigers, in the event in which they lose to the Yellow Jackets (2-0) on Saturday in Atlanta?

“I think it would be pretty negative,” Finebaum said. “What’s bothersome if you’re a fan of Dabo is that so much of the ill will from the past came back. It looked like he had outsmarted the rest of college football with the team, and that all seemed to slip away, and it would slip away even more because he would be literally on life support for the CFP with a loss this weekend.”

Finebaum doesn’t put much stock into Clemson’s unimpressive performance in last Saturday’s 27-16 win over Troy.

However, he says he was “really underwhelmed and really shocked” by Cade Klubnik’s showing in the season opener against LSU, when the senior signal-caller completed 19 of 38 passes for 230 yards, no touchdowns and one interception in a 17-10 loss.

“I think last Saturday, I don’t pay a lot of attention to games like that, even though it was scary for a Clemson fan,” Finebaum said. “But I was really underwhelmed and really shocked, quite frankly, at how Klubnik played against LSU. I know he’s had a propensity to struggle sometimes in the first game of the season. I don’t know why you do that at his point.”

Finebaum knows there’s a lot of riding on Saturday’s game at Georgia Tech (12 p.m., ESPN) that has big implications in the ACC and College Football Playoff picture.

Given the early season struggles, you could say it’s a “prove it” game for a Clemson team that entered this season with an abundance of hype and sky-high expectations.

“This is really a big weekend for them,” Finebaum said of the Tigers. “You can’t look much worse in the first two weeks, after a lot of people picking them to win it all.”