Against North Carolina last week, Clemson looked more like the team that many thought we’d see at the beginning of the season, when the Tigers were ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25.

Following the Tigers’ 38-10 victory over the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill, former Clemson standout offensive lineman and current ACC Network analyst Eric Mac Lain weighed in on what he saw from Clemson and what’s to come for Dabo Swinney’s team.

Mac Lain says “it’s not all sunshine and rainbows” with Clemson right now despite the blowout win against a bad UNC squad.

“Well, let me start with a little asterisk – that’s one of the worst football teams in America in North Carolina,” Mac Lain said. “But, yes, it was nice to see competent football. Nice to see Cade Klubnik go one, two, three, ball out, get to the checkdown for a 35-yard touchdown, which was remarkable. And to see the defense, for most of the game, play at a really high level. So, I don’t want to be too much Debbie Downer, but also it’s not all sunshine and rainbows about where this team is right now.”

Following today’s game at Boston College (7:30 p.m., ACC Network), Clemson will return home to host SMU at Memorial Stadium next Saturday (3:30 p.m., ACCN). Then, after an open date on Saturday, Oct. 25, the Tigers will take on Duke and Florida State at Death Valley on Nov. 1 and Nov. 8, respectively, before concluding their ACC schedule with a road contest at Louisville on Friday, Nov. 14.

Mac Lain knows we’ll find out more about the Tigers when they face better competition in the coming weeks.

“And here’s the deal, too – they play Boston College [today], who’s another very bad team,” Mac Lain said. “So, there’s going to be these tests for Clemson that should be good motivating things, it should be good confidence builders. But how good are they? It’ll take some time. Maybe it’s when Florida State comes to town, we’ll truly know. Or Duke, or teams of that nature, coming to town there.”