Once-Mighty Clemson Appears Vulnerable as it Prepares to Visit Cal
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When Clemson made its first and most recent visit to the Bay Area eight years ago, the Tigers were in the midst of an almost unprecedented run of elite success.
The 2018 season was Year 3 of a five-year stretch in which Dabo Swinney's teams were 69-5 with four appearances in the national championship game and title-game victories over Alabama following the 2016 and '18 campaigns.
That 2018 season, which ended at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, was completed with a 44-16 rout of Nick Saban's top-ranked Crimson Tideto cap an historic 15-0 season.
The Tigers were a powerhouse, led by freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence (3,280 passing yards, 30 touchdowns), running back Travis Etienne (1,658 yards, 24 TDs) and three defensive linemen taken in the first round of the 2019 NFL draft.
The Clemson team that comes to Memorial Stadium on Friday night to face Cal is not elite.
Coming off a 7-6 record a year ago – the Tigers' worst win-loss mark since going 6-7 in Swinney's second season in 2010 – Clemson lost 51-10 to LSU in its opener this fall. "The best thing about that game is it's over," Swinney said afterward.
The Tigers followed that with a less-than-inspiring 22-7 win over Georgia Southern. Then last Saturday theydrew boos from the home crowdafter falling behind 17-3 against North Carolina, before rallying for a 28-20 victory.
So Clemson is 2-1, 1-0 in the ACC, the same record Cal will bring to the 7:30 p.m. kickoff on ESPN.
How good are they? It's hard to say. Not even sure Clemson knows.
As recently as two years ago, the Tigers were 10-4 and played in the College Football Playoff. But last season Clemson needed three wins against ACC bottom feeders just to sculpt a 4-4 conference record.
Here's what we do know about Friday night:
This is a huge opportunity for first-year coach Todd Lupoi's program to force folks to take notice. For all of its issues, Clemson is still a name in college football, and a Cal victory on national TV would put the Bears on the map and provide invaluable momentum.
The matchup feels a bit like Cal's game against No. 8 Miami two years ago when GameDay set up shop on campus before dawn and a capacity crowd at Memorial Stadium watched the Bears surge to a 38-18 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Cal could not close out what was otherwise nearly a perfect day in Berkeley, surrendering three late touchdowns in a 39-38 defeat.
Would the trajectory of former coach Justin Wilcox's time at Cal been different with a win that night? We'll never know.
But these Bears are positioned to start 2-0 in conference play for the first time since – believe it or not — Jared Goff's final season of 2015.
Two things we expect to see from Cal on Friday night:
– Attack the vulnerable middle of the Clemson defense with running back Adam Mohammed, who is fourth in the ACC in rushing. Clemson is 16th in the ACC against the run, allowing 182 yards per game. Against their two Power Four opponents, that number swells to 262.
– Pressure Clemson quarterback Tait Reynolds. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound freshman from Queen Creek, Arizona,got his first start against Carolina and passed for 215 yards with one touchdownand one interception.
Cal blitzed early and often at Syracuse, forcing Steve Angeli into three interceptions while sacking him three times. The Bears were more vanilla defensively in their 49-7 rout of Wagner College, but Clemson has absorbed an ACC-worst nine sacks and Cal can improve its chances to win by adding to that total.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/cal as Once-Mighty Clemson Appears Vulnerable as it Prepares to Visit Cal.
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