Before the college football season began, fans across the ACC and the country circled Saturday’s game between UNC and Clemson. It was billed as a titanic clash between two coaching legends in Bill Belichick and Dabo Swinney.
A month into the season, the matchup is still titanic… if only because both programs currently resemble sinking ships.
Saturday is now a bizarre meeting of two programs in flux, preceded by what has to be the earliest Ludacris concert on record. Carolina enters having been dominated by the only notable teams it has faced, with an injured starting quarterback and an offense which ranks among the worst in all of college football.
On the other side, Clemson has tumbled from a No. 4 preseason ranking to a 1-3 start. The Tigers lost close games to LSU and Georgia Tech before a sound defeat to Syracuse at home two weeks ago.
But regardless of its record, Clemson still brings in a level of talent which far outpaces Carolina’s. The Tigers are loaded with NFL prospects on defense and, for all of its struggles, field an offense with a proven quarterback in Cade Klubnik. For his part, Belichick said he isn’t fooled by Clemson’s slow start.
“That’s a good football team we’re preparing for,” Belichick told reporters earlier this week. “They’ve lost a couple of tough games, but they have a lot of talent. They have some very explosive players on both sides of the ball and a very experienced team as well. They definitely know what they’re doing. Turnovers have hurt them in a couple of those losses. A couple plays here and there, and this team could easily be 4-0.”
Now playing solely for pride, Clemson’s desperation for a win could pose an immense challenge for the Tar Heels. That desperation comes straight from Swinney, who has been left downtrodden more often than not this season.
“He’s really tried to press every button this season,” said Chapel Fowler, who covers the Tigers for The State newspaper in South Carolina. “He’s been ‘rah-rah,’ build the team up. He’s been really publicly critical of a lot of people. His quarterback, his [offensive coordinator]. He called his [cornerbacks] soft. Neither of those things have worked. After that Syracuse loss which dropped them to 1-3 and reset the expectations, I think where he is right now is soul searching, himself and the program at large. Because nothing has worked this year, no matter what he’s tried.”
Entering Saturday, UNC and Clemson rank 15th and 17th in the ACC in scoring. The Tigers and Tar Heels also both rank among the ACC’s bottom half in passing and rushing offense. That’s not to say Klubnik, who burst onto the scene as a true freshman with a sensational performance against UNC in the 2022 ACC Championship, can’t turn in a vintage showing tomorrow.
Carolina has quarterback questions of its own, as starter Gio Lopez suffered an injury in Week 4 that isn’t season-ending, but is serious enough to cast doubt over his availability this weekend. Max Johnson would presumably get the start if Lopez is unavailable.
But UNC’s offensive struggles are not a one-man issue. On Carolina Football Live Monday night, Belichick said if the offense is to improve, it will be a full team effort across the board.
“We just need to do a few little things better,” Belichick said, before quickly correcting himself. “Well, several little things better. We’re not making the big mistakes, but we just need to do things better on a more consistent basis.”
That leaves us with a pair of teams who would do anything to feel good about themselves for a weekend. If nothing else, Fowler said, the entertainment value should be worth the price of admission.
“It’s still gonna be a fun one and interesting to watch,” said Fowler, “but the stakes, just in the last three or four weeks, have changed dramatically in a way I never could’ve seen coming.”
With the musical catalogue of Ludacris echoing among the pines, which desperate team will prevail? Will the Tar Heels spring an upset and cause their fans to act a fool? Or will Clemson rewind it back to its glory days, and earn a seventh straight win against UNC?
Either way, it seems both programs could use some Southern hospitality.
Featured image via Associated Press/Jacon Kupferman
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