With a veteran quarterback, a nasty defensive line and a group of star-studded wide receivers, Clemson was a trendy preseason pick to win coach Dabo Swinney his third national championship. But three weeks into the season, the Tigers are sitting at 1-2 for the first time since 2014, with no margin for error if they want to have even an outside chance at the College Football Playoff.
According to projections from The Athletic’s Austin Mock, Clemson’s odds to make the Playoff fell from 36 percent to just 18 percent after Saturday’s loss. The Tigers had the second-best odds (80 percent) of any team in the country in the preseason.
Swinney — who never shies away from hard questions after losses — acknowledged all that after his team’s latest setback, a 24-21 loss at Georgia Tech sealed by a walk-off 55-yard field goal. It’s his job to find some answers.
“It’s all about what you do,” he said. “It’s not about what people predict and what people say. It’s about what you do. And we have not performed to our capabilities.
“There’s nothing to square up other than we are not where we want to be, we are not where we expected to be. We gotta own that. I gotta own that.”
GEORGIA TECH HITS THE 55-YARD FIELD GOAL AS TIME EXPIRES TO SNAP ITS NINE-GAME LOSING STREAK VS. CLEMSON‼️ pic.twitter.com/14ywZCrWW3
— ESPN (@espn) September 13, 2025
So what exactly is wrong with Clemson, and does Saturday’s loss effectively end the Tigers’ chances at the Playoff? Let’s dive into the biggest reasons for concern and optimism Swinney must tackle as his team tries to turn this season around.
Concern No. 1: Cade Klubnik hasn’t been as advertised
Former five-star quarterback Cade Klubnik, who entered the season atop The Athletic’s College Football QB Tiers, hasn’t looked the part through the first three weeks of his senior season. He completed just 50 percent of his passes in the season-opening 17-10 loss to LSU and has now thrown three interceptions in as many games after throwing just six all of last season. His third-quarter pick Saturday with Clemson driving inside Georgia Tech’s 10-yard line was a major missed opportunity.
Klubnik also had a fumble on the Tigers’ first drive of the game, which Georgia Tech cashed in for three points in a game decided by that margin. Swinney said earlier this season that if Klubnik doesn’t shine, it’s going to be hard for Clemson to win. Klubnik has had a tough time settling in, and as a result, Clemson’s offense has followed suit.
That’s not to say Klubnik won’t find his groove. His receivers haven’t helped him out with critical drops, including one from Bryant Wesco on Saturday that might have flipped Clemson’s fortunes. But the turnovers have been an issue at costly times, and Klubnik hasn’t yet looked like the best quarterback in the country.
“I’m gonna show up on Monday with a lot of energy and ready to go because man, we’re so close,” Klubnik said. “We’re so close. That’s the hardest part.”
Concern No. 2: The Tigers don’t have an identity on offense
Swinney hired up-and-coming offensive coordinator Garrett Riley away from national title game participant TCU after the 2022 season, but in Year 3 under Riley, Clemson looks like it may be taking a step backward.
Back when Clemson was consistently competing in the Playoff, the Tigers imposed their will on opponents every week and constantly kept them on their toes. If Trevor Lawrence and Tee Higgins weren’t lighting up teams through the air, Travis Etienne was gashing them on the ground. Teams knew Clemson could beat them in multiple ways any week. But this Clemson team, at least early, doesn’t seem to scare defenses.
Wide-receiver-turned-running-back Adam Randall is making an impact in the backfield with 80 yards against Georgia Tech and 112 against Troy, but if the Tigers aren’t turning to Randall, they’re relying an awful lot on Klubnik taking off with his legs. Clemson’s star-studded receivers largely haven’t lived up to their billing yet; Swinney needs redshirt junior Antonio Williams to get healthy again, and Moore and Tyler Brown to help out Wesco.
Concern No. 3: Defensive lapses
Give credit to Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King and the Yellow Jackets’ offense — Swinney did.
“He’s one freaking tough competitor,” Swinney said, “and he was a huge difference for them tonight for sure.”
But even though King could be one of the best quarterbacks in the league (he finished Saturday 20-of-28 passing for 211 yards and rushed 25 times for 101 yards and a score), Clemson’s defense couldn’t get stops when it needed to against the Yellow Jackets this week and Troy last week. The most glaring defensive lapses for Clemson on Saturday came late in the third quarter and early into the fourth, when Georgia Tech went on a 13-play, 90-yard scoring drive in six minutes and 15 seconds of game time to take a 21-14 lead.
Swinney fired former defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin in January to bring in former Indiana head coach and Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Allen. Three games in, the Clemson defense is giving up 338.3 yards per game, and the Tigers’ woes with running quarterbacks have continued. There’s too much talent on the defensive side — including linemen Peter Woods and T.J. Parker and linebacker Sammy Brown — for the Clemson defense to give up so many chunk plays and miss so many tackles.
Reason for hope No. 1: Swinney knows how to keep a group together
Swinney teams tend to get better as seasons go on. Just last year, when Clemson looked like it had no chance at the Playoff, it snuck into the ACC Championship Game and knocked off SMU on a 56-yard field goal as time expired. Swinney, an eternal optimist, said multiple times Saturday that his team must stay together. He’s aware of the negativity currently swirling around his program. But in the past he’s been able to ensure it doesn’t seep into the program’s walls.
“Just incredibly disappointed, obviously. This is Clemson,” he said. “But we’ve got to stay together and we’ve got to find our way out.
“I know there will be a lot of criticism, a lot of negativity, a lot of all that stuff — that all comes with it. So it’s important that our team and everybody stays away from all that stuff and just stays together. None of that stuff is gonna help.”
Reason for hope No. 2: Clemson has too much talent to keep losing
Klubnik is one of the most experienced quarterbacks in the league. Randall has given the offense a spark in his transition from receiver to running back. Wesco has had some upsetting drops, but he has also had some major plays for the Tigers, including a 73-yard touchdown Saturday. Fellow wide receiver T.J. Moore hasn’t flashed yet, but he gave Wesco a perfect block on the touchdown reception. Woods, Parker, Brown, linebacker Wade Woodaz, cornerback A.J. Terrell, Purdue defensive end transfer Will Heldt and safety Ronan Hanafin are the heart and soul of a defense that is big, strong, physical and fast. Eventually, odds are the Tigers are going to wake up and tap into that talent to out-play, out-run and out-power other teams.
Reason for hope No. 3: Maybe LSU and Georgia Tech are just that good?
Right now, LSU and Georgia Tech don’t look like bad losses at all. Both teams are looking the part of Playoff contenders at this early stage, which will help Clemson’s resume if for whatever reason the Tigers are fighting for an at-large bid. Key is onto something in Atlanta, where the Yellow Jackets are 3-0 to open the season for the first time since 2016. They got a big win in Week 1 at Colorado, where King rushed for 156 yards and the Yellow Jackets finished with 320 yards on the ground. So long as King is in the game, Georgia Tech should be able to hang with anyone in the league.
As for LSU, Brian Kelly’s team looked like it had taken the next step on the road at Clemson in Week 1 with a much-improved defense in a tough road environment. Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier is in the early Heisman Trophy conversation, and LSU’s defense entered the Tigers’ matchup with Florida on Saturday night 14th nationally in yards per play (3.74) — a big step up from last year’s No. 89 finish in that category (5.88). It’s possible the Tigers caught potential Playoff teams — as was the case in last year’s season-opening 34-3 loss to Georgia — earlier than most.
“I think our league is really good. I think there’s a lot of good teams in this league. I think the year will prove that out. I think anybody will be able to have an opportunity to win this league,” Swinney said. “But for us, we’ve just gotta go try to find a way to win a game. … The only thing worse than 1-2 is 1-3.”
(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
