ACC Preseason Rankings: Can Florida State Seminoles Lose?

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2. Clemson Tigers

Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers lost a lot of production this year. Tajh Boyd is obviously a loss at quarterback, Roderick McDowell is a 1,000-yard rusher who is gone, and then there’s Sammy Watkins, who might have been the most irreplaceable player in college football. Clemson has to replace him.

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Still the Tigers have recruited well enough and get their toughest game outside of Florida State, Syracuse, at home, and in the greatest stroke of good fortune, they avoid Virginia Tech, Miami, and Duke from the Coastal this year. That means the only possible losses outside of FSU are road games against Boston College and Georgia Tech and some fluke way of losing to North Carolina.

None are likely to happen. There may be a hit at receiver, but Cole Stoudt is enough to replace Boyd, D.J. Howard could be good at running back, and the Tigers return a lot of talent on defense, including everybody on a defensive line that was one of the best in the country last year.

Expect this to be a 9-3 team that goes 7-1 in the conference, maybe 6-2 if they slip up somewhere.

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