Clemson Football: 3 reasons the Tigers won’t repeat in 2019

1. We’ve seen this movie before

Historical data has always been one of the best ways to predict the future. With this in mind, let’s take a look at which teams have the most things in common with the 2018 Clemson squad and see how it played out.

As impressive as Clemson was last year, most of its notable achievements had already been done before. For example,10 other teams since 1967 have had four or more defensive linemen drafted in the same year, but only a few of those teams even won a conference title and just two of these teams (1990 Miami and 2006 Florida) were crowned national champions that year.

Unfortunately, that following season none of these teams were able to replicate the same amount of success as the year before, failing to even win back-to-back conference titles, let alone national titles.

Of these teams, the 2006 Florida team looks the most like the 2018 Clemson squad.

As you can see, both scored over 40 points in their national title game blowout. They also both featured a true freshman quarterback that was No. 1 recruit coming out of high school. And although Tim Tebow wasn’t the official starter, he still got plenty of playing time and scored multiple touchdowns in their national title game. Both teams also featured one of the best coaches in the country at the time.

As good as this Florida team was they still lost four games that following year. In fact, Tebow didn’t win his second national title until his junior year.

It’s highly likely that Trevor Lawrence will win another championship before the end of his college career, but we shouldn’t be surprised if he winds up taking the same path as Tebow and having to overcome a little adversity before winning his second.