Clemson Football: Way too early game predictions for 2021 season

Clemson will have back-to-back road trips in the middle of October and that could always be tricky. Pitt was thought to be one of the darkhorses in the ACC a year ago, but an injury to quarterback Kenny Pickett derailed the season and the hopes that the Panthers had.

Pickett decided to return for another year of eligibility and should keep the offense humming. The defense could be were the problems are. Pitt is losing three of their top defensive ends and some talented players in the secondary, but a Pat Narduzzi coached defense should always be solid.

Pitt is a tough place to play historically and should be playing their best football at this point. Narduzzi has pulled off an upset of Clemson before, but I think the Tigers offense will be too much for a Panthers defense that will take a step back this year.

Clemson 34, Pittsburgh 17 (7-0, 5-0 ACC)

This was a game that was supposed to be played last season, but some COVID issues at Florida State caused the game to be cancelled and not made up and got a pretty fiery reaction from Dabo Swinney about it.

These two programs used to be class of the conference, but that spot belongs solely to the Tigers now. Florida State is hoping that things can start to get turned around in year two under Mike Norvell and they will be relying on a lot of transfers to come in and try to get the Seminoles back to a bowl game.

I think that Clemson will come into this game fired up because of the drama surrounding the game last year, even though it was fair for Florida State to not want to play. Dabo does as good a job as any at using motivation to get his team ready and Clemson will win big over the Seminoles.

Final Score: Clemson 56, Florida State 13 (8-0, 6-0 ACC)