Clemson football: Just how important is Week 1 for the Tigers?

Opening the season against Georgia Tech may not sound like much, but it certainly is for Clemson football entering this season.

The 2022 Clemson Tigers will be starting their season on a Monday night against Georgia Tech in Atlanta, and the former has currently been given a 94 percent chance to win (according to ESPN’s Football Power Index).

Clemson being a convincing favorite shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, as the Tigers are ranked No. 4 in the AP Preseason Top 25. As for the Yellow Jackets, they are coming off of an embarrassing 3-9 run.

But, through it all, this Labor Day matchup could see an outcome that no one had anticipated — a Georgia Tech win or, as more accurately described, a Clemson loss.

Sure, there is nothing on paper that indicates the Clemson Tigers should even flinch at the sight of the Yellow Jackets. However, the exact same thing could have been said as they went into last season’s matchup, and Clemson has been dealt a fair helping of bad news since then.

Don’t let the elite preseason ranking fool you, the Tigers were an extremely flawed team in 2021, most namely on the offensive side of things. And who was the first opponent that truly exposed that? Georgia Tech.

Now obviously, Georgia downed Clemson by an underwhelming score of 10-3 in its 2021 season opener, but we knew that said score told us much more about Georgia’s defense than anything else. And, when it comes to Clemson’s Week 2 “battle” with South Carolina State, winning 49-3 means virtually nothing.

With that said, GT was the first foe that the Tigers faced last year that truly went on to define them over the course of their run, as the Yellow Jackets managed to only lose by a final tally of 14-8. For Clemson to come that close to being stunned by an abysmal team is inexcusable.

Clemson football has done very little to ease panic since then

Between then and now, Clemson has failed to win its division for the first time since 2014, capped off a good (but not great) 10-win season that was tarnished by a weak résumé, and lost coordinators Brent Venables and Tony Elliott — two crucial pieces of the dynasty’s sideline.

Basically, other than the Tigers merely having won a good deal in the past, there is very little that concretely justifies them being seen as a playoff-caliber team today. That fact hasn’t done much to change the spread, though.

Most major point spreads currently have the Clemson Tigers favored by at least three scores, but last year’s dog match should leave one feeling hesitant to bet on them covering that.

Oh, and remember how their game against Georgia Tech is set in Atlanta? That is because it will be played in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which just so happens to share the city with Bobby Dodd Stadium — the typical home of Georgia Tech football. So there’s also that.

But again, even with all of those factors being addressed, Clemson is still the far-superior program as of late, having not lost to the Yellow Jackets since 2014. So, while a win for the Tigers isn’t promised, it being expected is absolutely understandable.

It is also good to remember that one “down” season (if you can even call a 10-3 showing that) doesn’t mean that a dynasty is over; Clemson has dominated the entire ACC for years now, and one less-spectacular stretch doesn’t change that.

So, to tie a bow on things, I am not eager to declare that Tech will pull off the upset here. However, both halves of this game have proven that the Yellow Jackets certainly shouldn’t be written off just yet.

If the Clemson Tigers struggle as much — if not more — in this year’s installment of the rivalry as they did in last year’s, it could once again define just how shakily the remainder of their run will unfold.