Clemson is coming out of its last bye week of the regular season looking to continue its climb back to the College Football Playoff for the first time in four years. The Tigers have built an impressive resume so far. They’ve won six straight games by at least two touchdowns.
Now that the end of the regular season is approaching, the race for the ACC championship game and a bid for the CFP is tight. This game against Louisville is important for the Tigers’ case to lock in a trip to Charlotte. Making it to the ACC Championship game will get Clemson much closer to the CFP. It will not be easy getting past a tough Cardinals team, though.
Tricky Test on the Way
Jeff Brohm is in his second year as the Louisville head football coach. He has quickly instilled a winning culture in his short time leading the program. Brohm is 15-9 overall as the Cardinals head coach. Last season he led Louisville to the ACC Championship game in his first year. Even if the Cards are out of the ACC Championship race this season, they are still giving the top teams in the conference a run for their money.
Louisville is 5-3 overall and 3-2 in the ACC to this point in the 2024 season. Every team the Cardinals have lost to is currently ranked in the top 25. Two of those losses were against top 10 teams in the most recent poll, Notre Dame (8) and Miami (5). All three of the Cardinals’ losses were by only seven points. At one point early this season Louisville was ranked. Going into the game against Notre Dame the Cards were 16th in the AP Poll.
This Cardinals team is good and dangerous. They have been close to pulling off a big upset on more than one occasion and are itching to complete one. This Louisville team has the talent to do it and play hard for four quarters. In the Cardinals’ last game against Boston College, they were down 20-7 going into halftime. They went on to take complete control of the second half and won the game 31-27.
Brohm will have his team fired up and confident in their ability to win. The Tigers must do what they can to put the Cards away early and keep them down. Controlling the game for four quarters is something the Tigers have struggled with, especially on defense. It is going to be important Clemson dominates all phases of the game looking strong from start to finish.
What’s on the Line
The race for the ACC is heating up with four teams currently undefeated in conference games. Clemson is one of the four teams. Among the other three undefeated teams, Clemson plays only one, Pittsburgh. If Clemson can beat Pitt in the matchup on November 16th, or if SMU can defeat the Panthers this weekend, the ACC race gets shortened to three teams who won’t play each other in the regular season. If this becomes the case, a major way the conference will decide the tiebreaker is using similar opponents.
Louisville is one of the two opponents Clemson, Miami, and SMU all play in the regular season. The other team all those programs faced was Florida State. All three teams had similar results against the Seminoles. SMU and Miami both played Louisville earlier this season. Both teams only beat the Cards by one touchdown. Clemson has beaten all of its conference opponents by at least two touchdowns. If the Tigers can keep that trend going it will help put them ahead in the race to Charlotte.
Keys to Win
Before the Tigers can worry about tiebreakers, they must first win the game. The Cardinals are not going to make it easy though. Defensively Clemson has to stop the run first. Running back Isaac Brown is capable of making big, momentum-changing runs.
Brown rushed for 117 yards against SMU and 146 yards in a win against Virginia. Once Brown was able to get going against Boston College, the offense opened up in that game. This led to the Cards being able to build their comeback. Shutting down Brown is going to be key for the Clemson defense. He is not the only Cards’ weapon that could give the Tigers’ defense a hard time though.
Louisville wide receiver Ja’Corey Brooks is a problem for defenses. Brooks leads the ACC in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns with 799 yards and eight touchdowns. He has four games with 100+ receiving yards. His season high was against Georgia Tech when he had 125 receiving yards and a touchdown. Brooks also had 121 yards and two touchdowns against SMU as well as 107 yards and two touchdowns against Miami. At six-foot-three-inches and 195 pounds, Brooks knows how to use his size to attack the football and make big catches. Keeping a cap on him and not allowing Tyler Shough to find him will be important.
On the offensive side, the Tigers must keep doing what they have since Week Two and let Cade Klubnik do his thing. The Louisville defense has talent like 2023 first-team All-ACC selection defensive end Ashton Gillotte. The Cardinals have not been able to shut down its power four conference opponents though. The Louisville defense is giving up 30.5 points per game to power four opponents. Clemson has to keep spreading the ball around to its playmakers and executing explosive plays. The Tigers do that, and they should come out on top.
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