A lot came out of Clemson’s 2019 season. They went undefeated, they won the ACC, the blew out Notre Dame in the semi-finals, and most surprisingly, they blew out Alabama in the National Championship game. The question of the offseason has been can the Tigers sustain this type of success?
Currently in the College Football tier system Alabama is 1A, Clemson is 1B, and nobody else really matters. The two teams have won the last four National Championships. Alabama has competed in every single College Football Playoff and Clemson has been in all but the very first one in 2014. Not only have they been in, but they have played each other constantly, playing in three national championships and in one semi final game in 2017.
Clemson won the what seems annual matchup 44-16 to win the 2019 College Football Playoff. They did so while putting up 482 yards on the Crimson Tide. This is what we had become accustomed to seeing from the Crimson Tide. In 2011 and 2012, Alabama beat LSU and Notre Dame a combined 63-14 in BCS National Championship games.
So the question remains. Can Clemson continue to do what they have done and sustain their success like Alabama has since Nick Saban took over? The short answer is yes. Clemson is the favorite for this upcoming season and a lot of that is due to their quarterback. Trevor Lawrence seems to be the real deal. He threw for 347 yards and three touchdowns in the National Championship and had 3,280 all of last season. This will be his first full season as he shared time with Kelly Bryant last season. Add on Travis Etienne is back and wide receiver Justyn Ross is back from a 1,000 yard freshman year. Those three players alone will be good enough to get Clemson through a weak ACC for the next year or two.
The long answer is we will see. Alabama has won five national championships in ten years. Clemson currently has two in three years. Their head coach Dabo Swinney has proven that he will be able to keep the Tigers around for the long haul. Since their first National Championship appearance in 2015, Clemson’s recruiting classes have been ranked 9, 11, 16, 7, 10, and is currently ranked the top class in 2020. While that may not be Alabama level yet, Clemson could be taking over the recruiting trail.
Another factor is how weak the ACC is right now. The traditional power houses of Miami and Florida State are both rebuilding with new head coaches Manny Diaz and Willie Taggart respectively. The rest of the conference would consider themselves basketball schools. Their main competitor this season, Syracuse, joined the conference for basketball, not football. At worst, Clemson will have to deal with one, maybe two teams year in and year out in their own conference. While Alabama has been able to deal with these opponents, playing LSU, Auburn, an up and coming Tennessee and most likely Georgia most years, the Crimson Tide have had tougher obstacles in their dynasty than Clemson will in the foreseeable future.
Clemson has every chance in the world to replicate what Alabama has done since Nick Saban took over. Their recruiting success mixed with the weaker ACC has playoff appearance after playoff appearance written all over it. Especially in the short term with Trevor Lawrence under center for the next two seasons, Clemson will not be going anywhere for awhile. They’re still going to have to past one team though. The team they are trying to replace as the dominant dynasty, Alabama.