Clemson Has All the Pieces to Win a National Title

In upstate South Carolina, Clemson’s 1981 football team is revered, and with good reason. Former head coach Danny Ford’s team won the most games in a single season in program history and its only national championship.

Thirty-four years have passed since those Tigers brought a title home, but for Clemson fans, the wait for another might be about to end. Head coach Dabo Swinney’s 2015 Clemson team finished the regular season 12-0 with Saturday’s closer-than-expected 37-32 win at South Carolina, but the Tigers have shown they’re capable of much more before this season ends.

“At the end of the day, it’s 34 years since we’ve been 12-0, and we’re tied for the winningest record in Clemson history,” Swinney told ESPN’s Jeannine Edwards on the network telecast. “We’ve got bigger things to do. We’ve got an ACC championship, and we’ve got to play better—got a great North Carolina team waiting on us. We’re state champs; we want to be ACC champs, and that’ll give us the opportunity for bigger things.”

Clemson has all the pieces to win a national title this January in Glendale, Arizona. The team that was supposed to be a year away entering 2015? It’s here now, and its opponents should be worried.

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

It starts with sophomore quarterback Deshaun Watson, who has shed an injury-marred freshman season to emerge as a legitimate star. Watson is hazardous to opposing defenses on the ground and through the air.

With the Tigers offense struggling to find its groove Saturday, Watson was the spark.

He scored Clemson’s first touchdown on a five-yard run and broke the game open with a beautiful 55-yard touchdown strike to Deon Cain down the right sideline, helping to give his team a 14-0 second-quarter lead. The Tigers’ first drive of the second half provided breathing room, with Watson finishing it with a 30-yard gallop down the right flank and into the end zone for a 21-3 lead after the ensuing extra point.

He finished with 279 yards passing and a touchdown, as well as 114 yards rushing with three touchdowns on the ground. Watson is the only quarterback in America with three games of at least 200 yards passing and 100 yards rushing this season. Houston's Greg Ward Jr. has at least three of each, but only two games with both 200 yards through the air and 100 on the ground.

Watson has a varied, talented group of wide receivers to throw to, even after returning 1,000-yard receiver Mike Williams was lost for the season in the opener with a broken bone in his neck. Sophomore Artavis Scott is dangerous on the fly sweep and can turn any bubble screen into a touchdown. And Cain, a converted high school quarterback, has caught touchdowns in five consecutive games.

In fact, Clemson has seven receivers with at least 17 catches this season, and junior tight end Jordan Leggett has continued the program’s strong tight end legacy; he is a finalist for the John Mackey Award, given to the nation’s top tight end.

While Watson has 3,223 yards passing and 756 yards rushing this season, Wayne Gallman has emerged as a hard-charging, every-down back with over 1,000 yards rushing for the season as well.

On the other side of the ball, Clemson’s defense was expected to take a big step back after losing the core of the nation’s top overall defense, led by NFL first-round pick and all-time sacks leader Vic Beasley.

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

But it just hasn’t happened. Entering Saturday, the Tigers were No. 5 nationally in total defense, allowing 278.2 yards per game, and No. 11 nationally in scoring defense, allowing 17.6 points per game.

Despite returning only two members of the 2014 two-deep on the defensive line—and having one of those players, senior defensive tackle D.J. Reader, miss multiple games for personal reasons—the Tigers’ line has been just as nasty. Junior defensive end Shaq Lawson has been one of the best pass-rushers in America, and freshman defensive tackle Christian Wilkins has been a force.

Linebackers B.J. Goodson and Ben Boulware have been stalwarts in the middle, filling the void left by NFL first-round pick Stephone Anthony. And in the secondary, cornerback Mackensie Alexander has emerged as one of the nation’s top cover men with safety Jayron Kearse a playmaker from sideline to sideline.

Kicker Greg Huegel has been one of the nation’s most reliable kickers. He missed a point-after attempt Saturday but has made 21 of 23 field goals on the season, including all 17 attempted in ACC play.

Turnovers are a major concern. The Tigers committed three Saturday—though South Carolina managed to turn just one into a score—but they’ve piled up 10 in the last three games against the Gamecocks, Syracuse Orange and Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

That sort of generosity won’t fly against the Alabama Crimson Tide, Oklahoma Sooners or a similarly talented College Football Playoff opponent. But if the Tigers can beat the North Carolina Tar Heels in next week’s ACC title game, no one can keep them out of the College Football Playoff.

And once they get there, they have the talent to give 1981’s national-title trophy a worthy companion.