A week ago, it seemed as if Saturday afternoon’s matchup between No. 20 Clemson and host Pitt wouldn’t have any real stakes regarding the College Football Playoff.
Miami then was upset by Georgia Tech, and so the Hurricanes and Tigers are tied with one loss each in Atlantic Coast Conference play as mid-November approaches.
As the Tigers (7-2, 6-1) travel to Pittsburgh this weekend, a Clemson berth in the ACC title game is still possible, which means an automatic berth in the 12-team CFP remains attainable.
SMU stands alone in first place in the conference with a 5-0 recodr.
“We’ve talked about how great it would be to get to 7-1 (in ACC play). That’s the best we can finish at this point, so that’s what we can control,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said this week. “We’re still in the thick of it. We don’t control what other teams are doing, but we focus on what we can control.”
Clemson scored a 24-14 win at Virginia Tech last week. Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik threw for 211 yards and three touchdowns, while Phil Mafah rushed for 128 yards on 26 carries.
But Swinney was especially frustrated with Klubnik holding the ball too long and taking unnecessary sacks.
“Just stuff that we needed him to do as a quarterback and decisions. He took four sacks, every sack was on him, and none of them should have happened,” Swinney said. “He just tried to do a little too much a couple times, just frustrating, (and) was a couple of plays there that we didn’t pull the trigger on.”
The quarterback position also is concerning for Pitt (7-2, 3-2), which started the season with seven consecutive wins but has back-to-back losses, dropping out of the playoff rankings this week.
Redshirt freshman QB Eli Holstein, a transfer from Alabama, left in the third quarter of a 24-19 loss to Virginia on Saturday with an apparent head injury. Holstein was hit while sliding on a second-and-4 scramble, and Cavaliers linebacker Trey McDonald was ejected for targeting on the play.
When asked about Holstein’s status for the Clemson game, Pitt coach Patt Narduzzi was non-committal.
“Our doctors make all those decisions,” he said. “I wish I could tell you. I don’t even go down to the training room to see. I stay out of the training room. That’s not my job. My job is to coach football and let some of the best medical trainers in the country take care of (it).”
If Holstein is sidelined, it’s likely that Nate Yarnell will start at quarterback. He completed only 4 of 12 passes for 44 yards and threw two interceptions in the loss to Virginia.
Since Pitt joined the ACC in 2011, the Panthers and Tigers have met four times. The series is 2-2. Pitt leads the all-time series 3-2 and won the recent meeting 27-17 in 2021.
After Saturday’s game, Clemson will close the regular season at home against the Citadel and No. 21 South Carolina, while Pitt will end with road games against No. 19 Louisville and Boston College.
