Where Are the Clemson Tigers Projected to Land This Bowl Season?

The Clemson Tigers are just 13 days away from their season opener against LSU in Baton Rouge, and while it's still extremely early, analysts are already looking ahead to the postseason.

On Saturday morning, ESPN's Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach released their 2026-27 preseason College Football Playoff predictions and bowl game projections.

This time around, the Tigers' projected postseason outlook is a bit rosier than last year's, when they entered the Pinstripe Bowl at 7-5 to face a 6-6 Penn State team.

Bonagura has the program slated to play Florida in the Taxslayer Gator Bowl on Wednesday, December 30, in Jacksonville, Florida.

Clemson's last trip to the Gator Bowl came just three years ago, during Cade Klubnik's first full season as the starting quarterback. The contest produced one of the most memorable comebacks in program history: after trailing 21-10 through the first three quarters, the Tigers scored 28 of their 38 points in the fourth quarter alone, rallying past Kentucky 38-35 to close the season on a good note, finishing 9-4.

Heading into this season, both Clemson and Florida find themselves in similar spots after rough 2025 campaigns. Each program has made significant staff changes, lost a handful of players from a year ago, and brought in plenty of new faces.

For the Tigers, the biggest hire of the offseason was offensive coordinator Chad Morris, who helped the offense dominate more than 10 years ago and jump-started the program's mid-2010s dynasty. However, he hasn't coached in over a year and didn't see much success after his first stint with Clemson — so questions linger.

In terms of losses, the program saw nine players depart for the NFL. While head coach Dabo Swinney and his staff landed over 10 players from the transfer portal, there are still multiple holes and questions on the roster, including at linebacker, defensive tackle and, most notably, quarterback.

Florida, on the other hand, essentially has an entirely new roster, with nearly 50 new players added in the past few months. Compared to Clemson, the team is a much bigger question mark right now, but there's been a lot of buoyancy surrounding the SEC program all offseason, as they sit at No. 27 in the AP Poll — one spot behind the Tigers.

None of that is to say they'll be bad in 2026, though. The Gators snagged head coach Jon Sumrall from Tulane as a replacement for Billy Napier, who was fired during the team's 4-8 campaign last season. Not to mention, they retained star running back Jaden Baugh and got loads of talent via the portal.

Based on the offseason narratives surrounding both teams, this is a solid pick by Bonagura.

Schlabach has a more optimistic projection for Clemson, as he thinks the Tigers will face Utah in San Diego, California, for the Trust & Will Holiday Bowl (date and time to be determined).

The Utes are coming off one of the best seasons in program history, finishing 11-2 overall and third in the Big 12. Despite that success, they just missed the College Football Playoff, ending the year ranked No. 14 nationally; largely because their two losses came against their toughest competition, BYU and Texas Tech, both of whom finished ahead of them in the conference.

Schlabach's projection is clearly very different from Bonagura's, and, as mentioned, he seems much more confident in the Tigers having a bounce-back year, considering the Holiday Bowl consistently features ranked or nearly ranked programs (i.e., SMU vs. No. 21 Arizona last year).

Heading into 2026, the Utes are certainly a better team on paper than the Tigers, at least from what we saw last year. Especially considering that they retained star quarterback Devon Dampier for his final season. Nonetheless, the preseason status means nothing by the end of the year, as all Clemson fans should know.

Note: These are all subject to change as Bonagura and Schlabach will continue to update their College Football Playoff predictions and bowl game projections throughout the season. More specifically, every week until the matchups are set. Clemson Tigers on SI will keep track as the season progresses.

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