Two proud programs coming off disappointing years open their seasons against each other, and neither one has proven a thing yet.
Bush’s Picks
CLEMLSU
CLEMLSU
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Best BetLSU
LSU is the more talented team on paper right now, and it's not particularly close — Kiffin's staff landed the deepest transfer class in the country to go with a talent-rich home crowd for the opener. Clemson is coming off its worst season under Swinney since 2010 and is breaking in a first-time starter, which is exactly the profile that gets exposed early against a roster this loaded.
Clemson
+Vizzina threw for 317 yards, 3 TDs in his lone start
+New DC Tom Allen already producing All-Americans
+Wesco Jr. fully cleared after scary neck injury
−Worst record under Swinney since 2010 (7-6)
−Lost longtime starter Klubnik to the NFL draft
−Heavy road underdog with unproven QB1
LSU
+Landed Lane Kiffin off an 11-1 Ole Miss CFP run
+Nation-leading transfer class, 8 ESPN Top 100 portal adds
+Ranked as high as No. 8 in preseason polls
−QB Sam Leavitt missed most of spring with foot injury
−Roughly half the projected starters are new via portal
−Program still resetting after Kelly's midseason firing
Clemson heads to Baton Rouge on Saturday, September 5 with a first-year answer at quarterback in Christopher Vizzina, who threw for 317 yards and 3 touchdowns in his only real look last season against SMU. LSU counters with Arizona State transfer Sam Leavitt, the headline piece of Lane Kiffin's nation-leading portal class, though a foot injury wiped out most of his spring practice. Both starters are walking into their first real test with a mostly new supporting cast, and how clean that looks early says a lot about where each program actually stands.
Clemson's defense is the unit with the most to prove first. New coordinator Tom Allen already has Peter Woods, Avieon Terrell and Sammy Brown playing at an All-America level in year one of his system, even after last season's 7-6 finish knocked Clemson out of the ACC race early. LSU, meanwhile, is banking on the biggest coaching hire of the cycle — Kiffin left an 11-1, CFP-bound Ole Miss team to take over a program that fired Brian Kelly in October after a home loss to Texas A&M and finished the year under interim coach Frank Wilson, capped by a Texas Bowl loss to Houston. On paper, LSU is the more finished product, and the market treats it that way.
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Where this gets interesting is depth and continuity. Clemson lost longtime starter Cade Klubnik to the NFL, but Dabo Swinney's program is still built the old way — develop and retain — while LSU is rebuilding on the fly with a roster where roughly half the projected starters arrived through the transfer portal in the last year alone. That's a lot of new faces trying to gel fast in front of a sold-out Tiger Stadium on opening night.
Clemson Tigers
LSU Tigers
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Vizzina's flash against SMU came in relief, so this is really the first real data point on him as a full-time starter — and he'll have a healthy Bryant Wesco Jr. to throw to after the receiver was fully cleared from the neck injury that scared everyone last October. Leavitt arrives with plenty of hype attached as one of the top-rated players to switch teams this offseason, but the missed spring reps mean Baton Rouge doubles as an introduction for a lot of these new teammates too.
Clemson Tigers
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
LSU Tigers
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Add in Clemson defensive tackle Hevin Brown-Shuler already out for the year while undergoing treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma, and it's clear neither roster is at full strength walking into Week 1. The oddsmakers have made their lean loud and clear, but early-season openers with this much roster turnover on both sidelines have a way of getting messier than expected before the season settles into what it's actually going to look like.
