Small school has chance to make history again vs. Clemson

Clemson is coming off an embarrassing 34-3 loss to Georgia last week, and if the Tigers want to avoid an 0-2 start to their season, they’ll have to defend home turf against an Appalachian State team that knows a thing or two about pulling off upsets.

Famously, Appalachian State put its football program on the map when it got a gigantic victory on the road over No. 5 Michigan back in 2007. Most recently, the Mountaineers handed No. 6 Texas A&M a surprising loss during the 2022 season.

Last year, Appalachian State fell six points short of defeating No. 17 North Carolina in Week 2, though it took the Tar Heels to overtime.

Clemson will probably act like it’s not concerned about an upset this weekend, but taking the Mountaineers lightly would not be a wise decision.

To be fair to the Tigers, their loss last week came against a top-ranked Georgia team that appears to be the early favorite to win this season’s College Football Playoff National Championship. What the Bulldogs did last Saturday is likely going to be the outcome for a number of their opponents this year.

Still, the Tigers didn’t put up much of a fight in the loss. If Clemson wants to avoid becoming the next victim of upset-minded Appalachian State, they will need to generate more than the 188 total yards they totaled against Georgia.

Appalachian State is coming off an easy 38-10 win over East Tennessee State last week and the school is led by senior quarterback Joey Aguilar, who threw for 326 yards and two touchdowns in the team’s Week 1 victory.

Aguilar is looking to build off of his 2023 season with the Mountaineers, in which he helped lead the team to a 9-5 record by completing 63.7 percent of his passes for 3,757 yards, 33 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Defeating the Tigers on the road this weekend isn’t going to be an easy task for Appalachian State, but it already knows that — and no one is really expecting the Mountaineers to win.

As for Clemson, it’s heading into this week’s contest with the hope of avoiding the school’s first 0-2 start to a season since 1975. Getting a victory over the Mountaineers seems simple enough for the Tigers, but Michigan and Texas A&M know very well that this task is much easier said than done.