Clemson's Latest Bowl Projection Has 'Revenge' Written All Over It

The Clemson Tigers became bowl eligible with their win over the Syracuse Orange last Saturday, and while they won't be going to the CFP, they can at least finish the season better than they did last year.

In fact, ESPN's Kyle Bonagura feels that Clemson will have a chance to exact some revenge in late December.

In a recent piece where Bonagura and fellow ESPN writer Mark Schlabach made some bowl game predictions, Bonagura projected that the Tigers will face the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Duke's Mayo Bowl on Dec. 26.

Remember: last year, Clemson faced Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl and suffered a brutal 22-10 loss to cap off arguably the most disappointing campaign in Dabo Swinney's tenure.

Considering that the Nittany Lions were one of the only teams as underwhelming as the Tigers last season, the loss was particularly damning for Clemson.

This time around, though, the Tigers certainly appear to be in better shape.

Clemson is sitting at 6-3 with three regular-season games remaining, and given that the Tigers will face the 2-7 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets this Saturday, they stand a great chance of being 7-3 through 10 contests.

Now, Clemson will end its campaign with two very tough matchups against Duke and then No. 21 South Carolina, so the Tigers will have some hurdles to clear in order to finish with a better regular-season record than last year when they went 7-5.

The good news is that Clemson's annual rivalry matchup with the Gamecocks will be at home, so the Tigers should have a great chance of pulling off an upset.

And if Clemson does ultimately face Penn State in a bowl game for the second straight year, it will have a great opportunity for some getback.

The Nittany Lions are just 5-4 thus far in 2026, although they have won back-to-back games against Purdue and Washington.

As inconsistent and sloppy as the Tigers have looked this season, they have been a smidge better than Penn State, so they might have the advantage.

Of course, playing in run-of-the-mill bowl games is never the goal for Clemson. After all, this is a program that made it to four National Championship Games, winning two of them, between 2015 and 2019. It also posted 12 straight double-digit win campaigns between 2011 and 2022.

But times have changed for the Tigers, and now, capturing a victory at the Duke's Mayo Bowl would be a step in the right direction.