Paul Finebaum predicts Clemson would be 'on life support' for a playoff bid with a loss to Georgia Tech

Two weeks into the season, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum believes Clemson is walking into a game with massive College Football Playoff implications. Dabo Swinney takes his team on the road, driving down to Atlanta to face off against Georgia Tech. Some upset picks have been submitted, meaning Clemson could start 1-2.

“He (Swinney) would be on literal life support for the CFP with a loss this weekend,” Finebaum said via Always College Football. ” … This is really a big weekend for them, you can’t look much worse in the first two weeks after a lot of people picking them to win it all.”

In the old four-team Playoff, there would be no life support after two losses. Clemson would be all but eliminated from contention. But with automatic bids from conference championships and a 12-team field, Finebaum is able to put them right on the brink.

In fact, we saw this play out quite similarly to last season. An early loss to an SEC opponent before dropping two more ACC games meant Clemson needed outside help. Sneaking into the ACC Championship game turned into another conference title for Swinney, automatically earning a spot in the CFP.

But there are still some big differences. Finebaum goes back to the LSU game, where he was not impressed with quarterback Cade Klubnik. While the ESPN analyst did not watch the near Troy disaster, you can throw that performance in there too. Klubnik is one of the more veteran players in all of college football and still started the season slowly.

“Last Saturday, I don’t pay attention to a lot of games like that, even though I know it was scary for a Clemson fan,” Finebaum said. “But I was really unwhelmed and shocked, quite frankly, with how Klubnik played against LSU. I know he’s had the propensity to struggle in the first game at times. I don’t know why you do that at this point.”

Klubnik will need to come out of the locker room firing early on Saturday. Kickoff from Atlanta is scheduled for noon ET inside Bobby Dodd Stadium. Any team coached by Brent Key is going to be amped up and ready to compete for 60 minutes.

Clemson can shush a ton of outside doubters of the program by getting a win. Otherwise, the talk of a national championship, or even College Football Playoff, might come to a screeching halt for Swinney’s program.