The schedule breaks down like this.
OOC:
vs. Presbyterian
vs. Utah State
at App
at Notre Dame
Home ACC
F$U
Louisville
dook
NCSU
Road ACC
BC
Clemson
Syracuse
GT
Last year, we went 3-1 non-conference, 2-2 in conference home games, and 1-3 in conference road games. Matching the non-conference record will be possible, but difficult. We need to flip the NCSU and BC games and hold serve against dook and Syracuse. It would be nice to steal one of the home games against UL or FSU, but I'm not counting on that.
The team should be better next year. On offense, we only had two seniors on the entire depth chart, Josh Harris and Ty Hayworth. I would expect them to be replaced by some combination of Osterhage, Gilliam, and Terry. I don't know enough about our redshirting freshmen to comment on who might contribute, but OL Taleni Suhren was one of our most highly-rated recruits, and Clawson singled out RB Arkeem Byrd as having big-play potential. We have three receivers (Brown, Dortch, Grate) all entering the mix, and am hoping at least one of those can get some playing time. Dortch has also been discussed on this board as a possible return man, IIRC, and we will need to replace Armstrong on kicks.
The defense loses six seniors. Watson and Lee, IMO, are the major losses. Jaboree has played well at one LB spot, but we need a largely-unseasoned player, likely Strnad, to step up and replace Lee. I don't think it's a good sign if we need Dawson to start. At CB, I thought Dionte Austin really struggled after a promising freshman year, and seemed to have been passed over for Bassey at one point, though that may have been health-related. Henderson, Bassey, and Austin all need to step up for next year.
Josh Banks is a really good player, and Lewinson deserves credit for working his way into the rotation, but we should be fine with the shirts coming off Kamara, Basham, and Zimmer. All the other DL return, and hopefully we'll get Rodney back. As long as Ejiofor doesn't go pro, DL will be a major strength. Janvion and Brown are decent players who will also be moving on, but Kemp and Glenn will be fine in those spots. S Lukas Masterson was another player Clawson mentioned recently as being able to "really tackle." As long as we can shore up that corner spot, and make a good hire at DC, our defense should be very stout once again.