Clemson Selected to Play Iowa State in Cheez-It Bowl

Clemson has been selected to play in the 2021 Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando, FL, at least according to the ACC. Their opponent, for the first time in school history, the Iowa State Cyclones. The Cheez-It Bowl will be played on Wednesday, December 29th with kickoff scheduled for 5:45 pm EST. The name may sound unfamiliar, but Clemson has had some success in this bowl before, first as the Camping World Bowl and most recently as the Russell Atheltic Bowl against Oklahoma.

The Iowa State Cyclones enter the game after a disappointing season. Matt Campbell is probably the closest thing to the hot and up-and-coming coach that actually coaches at a P5 school. Unfortunately, it didn’t do much for the Cyclones, who finished 7-5 this year. Iowa State was close in several of those losses, including a 3 point loss to Big 12 champs Baylor, but the Tigers should be favored in this one.

QB Brock Purdy has done a good job at Iowa State, sporting a 73.1% completion percentage and a YPA of 8.1 to go with his 18 TDs and 7 INTs. In addition, on the RB side, the Cyclones have Breece Hall who has rushed for over 1,400 yards and 20 TDs. The Cyclones sport the #34 ranked scoring offense and #23 ranked scoring defense this year, but have been hot and cold all season.

Of course, the big question for Clemson is what the coaching staff will look like. With Brent Venables seemingly out the door for Oklahoma and Tony Elliott apparently a candidate at Duke, it will be interesting to see what this staff looks like for the bowl game.