There’s no question that the Clemson Tigers are one of the most dominant teams in college football right now. In the six-year history of the College Football Playoff, Clemson has made five-straight appearances in the playoff. But one argument always made against the Tigers is the fact that competition in the ACC is lower than that in other conferences.

The argument has a little bit of validity to it. In the last five ACC title games, all won by Clemson, the Tigers have won by an average of 25.4 points and the Coastal Division hasn’t had any team solidly able to compete with Clemson, as a different team has played in the ACC title game against Clemson every year.

Nobody has been able to keep up with Clemson, but in 2020, that could change. According to Pro Football Focus, there are two offenses in the ACC that could knock off the Tigers in 2020: the Louisville Cardinals and the North Carolina Tar Heels.

For Louisville, Micale Cunningham returns after completing 62.3 percent of his passes for 2,061 yards and 22 touchdowns in 2019. He teams up with Tutu Atwell — who had 1,272 yards and 12 touchdowns receiving in 2019 — to build a passing attack that can really threaten the Tigers in 2019.

“The Louisville passing attack was also very good against the blitz last season — and we can assume (Clemson defensive coordinator Brent) Venables will continue to employ the blitz at a high rate this year — turning in a 0.509 EPA per play against heat in 2019 that ranked third among FBS offenses,” PFF wrote. “There is a lot of buzz about the Louisville program after a wildly successful first year under Satterfield, and they return pieces in the passing game that Clemson could be susceptible to.”

On the other side of things, North Carolina’s Sam Howell returns after throwing for 3,641 yards and 38 touchdowns in the first year under head coach Mack Brown. Even as a true freshman, Howell was able to find plenty of success in the Tar Heel offense, and because of the noted blitzing tendencies of Clemson, perhaps Howell could have the game he needs to have to knock off the Tigers.

But as is the case with all freshmen, Howell has some issues to overcome, PFF says.

“He was constantly late to his reads because of his happy feet in the pocket, and this led to accuracy issues over the middle of the field,” PFF wrote. “He also has a problem underthrowing receivers. And even his movement strategies to escape the pocket aren’t very efficient, as he’ll sometimes run into trouble instead of running out of it. All of these abilities can be improved upon, however, though not having an offseason might hinder the process a bit.”

Many would likely think that the biggest challenge to overcome in order to beat Clemson would be stopping quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Lawrence, who is expected to be among the candidates for the 2020 Heisman Trophy, has taken two Clemson teams to the College Football Playoff Championship game in his time with the Tigers. He comes off of a sophomore campaign where he threw for 3,665 yards and 36 touchdowns, while only having eight interceptions.

But PFF doesn’t see Lawrence as the biggest hurdle for the Cardinals or Tar Heels. The challenge comes in the form of their own quarterbacks.

“The issue for both of these teams is that unless the quarterback position improves, it will be tough sledding throughout a whole season,” PFF wrote. “Either team is capable of a breakthrough game against any opposition — including Clemson — but to sustain that enough to a.) get to the ACC championship and beat Clemson or b.) potentially beat Clemson twice (in Louisville’s case), is challenging enough.”