All the Clemson Tigers do under head coach Dabo Swinney is win games, so why is this team so criminally disrespected by the college football masses?
Clemson is on their way to another College Football Playoff and yet the Tigers remain underrated.
The Clemson Tigers have won four games in a row by 45 points or more. They were the first program in college football history to navigate a 15-0 season, doing so last year. Clemson has won 26 games in a row already as a program heading into the Palmetto Bowl against the in-state rival South Carolina Gamecocks. Yet, Clemson doesn’t get the respected it deserves. What’s up?
Should Clemson win its next two games, at South Carolina and vs. the ACC Coastal Division champion Virginia Cavaliers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, the Tigers will have won the ACC for the fifth year in a row and will have qualified for the College Football Playoff every single time since 2015. This is undoubtedly a college football dynasty under head coach Dabo Swinney.
Swinney has made this Clemson program as good as it has ever been, winning two of the last three national champions in college to give Clemson three national titles all time. Clemson sends player after player to the NFL, many of whom have had tremendous success at the professional level. Things are still rolling in Clemson heading into the 2020s.
But despite having arguably the best NFL Draft prospect at quarterback since John Elway in true sophomore Trevor Lawrence, Clemson finds itself as the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff picture if the season ended today. Even if they beat South Carolina and Virginia, the Tigers won’t move up from No. 3 if the Ohio State Buckeyes and the LSU Tigers win out.
Keep in mind this is the defending national champions with the longest active winning streak in the Power 5. If Clemson played in any other Power 5 conference other than the ACC, this team might very well be the No. 1 team in the land. That said, playing in the worst ACC in years had done a ton of harm to the program’s national perception. How good is Clemson really?
Clemson is good enough to presumably waltz to the College Football Playoff and is able to beat whoever they play in either the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl or the Playstation Fiesta Bowl. If Clemson advances past the national semifinals, the Tigers will be in familiar territory playing for yet another national title. They may not be getting respect now, but they’ll earn it here soon.
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