CBS Sports analyst has Clemson as nation's most underrated team

CBS Sports' David Cobb has Clemson as the nation's most underrated team and set for a return to the College Football Playoff.

by TigerNet Staff - Tue Aug 29 09:31:03 GMT-04:00 2023

CBS Sports made its college football season projections, and one analyst sees Clemson as the most underrated team in the country.

"The Tigers have lost their seat with the elites to Michigan, and they may well be surpassed in ACC supremacy by Florida State. (At least that seems to be the perception as the Tigers begin the year behind the Seminoles in the AP Top 25.)," CBS Sports' David Cobb said. "But with offensive coordinator Garrett Riley arriving from TCU to reinvigorate the offense, Clemson is addressing its biggest shortcoming in a significant way. The defense should be elite, per usual, and the offense should make major strides under Riley with talented sophomore QB Cade Klubnik. So long as those offensive strides come, Clemson will be feared nationally once again in 2023."

Cobb has a Playoff Four of Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan and Clemson, pitting Clemson and the back-to-back national champs in a Playoff semifinal (presumably the Sugar Bowl).

He is the lone CBS analyst to have Clemson in the CFP, but three predictors to have Clemson as the second team left out, and two of those prognosticators have Clemson as the top-ranked ACC team in the Top 6 of the final CFP rankings.

Three CBS Sports analysts pick Florida State as a Playoff team, and all eight have Georgia as the No. 1 CFP seed.

Teams tagged in the "most overrated" category include Alabama, Texas, South Carolina, Southern Cal, Oklahoma and Colorado.

"Both the AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll voters put South Carolina at 27th in preseason balloting, and I think that's too high for a group that's closer to the 35-40 range heading into the year," CBS' Chip Patterson said of Clemson's final regular season opponent, a game in Columbia this year. "Similarly, the preseason SEC media poll has South Carolina third in the SEC East when I think instead it's a group that's going to battle with Florida and Missouri for some of those spots in the bottom half of the division. A bowl team? Definitely looks that way. But the offseason saw some high-end losses to the transfer portal, and I think there are some spots on the roster where depth is a real concern. Shane Beamer worked the portal to address some of those concerns and does have a star in the making with Nyck Harbour, but overall, it's not enough for top 25 consideration from me."

Half of the panelists pick a Georgia three-peat as national champ, while three others take Ohio State, and Dennis Dodd picks Michigan.