Clemson makes Top 15 of national analyst's three-year college football outlook |
Peering into the near future of college football is difficult going into a season with several new faces in new places across the sport.
247Sports analyst Josh Pate says Clemson is just inside his Top 15, at No. 14, for his three-year outlook for college football. Pate defined the outlook as "a rolling, multi-year blend of your on-field record, your recruiting and your portaling," with a look at development and culture as well. "Clemson is the toughest program to place," Pate said. "I have insane amounts of respect for the culture there. They have a high-level coaching staff. Their recruiting classes have been landing in the top 10-15 range. When you're in that range, and you voluntarily neglect the transfer portal, it is tough for me to put you above programs that take advantage of all the mechanisms at their disposal." He has Miami one spot ahead of the Tigers and Florida State pacing the ACC at No. 6. "Florida State is knocking on the door as being one of the elite programs in America," said Pate. "Recruiting has gone from good to really good. Really good to great is the next step that I'm looking for. Last year, you saw them play an undefeated regular season. That's not in the future. That's the now. In the future, do they start stacking seasons like that? It's very likely they do." 🚨TOP CFB PROGRAMS: NEXT 3 YRS🚨 ESPN did a similar three-year look recently and ranked Clemson No. 12. "The next three seasons will be fascinating for a Clemson program that finds itself an unfamiliar spot, outside of the FPR top 10," ESPN's Adam Rittenberg said. "Clemson is coming off of its first four-loss season since 2011 and has just one CFP win since its most recent national title in 2018. The transfer portal era has been bumpy, in part because of coach Dabo Swinney's resistance to adding transfers. Clemson's high school recruiting remains strong -- its 2025 class ranks No. 5 in the latest rundown [Editor's note: Now No. 10 in ESPN's latest] -- but upgrades are needed, especially with an offense that ranks 45th nationally in scoring since the start of the 2021 season... "The defensive outlook is why Clemson still finds itself close to FPR's top 10, as Clemson continues to pump out NFL players and recruit and develop top talent...Clemson's big unknown is whether Swinney will ever warm up to the portal or keep digging in on a personnel approach that, until 2021, had worked brilliantly but now falls under scrutiny."
1. UGA
2. Alabama
3. Ohio State
4. Oregon
5. Texas
6. FSU
7. Notre Dame
8. Oklahoma
9. Michigan
10. Texas A&M
11. LSU
12. Tennessee
13. Miami
14. Clemson
15. Penn State
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