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TNET: ESPN ranks Clemson's all-time College Football Playoff teams
Tiger Boards - Clemson Football
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Replies: 36
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TNET: ESPN ranks Clemson's all-time College Football Playoff teams

1

Dec 12, 2024, 12:30 PM
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ESPN ranks Clemson's all-time College Football Playoff teams

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Re: We're still writing this year's story...

3

Dec 12, 2024, 1:18 PM
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If we go on a tear, this team might be in the mix for number 1... What a come back story it would be.

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Re: We're still writing this year's story...

14

Dec 12, 2024, 2:37 PM
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lol, 2018 team is number five? I don’t know, the just shredded everybody in front of them the last half of the season including the best Bama team in history. What a joke.

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Re: We're still writing this year's story...


Dec 13, 2024, 5:23 AM
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If I remember correctly, we were 3rd in Connelly's SP+ end of the year poll. I couldn't find 2018 but LSU was runner up to Ohio State in 2019 even though they lost to us in the semis.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/28497018/final-sp+-rankings-2019-college-football-season

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Re: We're still writing this year's story...

1

Dec 12, 2024, 8:07 PM [ in reply to Re: We're still writing this year's story... ]
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A good story it would be. But when it was said that our team was clearly talented and clearly flawed. The biggest difference IMO other than having a Trever Lawrence on the 2024 team, it has to be all of the young inexperienced coaching staff. IMO with and an older experience coaching staff within this 2024 team, the things being said wouldn't be said about this 2024 team. The talk would be that whoever Dabo Swinney's Clemson team faces, they better bring their A game!!! But with the way things are within our coaching staff, most actually believe we don't belong in the 2024 playoffs!!!

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Re: TNET: ESPN ranks Clemson's all-time College Football Playoff teams

9

Dec 12, 2024, 1:39 PM
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Ranking the 2018 team at number 5 is a sick joke! The 2018 Bama team was supposed to be the greatest team ever fielded. We heard that all year right up to the point where we blew them out of the water... smh

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Re: TNET: ESPN ranks Clemson's all-time College Football Playoff teams

3

Dec 12, 2024, 1:48 PM
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2018 Clemson deserves top 3 ranking. I'd argue #1 as I think they'd beat 2019 LSU + 2020 Bama.

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Re: TNET: ESPN ranks Clemson's all-time College Football Playoff teams

1

Dec 13, 2024, 11:50 AM
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No one has mentioned that, midway through the 2018 season, supposedly credible people - including sportswriters and Alabama grads in the NFL - were saying that the 2018 Alabama team could BEAT SOME NFL TEAMS!

Also, that was the year of the Power Rangers, perhaps the greatest defensive line in college history.

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Re: TNET: ESPN ranks Clemson's all-time College Football Playoff teams

2

Dec 12, 2024, 2:17 PM [ in reply to Re: TNET: ESPN ranks Clemson's all-time College Football Playoff teams ]
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Bingo and the 2020 team was worse... these people are clueless and sec biased.

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Re: TNET: ESPN ranks Clemson's all-time College Football Playoff teams

1

Dec 12, 2024, 2:29 PM
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Unfortunately, sports news like regular news is always biased….. Our tigers will never the receive the accolades for beating the best team ever according to Paul Finebaum, Alabama! Just more media bias!

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Bingo....How in the hellllll those ESPN people come up with their

2

Dec 12, 2024, 2:29 PM [ in reply to Re: TNET: ESPN ranks Clemson's all-time College Football Playoff teams ]
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rankings would require a battery of Philadelphia lawyers working with Doctors of Japanese arithmetic to begin to decifer!

The National Title winner (Clemson) destroys the Best Team That Ever Was....Supposed to Be, and is ranked Number 5? Sheesh..................

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This quote basically sums it up

2

Dec 12, 2024, 2:41 PM
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"Clemson barely survived September unbeaten, needing a 2-point-conversion stop to escape Texas A&M and a rousing comeback led by backup quarterback Chase Brice to beat Syracuse. But once Trevor Lawrence was healthy and established in the starting lineup, no one had any hope against the Tigers."

These power ratings reward dominance. We were dominant once Trevor took over at QB, but the ratings never forget those September games. They are basically an anchor dragging your rating down for the rest of the season. That can lead these power rankings to overrate or underrate teams who's performance level changes throughout the season for whatever reason (injuries, changing QBs, etc).

I bet if he were to take out the September games our 2018 team would be right up there with any of the others.

Just to #### everyone off even more... I've seen these rankings in the past before they were all paywalled and 2016 Bama is ahead of all of the Clemson CFP teams. I think they were his highest rated team of all time before we beat them in the final.

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Re: This quote basically sums it up

2

Dec 12, 2024, 6:01 PM
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Like they forgot about Notre Dame September game against Northern Illinois this year.

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Re: TNET: ESPN ranks Clemson's all-time College Football Playoff teams

1

Dec 12, 2024, 1:53 PM
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Nonsense.

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Re: TNET: ESPN ranks Clemson's all-time College Football Playoff teams

3

Dec 12, 2024, 2:08 PM
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What a stupid ranking. The 2018 Clemson team was undefeated, blew out all their opponents, and won the playoffs by a wider margin than every other team in history. We were the #4 offense and the #1 defense nationally. Once Trevor took over, they beat their last 10 opponents by an average score of 48-11 (none less than 3 TDs), which included 5 ranked teams. And just look at the players: the QB, top 2 RBs, 5 receivers, 1 tight end, and 3 offensive lineman went onto the pros on offense. On defense, there were 14 NFL players. Many of those have been huge successes in the pros.


2019 Clemson was not a shadow of 2018, yet stayed (and was beating LSU) for 3 quarters. 2019 LSU had a phenomenal offense, best money could buy. But their defense was questionable, #33 in the country. They had 5 games within a score. 2020 Alabama didn't even play a real schedule. Yes, they beat Ohio State badly, but Ohio State was missing 8 starters with Covid.

There's 0 question 2018 Clemson was the best playoff team. I would excuse this list if they were fooled by LSU's offensive fireworks. But putting it at 5 shows he's a complete moron.

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He's just basing it on his ratings system

1

Dec 12, 2024, 2:16 PM
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Nothing to get worked up about

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Over/Under

2

Dec 12, 2024, 2:16 PM
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Likely Underranked:
2018 Clemson - This should be in the top 3. I can at least see the argument for 4th. But behind 2023 Michigan? No way.

2015 Clemson - One of the most dominant teams that is ranked lower because of a close loss to Bama in the Championship. Similar to 2016 Alabama which they have at 14th. In my opinion a better team than 2019 Clemson which they have at 12th.

2017 Clemson - A bit underrated because loss against #7 rated team 2017 Alabama being weighed very heavily.

Likely Overranked:
2019 Clemson - Would have them a little lower because I think 2015 Clemson and 2016 Alabama were better.

2020 Clemson - I'd be ok with this one being a bit lower.

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I used to follow his stuff pretty closely before he sold out and went over

2

Dec 12, 2024, 2:53 PM
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to ESPN. Our 2019 and 2018 teams were rated extremely similarly. Within 1 pt of each other IIRC. It's very similar if you look at ESPN's FPI. The 2019 Tigers are rated as a 32.7 with the 2019 version coming in at 31.5

I think Clemson fans tend to rate the 2019 team quite a bit lower simply because it lost to LSU and maybe because the power rangers were gone. I don't think that's really true though. The team was probably a little bit worse defensively, but i think the biggest thing is that the competition in the CFP was a lot better. The 2019 OSU team that we beat in the semis is the 2nd highest FPI rated team all-time (behind 2020 Bama). That team was incredibly dominant all season until we beat them. That was one of Dabo's best wins hands down. And then we had to play an LSU team that was finally healthy and peaking about as high as any team has ever peaked in CFB - in their own back yard in New Orleans. It was just a much more difficult task then taking on a very out-gunned ND team followed by Bama. Yeah, that 2018 Bama team was good, but both 2019 OSU and 2019 LSU were that good or better and we had to play both of them back-to-back. It was a tall order and we just came up a little short.

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Very fair argument

1

Dec 12, 2024, 3:23 PM
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I just never felt like that team was quite as dominant overall, but you are right in that competition was better that year.

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I agree completely. I think the 2019 team beats the 2016 team.

1

Dec 12, 2024, 3:27 PM [ in reply to I used to follow his stuff pretty closely before he sold out and went over ]
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LSU that year was a super-team. One of the best in history.

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I've always been curious of how much success Burrow would've had with our

1

Dec 12, 2024, 4:26 PM
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previous years defensive line. CW42 and Big Dex would have gotten to him alot more ofter than the guys we had that year against LSU. That was one of the glaring weaknesses i remember from that game. Venables was having to blitz his linebackers way more than he wanted to because we couldn't get pressure with the front four. Which Burrow just picked us apart bc of it. But.. we had really no choice.

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Re: I agree completely. I think the 2019 team beats the 2016 team.


Dec 12, 2024, 7:14 PM [ in reply to I agree completely. I think the 2019 team beats the 2016 team. ]
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IDK if 2019 Clemson would have beaten 2016. I'm skeptical. Trevor had a way, after his freshman year, of getting into his head in big games and playing worse. He still does that today. Deshaun was just one of those winners. When he got going, he would not be denied. I think he would have carved up our patchwork defense which was basically Simmons trying to do everything. But 2018 Clemson would have beaten 2019 LSU, and I don't think it would have been particularly close. We got to Burrow a lot, and that was with a front 7 that was a shadow of the 2018 team.

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Re: I used to follow his stuff pretty closely before he sold out and went over


Dec 12, 2024, 7:11 PM [ in reply to I used to follow his stuff pretty closely before he sold out and went over ]
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This is just a terrible take. I don't care about FPI. Let's look at facts:

Following the 2018 game, here's who we lost:

1. The Power Rangers, the best defensive line of all time. They were replaced with Logan Rudolph, Nyles Pinckney, Tyler Davis, and Xavier Thomas. Those two lines aren't even comparable.

2. Hunter Renfrow, our best slot receiver ever. In 2019, we still have Higgins, Ross, and Rodgers, but losing Hunter meant Trevor lost his star checkdown receiver.

3. Tre Lamar and Kendall Joseph, while I liked Skalski and thought Chad Smith was okay, again, it's a huge gap in talent. Lamar was the semi-finalist for the Butkus Award. Skalski played hard and was a good leader but was never a legitimate NFL linebacker.

4. Trayvon Mullen, our defensive MVP of the national championship game. Kendrick wasn't even a shadow of him.

5. Tavien Feaster, who was actually an elite running back for us, and a key backup. Lyn-J Dixon wasn't even close.

6. Milan Richard, who was a much better blocking tight end and receiving tight end than Braden Galloway

7. Greg Huegel. BT Potter ended up being a better kicker, but Huegel in 2018 was much better than Potter in 2019.


I don't see a single position where Clemson got better between 2018 and 2019. We were the #1 defense in the country, and lost 6 of our front 7, as well as maybe our best cornerback ever. We lost one of our best receivers ever, and it was a particularly key kind of receiver, because all of our other guys were 50/50 boundary receivers. We also lost a better tight end and a better kicker. Our defensive line was so questionable for much of the 2019 season, that Venables moved us to a 3-4, which didn't allow us to exert the same pressure on QBs.

LSU also was not as good as 2018 Alabama. If you ask Alabama fans, they'll tell you 2018 Alabama was better than 2019. But 2019, by all rights, should have beaten LSU. LSU had a number of other nailbiters. We were winning against LSU, but we just pulled a choke job in the second half, especially after Skalski was kicked out of the game.

You're just wrong on literally every point.

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I disagree and stand behind what I said


Dec 13, 2024, 9:12 AM
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Was the 2018 team better? Yes. Was it wayyy better? No.

Teams lose players and new guys step up. You can point to all of the players we lost as evidence that the team was substantially worse and I'll just point to our stats and rankings and show that our offensive production was nearly identical and our defense was still top 10.

I will say though, just from a pure matchup perspective we needed the power rangers against LSU. The only chance we had to win that game was to really disrupt Burrow in the pocket and we weren't able to do that.

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Re: Over/Under

1

Dec 12, 2024, 5:09 PM [ in reply to Over/Under ]
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2020 Clemson team lost to Ohio State in semis which shouldn’t been there only played 1/2 that games. Plus even one short Big 10 rules to win conference

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TEK


Re: Over/Under


Dec 13, 2024, 5:58 AM [ in reply to Over/Under ]
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@kkgpittm® Does either of you have access to this complete poll? I was curious where Connelly had the 2019 Ohio State team. Like the FPI, Bill Connelly had them as the champion in his 2019 SP+ poll despite losing to us in the semis. He justified it in an article that I posted above. I'm curious if he changed things around to keep this from being completely laughable. Maybe he won't allow TigerNet to reprint the whole pole to give more fodder to what an idiot he is.

TigersAndCubs

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Re: Over/Under


Dec 13, 2024, 8:58 AM
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@bareftn 13th... one slot behind Clemson. Basically said they were better, but we ultimately won the game so we had to be ranked higher.

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2018 Clemson and 2019 LSU, 2020 Bama are the best teams of this era.

1

Dec 12, 2024, 3:16 PM
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Those years teams would dominate any team since. Like a whole different level.

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Re: 2018 Clemson and 2019 LSU, 2020 Bama are the best teams of this era.

2

Dec 12, 2024, 3:42 PM
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2018 team is either first or tied for first ( with 2019 LSU) in best CFP era teams of all-time.

The 2018 is probably in the overall top 5 best college football teams of all.-time.

The only team in all of history that is
better on paper at least is terms of roster strength is like Miami 2001.

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Find me a team that could beat Clemsons 2018 team

1

Dec 12, 2024, 4:22 PM
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Alabama’s 2018 team was better than their 2020 team hands down

I’ll bet you could get Saban himself to admit that after a drink or two

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Re: TNET: ESPN ranks Clemson's all-time College Football Playoff teams

1

Dec 12, 2024, 4:55 PM
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2020 Alabama joke it was Covid year

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TEK


Bogus rankings. 2018 Clemson would boat race 2020 Bama and any team on that list

1

Dec 12, 2024, 5:23 PM
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How can Oregon be ranked when they haven’t won one? SMH. The disrespect is real. Heck, if this team can 12 straight quarters of complimentary football we can win it all this year! Defense needs to live up to its billing! Offense and special teams. Even the trainers! Let’s go!!!

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whole ESPN article is great click bait***

1

Dec 12, 2024, 5:44 PM
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what the he11 do you know about football?


How do you rank 24 teams when playoffs havent been played yet?***

1

Dec 12, 2024, 7:46 PM
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Re: How do you rank 24 teams when playoffs havent been played yet?***


Dec 13, 2024, 8:42 AM
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I wondered the same thing. I think that the only play off game that we were favored in was against Notre Dame. We would have had nearly all of the bottom spots if we were going on a before the playoff viewpoint.

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LOL, I would put that 2018 Clemson team on the field against ANY other Playoff

1

Dec 12, 2024, 7:57 PM
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team, and enjoy the heck out of the win.

:)

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I think this guys been sleeping with


Dec 13, 2024, 9:02 AM
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FlopEar Finebaum. He said on his show yesterday that he had no bias against Dabo and Clemson. He ought to run for office. He can lie with a straight face about as well as any of today’s politicians.

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Replies: 36
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Tiger Boards - Clemson Football
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