FOX's Cowherd says Clemson is second-tier among CFB's top programs

Cowherd also says Clemson isn't in the class of FSU and Miami if they are on.

by TigerNet Staff - Tue Jun 23 16:43:58 GMT-05:00 2020

Fox Sports talk show host Colin Cowherd says Clemson isn't in the class of Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Southern Cal as a top college football program.

"There are four programs in America that are just different," Cowherd said Tuesday. "Forget that all (of them) have won national championships with three different coaches. If every program in America had their best coach ever, these four would dominate the sport. It doesn't matter who coaches LSU or Georgia. If Alabama's got (Nick) Saban, they dominate the conference...

"If USC has their best coaches ever, John McKay or Pete Carroll, it doesn't matter how good Oregon or Washington or UCLA are. They dominate the conference. There's only four of those. That's it."

Clemson was grouped with Florida State and Miami from the ACC among teams that can win the national title with the right coach and QB, along with Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Penn State, Texas, Oregon and Notre Dame to fill out the second tier.

"People say, 'What about Clemson? What about Clemson?'" Cowherd said of the program coming off of five-straight Playoff appearances. "NoNoNoNo, slow down Clemson. Clemson is in a conference with Florida State and Miami. If Florida State had Bobby Bowden in his prime right now and Miami had Jimmy Johnson in his prime against Dabo Swinney -- Clemson's not making the Playoff, brother. They're not getting through those guys. Because if Florida State and especially Miami in Dade and Broward counties that had way better players and went into the NFL and were stars.

"Right now Clemson is beating up on a dreadful ACC where the two other powers are terrible. That doesn't mean that Clemson is not a good program, but Clemson in the last five years has finished top-5 in the AP Poll. If you take away the last five years, the only other time they have did it was in 1981."

Cowherd says Clemson's perception currently is built on that relatively short run.

"This is like recency bias," Cowherd said about the three-time national champions. "Clemson is rolling right now. They're going to roll again this year. They're going to be very, very good for the foreseeable future. But if Florida State and Miami got their act together, those are better all-time programs -- hate to break it to you."

"There are 4 programs in America that are just different — Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma and USC." @ColinCowherd breaks down his College Football tiers: pic.twitter.com/XUmwrnHPHF
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) June 23, 2020