Clemson Media Poll: Clemson defense dominates, Vols defense shredded to shake up ranking |
The updated College Football Playoff rankings have been released and so have the Clemson Media Poll rankings. Each week we poll 24 Clemson media members including writers, radio hosts, bloggers, and podcasters to get a pulse on how those closest to the Tigers assess the lay of the land. The polls close before the College Football Playoff rankings are released and then we compare them to see where we differ from the playoff committee.
Action on the Field: After a strong performance against Louisville, the Tigers kept the momentum rolling with a dominant start against Miami. Clemson’s offense scored a touchdown on three of their first four possessions while the defense forced three punts and an interception. A sack prevented the Tigers from going up four touchdowns, but they kicked a field goal to conclude the first half with a 24-0 lead. Despite entering the game with a 9-1 record, the Tigers hadn’t blown out an opponent from start to finish all season. It seemed like that was about to change and perhaps we’d get to see backup QB Cade Klubnik get a series or two with the starters before the back-ups entered. That was not to be. The Tigers' offense began to sputter and instead of celebrating a blowout and getting valuable reps for Klubnik, things got dicey. Their first four possessions of the second half resulted in a missed field goal, an interception, and two lost fumbles. The missed field goal (a 59-yard attempt) gave Miami the ball at midfield. They got on the board with a field goal on the ensuing drive. The second lost fumble gave Miami the ball on Clemson’s 10-yard line and they finally got into the end zone. A safety and touchdowns on their final two drives (the latter coming with Klubnik and the back-ups) made the final score a pretty 40-10 despite an ugly third quarter. Winning ugly was the theme of the night for much of the top 10. TCU and Michigan each trailed their respective opponents in the fourth quarter before late scores delivered victories. USC trailed UCLA in the third quarter before pulling out a 48-45 win. Georgia, while never trailing, escaped Kentucky with a not-so-pretty 16-6 win. Not all of the top teams avoided upsets. North Carolina laid an absolute dud at home against Georgia Tech. Drake Maye struggled and the Yellow Jackets held the high-powered Tar Heel offense to just 17 points. While the loss takes the steam out of the ACC Championship and kills their chance at a top-10 win, another big upset makes rivalry week a bit more interesting. Tennessee suffered an embarrassing loss in Columbia to the South Carolina Gamecocks. Spencer Rattler threw for 438 yards and six touchdowns. He proved to be a dynamic player at Oklahoma but has had a massively disappointing year tallying only eight TDs to nine INTs entering the game. For the first time, he finally looked like the player the Gamecocks hoped they were adding. That certainly adds some intrigue as South Carolina comes to Death Valley next week riding a big wave of momentum. Clemson Media Poll vs. College Football Playoff Committee The top four remain unchanged in both the Clemson media and CFP rankings, but there are some major disagreements in spots 5-9. The Clemson media ranked USC #5 following their win at UCLA. Their defense has holes, but QB Caleb Williams has 33 TDs and only 3 INTs. If they win their next two games, he’ll likely win the Heisman (or at least should). Lincoln Riley left Oklahoma for USC and – with a lot of help from the transfer portal – immediately made the offense elite. The CFP committee however ranked LSU above them at #5. LSU has a loss to FSU in the season-opener as well as a blowout loss to Tennessee. Both of those losses came in Louisiana. LSU’s win over Alabama may be more impressive than any USC has earned thus far, but it’s still surprising that a two-loss LSU would check in ahead of USC. Clemson media has LSU two spots lower at #7, making them the top-ranked 2-loss team, but putting them behind one-loss USC and one-loss Clemson. The other big discrepancy is where they ranked Clemson and Alabama. The Clemson media has the Tigers at #6 as the second-ranked 1-loss team ahead of all the 2-loss teams. The CFP committee has both LSU (#5) and Alabama (#7) above Clemson. The Tigers have wins over #16 Florida State and #25 Louisville with their lone loss coming to #15 Notre Dame. Alabama’s best wins are against #20 Ole Miss and #23 Texas with losses to #5 LSU and #10 Tennessee. Finally, we asked Clemson media two questions about potential postseason opponents. If matched up against Georgia in the postseason, only 14% say they’d pick Clemson to win. If facing Ohio State, still only 18% say they’d pick the Tigers to win. Those potentially low odds are why I suggested last week that a trip to the Orange Bowl to potentially end the season with a marquee win over Alabama could be preferable, but after thinking about those possibilities more, I’ve changed my mind. While facing Georgia or Ohio State would be extremely tough, you want your team to get a shot. If they beat Clemson and expose issues, then the Tigers know what to fix. If Clemson springs an upset, then they’re playing for a National Championship. Tell us in the comments, who did it better: Clemson media or the CFP committee?
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