Re: TNET: Tigers see big drop in updated 'Too-Early' ranking

TigerPride97

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Jan 30, 2024, 2:24 PM [ in reply to Re: TNET: Tigers see big drop in updated 'Too-Early' ranking ]

This babble is pure gibberish. This is a question of how good will we be in 2024. The class of 2025 has nothing to do with it.

Last year, we went 9-4 with some ugly losses, but we ended strong, as the writer recognized. However, there's no doubt our offense was bad and our defense won us those games. After the season, we lost several major players to the draft plus portal. To the draft, we lost Nate Wiggins (our best player on the team), Trotter (our best linebacker), a good corner in Jones, four of our top defensive linemen in Tyler, Ruke, Xavier, and Demonte, and Shipley (not as good as Mafah, but a very good all around athlete for us). Anyone who acts like those are all easy to replace is a moron.

To the portal, we lost one of our better defensive players in Mukuba. Pride wasn't a superstar, but he was a starter for us we lost. Beaux is in the same boat. I personally think he was a disappointment, but he started for us. So we lost three starters to the portal. That's big. We lost seven other players to the portal. Some of those weren't starters, but were important depth. Sage and Lannden Zanders are probably the most notable, but Hunter Helms was our second best quarterback. We didn't sign any to replace them.

Now, the class of 2024 does have some promising players in it, three specifically. However, Sammy Brown is not going to be able to waltz in and replace Trotter immediately. I hope Wesco and Moore are the receivers that finally let us claw out of our offensive slump. But it's extremely rare for wide receivers to stand out as true freshmen. Of all our incredible receivers, the only difference makers as freshmen were Sammy Watkins, Justin Ross, and to a lesser extent Renfrow. Most concerning is that we signed no notable linemen. So we had one of the worst offensive lines in football. We lost some of our better linemen, and signed 3 3 stars to replace them. I am as hopeful as you that our new O-line coach will work magic, but there doesn't seem to be a lot to work with right now.

So you're basically wrong on every level. You can be all in and want Clemson to win. I obviously know the entire team well as you see and want us to be dominant. But it's not crazy to think when you're recruiting top 15-20 classes, and losing a bunch of your better players, that you might not be better than top 15-20.

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Out of curiosity I took a look at the preseason Massy ratings and we are essentially similarly ranked. .
Also of note is that these ratings are little more than carryover rankings from last year as you'll notice there is little to no movement amongst most teams.

This is likely a good indicator of where we will start the season as the coaches poll and AP are in virtual lock step to begin the season.

Whether ( fair ) or otherwise it's apparent they give no credit for our coaching changes and the immediate impact we are logically expecting. That's an error but they have taken the " I'm from Missouri " viewpoint and we will have to show them on the field.

However , what may be somewhat troublesome to most is we play Georgia right out of the gate

If you notice in these same rankings Georgia DOES make a jump. If we can defeat them we will become instant contenders and likely recognize a jump of ten spots or more.

We can absolutely ill afford a blowout loss that would drop us out of the top 25 altogether

And with a SOS ( 57 ) ranking would necessitate a victory over FSU and blowout wins of far lesser talented opponents

TNET: Tigers see big drop in updated 'Too-Early' ranking

ACC Champ Louisville ?!?!?!***

Only because they signed a gazillion portal guys.

Re: Only because they signed a gazillion portal guys.

Re: Only because they signed a gazillion portal guys.

and did they get the easy schedule that they had last year?