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Greg McElroy believes there’s a sleeping giant in college football and nobody’s talking about it.
During a recent episode of his show on ESPN, the former Alabama quarterback pointed out how quiet the discourse has been surrounding the Clemson Tigers — which he doesn’t necessarily see as a bad thing.
“Moving on to a team that is flying way under the radar,” McElroy began. “So much of the conversation around this team centers around their head coach. And so much around this team kind of centers around whether or not the way that this head coach has approached it is going to continue to be successful here in the modern era of college football.”
“You think about Clemson too?” he asked. “Clemson last year — really, really shaky in the first two months of the season. It wasn’t pretty. … But, down the stretch, starting with the win against Notre Dame? They started to look a little bit more like the Clemson that we grew up with. Maybe we didn’t grow up with them but that’s the Clemson that I envision when I still think Clemson and Dabo Swinney.”
After dominating CFB in the latter half of the 2010s, the Tigers have still been a good program, but the conversation has shifted a bit to other powers in the ACC.
“A lot of talk this offseason about Miami, tons of talk about Florida State — rightfully so. You can make a case that those two rosters are the best in the ACC. But don’t sleep on Clemson,” McElroy warned. “I think Clemson is a team that is flying under the radar in a really good way for Dabo Swinney and the Tigers.”