Just Win and You’re In
The College Football Playoff committee has spoken. Clemson, based on their “resume”, is the 5th best team in America. Trevor Lawrence is not the same Trevor Lawrence that beat Alabama. He has digressed. The Clemson defense, although limiting all nine opponents to under 300 yards a game, lost their entire front line to the NFL and isn’t that good. A one-point loss to UNC at their place is totally unacceptable. Clemson doesn’t play anybody of worth, like Texas or Pitt or Illinois or New Mexico State. The ACC is one of the worst conferences in college football. Everybody says so. Just win and you’re in.
Suddenly, Iowa, with blowout victories over Middle Tennessee, Miami of Ohio, Northwestern and Rutgers (10-24 combined record, including Middle Tennessee’s most recent loss of 34-20 to Charlotte (Remember Charlotte?), is suddenly listed as a big win for Penn State. Using Iowa as a measure for a “good win” makes a lot of sense, right? Right? Another one of Penn State’s victories came over Pittsburgh, which, by the way, plays in that aforementioned worst conference in college football. They put on a show against Pitt in front of a home crowd of over 108,000 fans, beating them into submission 17-10. PSU did beat Michigan, at home, in front of said 108,000+ fans, no doubt waving their white towels the whole game. Pat on the back for that. Let’s get back to Clemson and their “loss to UNC”. Clemson did what they did last year and played down to the opponents level for one game. It happened last year against Syracuse, although Syracuse was a 10+ win team last year. Having said that, Clemson was favored to win bigger than the 4-point margin. Apparently, the committee didn’t see that as a downfall like the UNC game did for Clemson this year. Since the “wake up” game against UNC, Clemson has simply dominated their next four opponents. They have outscored four opponents, 208-45. The Tigers have rolled up an average of 620 yards of offense a game and given up 246 yards to the opponent. The committee claims the schools above Clemson in their rankings are better at “controlling the game”. Seriously? All of the stats above come from four games where the first team offense was pulled by midway through the 3rd quarter, if not sooner. Just win and you’re in.
Maybe I’m looking at this through orange-shaded glasses. Maybe Clemson is only the 5th best team in America based on their “resume” up to this point. Georgia is right behind Clemson in the 6th spot, even though they lost AT HOME to a terrible USC team. All is forgiven, it’s an SEC team after all with a freshman quarterback and a former Clemson running back leading the way for a 4-5 team. It’s ok Georgia, you’re still on the good side of the playoff committee. Keep holding on to those big out of conference victories over Murray State and Arkansas State, and that nice 6 point victory over Notre Dame.
In the end, LSU plays Alabama at Alabama. Penn State still has to play Ohio State, and don’t forget that undefeated Minnesota team this weekend. Clemson only has to play NCST, Wake Forest (#19 in the current playoff poll) and the previously mentioned SEC powerhouse, USC. Coach Dabo Swinney is probably sitting at home this morning, polishing up the ROY bus, and ready to jump on board. Wake Forest will drop out of the top 25 when/if Clemson beats them handily and the “ACC is hot garbage” pundits will continue their disrespect for Clemson. Just win and you’re in.
Coach Swinney is the master of motivation. If Clemson does not come out and boat race NCST early and often, then this means Dabo is reeling them in and throwing style points out the window. The ONLY thing Clemson can do is go out and dominate each game on the schedule. The college football world does not want to see another Clemson Alabama championship game, that much seems very obvious.
There is talk that having only four teams in the college football playoffs needs to happen. Clemson would welcome this simply because an ACC champion would be in the playoffs and there wouldn’t be this rhetoric about “Clemson doesn’t play anyone and doesn’t deserve to be in the top 4.” In a way, this would be great for Clemson, and at the end of the day, the championship game would still have the two best teams in the nation, unless of course, it’s the one team that had the weakest “resume”. Bottom line: Just win and you’re in. If it was said one time last night and this morning, it was mentioned 100 times. “Just win and you’re in”. The problem is, it wasn’t the playoff committee saying it. This is just the beginning and the first playoff rankings is NOT the final rankings.
One more thing. Everyone, please stop today and say a prayer for the NCST Wolfpack for Saturday. Something tells me the Clemson Tigers will be looking to make a statement.
