Final Playoff Polls
Well, the final college football playoff polls are out and as expected, Clemson is in the 3rd position. Yes, Coach Dabo Swinney and his tigers are in the playoffs for the 5th consecutive year. So what do Clemson fans have to look forward to? Get ready. If you thought the pundits and fan bases were out for blood before, you were mistaken.
Taking a look around a couple of social media sites, it is like a shark feeding frenzy on Clemson. The next three weeks, it’s going to be a constant barrage of insults, smack talk, and plain out whining and crying. It’s going to come from Ohio State fans, SEC fans, and of course, our fellow “rivals” that are home for the holidays. Little doubt they are out right now scarfing up all the LSU hats, t-shirts and jerseys they can find for the December 28th game with Oklahoma. It’s actually quite comical.
The talking points are simple, and basically, there are two of them. The first talking point and the most prevalent one is “Clemson doesn’t have a single Top 25 win. Heck, there are 18 schools out there that could go undefeated against their schedule. It’s ridiculous!” This point is laughable. What they fail to realize is that Clemson would go undefeated against every one of their team’s schedule and it’s not even close. They don’t understand. The only way to show them is to do what Clemson did last year; win the playoffs against two unbeaten teams. Can Ohio State beat Clemson? Most certainly they can. They are very talented and their claim to the #2 ranking is beating PSU, Michigan and Wisconsin, which by the way, are all B1G schools and all pretty much overrated. Yes, they are ranked but realistically, they are like the ACC, they generally just beat up on each other but because of their historical “brand names”, they don’t get the same berating that the ACC does.
The second talking point is all about Dabo. They apparently don’t like the fact that Coach Swinney sticks up for his program and calls out the “talking heads” on their disrespect of his program. Dabo talks to the media and defends his team and his program, yet the “fans” and idiots like Paul Finebaum take it personal and start jumping all over him. The coach knows exactly what he is doing. The critics have no clue but it will all hit them like a ton of bricks at the same time, just like last year.
This is not to say that Clemson will waltz through the playoffs, destroying everyone in their path. It may happen or may not. What is lost in all this is that Clemson does things the Clemson way. Dabo Swinney runs his program his way, and he’s proud of his kids and his program. All the whining and complaining by people outside of Clemson University is just ammunition, ammunition to motivate his team. So, let them keep it up. We have three weeks of this junk and it’s coming.
