1. CLEMSON TRENDING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION
Dabo Swinney and his program are in a really precarious position. After years and years of being among college football elite, there’s a growing sense that
Clemson could be slipping. There isn’t much room at the very top of the game and it could be tough for Clemson to stay up there with the way the Tigers have been recruiting.
Alabama and
Georgia are running the college football world right now and that’s not a coincidence since they’ve had multiple top recruiting classes in the last few years. Clemson hasn’t had more than one top five recruiting class lately, but the Tigers have developed prospects really well and it certainly helped having generational quarterbacks
Deshaun Watson
and
Trevor Lawrence
lead the team.
DJ Uiagalelei
is very talented and could turn things around this season, but he’s going to be looking over his shoulder at star
Cade Klubnik
.
Regardless of what happens with either of the quarterbacks, it’s really difficult to see Clemson recruiting at a level it needs to without embracing the NIL world we’re living in and working the transfer portal. Every top program in the nation is making major strides on both fronts, while Clemson seems stuck in its ways.
Swinney still sticks to his “no visit” policy for players that are verbally committed. All of the top coaches in the college football world have embraced the transfer portal and NIL, and have continued to recruit players that are committed while they take other visits. Swinney decided not to be flexible in any of these areas and he could be handicapping his team in the process.
The Tigers also saw key assistant coaches leave the staff this season and backfilled those positions with assistants that don't have nearly as much experience coaching and recruiting at a high level. There are a lot of question marks about this Clemson team, and it will be interesting to see if the narrative changes this fall when games begin.
