Athlon projects Clemson, 2021 college football season |
Athlon Sports
ranked all 130 FBS teams recently and Clemson is pretty high up there. Reigning champ Alabama, however, is in the spot Dabo Swinney and the Tigers want to be.
Clemson checked in at No. 2 in its rankings. "Clemson has led the ACC in scoring for three consecutive years and all of the pieces are in place to own one of the nation’s top offenses once again," Athlon's Steven Lassan said. "Clemson’s defensive line is arguably the best in college football. There’s depth and talent off the edge and on the interior. James Skalski passed on the NFL to anchor the linebacker unit, while rising star Trenton Simpson is poised to add to the depth and talent of this group. Despite losing cornerback Derion Kendrick, the Tigers will be tough against the pass." The full top-5 is Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Georgia. More from the ACC, North Carolina is No. 10 and Miami is No. 14 within the top-25, then seven more are within the top-50 with NC State (40) then Virginia Tech (41), Boston College (42), Pittsburgh (44), Florida State (45), Louisville (47) and Wake Forest (48). In-state rival South Carolina is down at 76th, while Nov. home out of conference opponent UConn is 126th. Clemson opens its 2021 campaign on Sept. 4 in Charlotte against Georgia.
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