Is Clemson Evolving Enough To Win? | Clemson Football 2024

Introduction after going on a 69 and5 run from 2015 to 2019 with five ACC championships and two national championships including six college football playoff game wins dabos swinny has gone a respectable 40 and 12 since 2020 but he is only won the ACC Championship Game twice he has no new year six bowl or college football game wins to Showcase with his only two postseason wins being the cheit bowl in 2021 and the Gator Bowl in 2023 and last season Clemson had their worst season under dabos swiy since 2010 when they went 6- seven 4-4 in conference last year the Tigers went N9 and4 with a 4-4 record in the ACC conference Clemson did make some staff moves and rightfully so after a disappointing year but are they evolving quick enough and are they hitting stride with the current Pace in college football because as we're going to be discussing today on college football with Sam I think the answer is no and while Clemson is catching up in terms of evolution and in terms of making correct staff moves and actually offering players in the portal they did offer players in the portal no one has committed yet and Clemson is not recruiting and developing and I would argue even coaching at the level required to be an elite program welcome back fellow Football Fanatics it's your host college football with Sam and before we dive deep into Clemson and the ACC please make sure to hit that like button so we can get this video into the algorithm a comment down below helps as well for the algorithm and it allows me to hear your thoughts and engage with you and also subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and click the notification Bell so that you can get notified when I release more college football content college football with Sam is a big 10 Centric Channel but there's a reason why it's college football with Sam and not big 10 football with Sam I do try and touch on other teams and conferences and now that we're more than a month away from the 2023 season and my energy back up back up and I have some plans expect me to cover more non Big 10 football content while giving increased time and coverage to the Big 10 as well so if you're a Clemson fan thank you for being on here please join the channel there will be more sporadic content about the ACC and the Clemson Tigers in the future there will be ACC predictions and predictions for every other college football conference at as I have tried to do for the previous few seasons and before we resume I also want to give a shout out to my patreon members thank you to patreon crash 2488 for being a Heisman member patreon members Spencer Bringhurst Chris Lane and SFS inverted for being all Americans and All Conference patrons will Loftus Gabriel Kender roming noome Matthew S Austin Christmas zubah and Janisha cochrell for being all conference members if you're an All-American or Heisman Patron you do get access to occasional bonus content and you will always be thanked at the beginning of the video and the end of the video If you also want to support the channel while not participating on my patreon you can check out my merchandise page via the link in the description or the pinned comment where you can also find my patreon link but Clemson and dabos swinny Clemson's Adaptation Or Lack Thereof you have to pause to think about what happened after that AFF forementioned 69 and5 run that's very very impressive 14-1 in 2015 and 2016 a 12-2 record in 2017 a 15-0 record in 2018 and in 2019 14-1 again and in 16 and 18 they won the national championship in 15 and 19 they played for a national championship but lost 17 was a a flukish year where poor quarterback play and poor offensive play overall caused the Tigers to lose in the semi-final round against Alabama in the sugar Ball but after Trevor Lawrence left Clemson really hasn't been the same and that's been for a variety of reasons their recruiting is no longer consistently in the top 10 they have not had an All-American AC CC wide receiver since 2019 or 2020 shout out to Josh Pate for that statistic that's pounded in my head it's pretty consistent Clemson used to have epic allconference All-American wide receivers and they haven't had that in quite some time you don't have Travis etn at running back anymore he was there from 2018 to 2020 awesome player NFL level player will Shipley and Phil mafa aren't that type of a player will Shipley obviously leaving for the NFL after the last 2023 season mafa I believe is returning it's a variety of reasons a large part to do with recruiting but also development and something that has been introduced since the co year called the transfer portal something that Davos swinny has for the most part refused to use while his players have enthusiastically at times used it to exit the program Clemson has 10 transfers leaving after the 2023 season Brandon Spectre at wide receiver Landon xanders at safety David oi at Edge Andrew makuba at safety Dominique Thomas at running back torano Pride at corner Bo Collins at wide receiver sieg Enis at tight end Mitchell Mae at offensive tackle and Hunter Helms at quarterback Clemson meanwhile has added zero incoming transfers and Clemson football all around in the 2025 recruiting class they have the number two recruiting class in the country but the recruiting class that's coming in that will actually have an impact this season the 2024 recruiting class Clemson only has 22 total commits it's the 11th or 15th range recruiting class depending on whether you you use the 247 Sports trans um not transfer team Talent composite or the 247 Sports composite sorry for getting messed up there or just 247 Sports rankings raw with no input from ESPN rivals or any of the other recruiting sites when you look at the overall incoming recruiting class rankings Clemson Falls all the way to 15th and they have less incoming commits than anyone else inside of the top 25 the next lowest after Clemson in terms of in in coming commits is Michigan with 28 and after that you have to look at Tennesse with 29 and Michigan and Tennessee are are teams that in my opinion have similar depth or Superior depth to Clemson right now and these are teams that are willing and able to use the portal Michigan I think is better suited on defense than Clemson is right now and probably offense particularly at the offensive line as well for Tennessee I would say that they're better suited at quarterback specifically with Nico a am maliva playing at a much higher level in his bowl game against Iowa in Elite defense than I've ever seen Kate kumnick play so Clemson from a recruiting standpoint from a portal standpoint I know that many have talked about this they're not in a good position where Clemson is evolving is their coaching staff Matt Luke being hired as the offensive line coach shows that the Tigers want to improve their trench play Lucan is two seasons as the Georgia offensive line coach he got four offensive linemen drafted in the 2021 and 2022 NFL draft he retired to spend time with his family for two seasons but is back working at Clemson Chris rump is a veteran in terms of coaching and him returning to Clemson he coached there from 2006 to 2010 I think shows that the Tigers want someone who's experienced rump is 50 2 years old has coached in the NFL for the past three years as a defensive line coach and also coached with the Texans in 2020 as their outside linebackers coach he he served in co-defensive coordinator roles at Florida and Tennessee in the SEC and was Alabama's defensive line coach from 2011 to 2013 proven developer of talent knows the South well having played at South Carolina coached in the SEC for much of his coaching career I think that was an awesome he's also won two BCS national championships at Alabama as their coach it was a while ago but him being in the NFL recently and being a co-defensive coordinator in the past decade working with Nick Sabin working with great SCC defenses and in the NFL I think is an impressive hire the Tigers weakness last year I think outside of obviously quarterback and wide receiver play the defensive line and the offensive line 17:04 Clemson Could Fall Behind did not manage their talent correctly teams were able to run on Clemson at times and I know that Clemson had one of the better defenses in the country statistically it helps when you play in the ACC who's relatively weak and Clemson's defense was not like a Michigan Ohio State Penn State or Iowa defense granted those defenses might have been generational according to S&P Plus in terms of an itics but Clemson did not have those defenses and with how Clemson recruits on the defensive side of the ball they should be Fielding Elite defenses every year last year I think that Clemson maybe they had an elite defense I'm more of an expert on the Big 10 than I am on the ACC but watching them against Duke watching them against Florida State against NC State against Notre Dame I think they had a great defense a near Elite defense but they didn't live up to their potential and they certainly did it on the offensive side of the ball either so I think that Matt Luke and Chris rump coming in is good good replacements certainly upgrades on the coaching staff it was the right move to retain Garrett Riley as the offensive coordinator swinny has offered players in the portal but as we've already discussed none have committed and this is where Clemson I think is evolving making the necessary staff changes which after 2021 even after 2022 some would say they didn't I mean the Riley hire after 2022 was huge but you still had questions at the offensive line position the wide receiver position I thought the defense was rather underwhelming or rather extremely underwhelming in 2022 and yeah I mean you have to you have to fully invest you have to dive head first in to college football the head coach is now the CEO and he's the game manager and he runs everything and in order to stay up to date with college football and contend for national championships and Conference champions ships which Clemson is expected to do since they've done it in the past you need to use the portal you need to recruit at a high level you need to get involved in N which means paying players as a less polite term of usage but it's the reality you need to pay players you need to hire Elite coaches your coordinators as well you yourself have to continue to evolve and it's already taking on a lot of responsibility to manage the players manage the assistants to push hard for name image and likeness Andor transfer portal reform that not only has to go on at Clemson but many other schools and that's why it's good to start evolving as soon as possible and to try and keep up the best you can because once you fall behind there's a chance that you will never catch up again and entering 2024 Clemson once again's in the position where if things go right for them they can win the ACC and they can compete potentially for a national Championship but I would even question that given the fact that they lose a plethora of starters on defense the offense over the previous three seasons has showed me nothing that I care about they no longer have the depth to be a realistic National Title Contender and with what I've said about the offense not utilizing Talent properly nor the defense I think that Garrett Riley has to be given some Grace from last year it was his first first year and he took over a broken system and I expect Improvement this season with Clemson's high amount of returning production on offense but Clemson only returns 49% of their defensive production this season which is 103rd and I have not been impressed with West Goodwin and Mickey Khan I don't think many of you Clemson fans have either so they should be under pressure Sweeny absolutely needs to be under pressure and if he does not quickly evolve if he does not make portal moves after spring and if Clemson does not look impressive in Spring ball in the spring game in Spring practice if Kade klubnik does not take steps forward along with the offensive line and new players on the defensive line thanks to their new and upgraded position coaches I I got to tell you Virginia Tech number one team in returning production they have a mean rushing offense Miami and Mario Cris ball in some sense are a joke in one way and that's putting it politely but they have talent they have an offense Clemson has to play Georgia that's a game that already doesn't look too pretty in terms of matchups you still have to play at Florida State and there are other teams on Clemson schedule that no doubt can beat them including Louisville who's coached by a man and Jeff Braum who's a genius developer of talent who's an excellent schemer and someone who is using the portal and from what I know I do think Louisville I'm not an expert in this so don't quote me but I do believe that Louisville is further ahead in nil than Clemson which is concerning but that's all I have to say in this video really Clemson has to evolve it's as simple as that if they evolve right now with the fact that they're still recruiting top 15 the fact that they're willing to pay their coach pay assistance they're in a good recruiting area as is if they evolve now and don't fall too far behind or more behind than they already are they'll be in an a great position moving forward to potentially be an elite program again but they have to do it now this season is absolutely so critical for them to get back on track thank you to crash 248 eight for being a Heisman Patron thanks to Spencer Bringhurst Chris Lane and SFS inverted for being all American patrons and thanks to will lus Gabriel cender roming gnome Matthew S Austin Christmas zubah and Janai shakell for being all conference patrons if you're listening on Spotify make sure to follow the channel and check out my YouTube page on the Spotify description and if you're listening via YouTube make sure to check out my Spotify page via the link in the description have a phenomenal day guys and I will see you all around go Tigers