Clemsoning. Now, there is a word Tiger football fans haven’t heard much of in some time.
What was once a term used frequently and flippantly to denigrate Clemson football’s seeming knack for losing games it should win all but disappeared from the national media’s lexicon around 2015 when Dabo Swinney’s program started contending for, and winning national championships.
The last three seasons have seen the doubt begin to creep back in, and the pervasive thought among those in the media high castle is that the Tigers are once again a has-been to the college football world. But those thoughts, and the articulation of them, hit a fever pitch within the last week when ESPN’s Heather Dinich appeared on ESPN’s Get Up and did all she could to discredit the Tigers who enter the 2024 season ranked 14th in the AP Poll.
Asked who was the most overrated team in the preseason AP Poll, she did not hesitate to name Clemson.
“Why so much love for the Clemson Tigers?”, opined Dinich. “They had four conference losses last year, which is as many as they’ve had combined in the past six seasons. People keep telling me their defense is going to be great. Their defense is always pretty good. But they’ve got to get a quarterback. Cade Klubnik is back. Until we see offensive improvement, I don’t see why there should be so much love for the Clemson Tigers.”
Heather Dinich
Following Dinich’s comments, it lit a fire fueled by detraction among analysts and commentators that haven’t been seen around these parts in many years. Clemsoning is back. Or, have these credentialed crooners not learned anything from the past? Comments like what have been flying around the airwaves in recent days are Swinney’s favorite fodder to light the fire on which the Tigers’ foes have frequently been burned.
But sure, let’s give the ultimate underdog salesman something to work with. How has that worked out for the biggest and best teams in the last 15 years or so? If we are taking a trip down memory lane, then let’s fire up the ROY Bus and let “Little ‘ol” Clemson take us for a ride.
Following the Dinich remarks on ESPN, FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt chimed in as well. When asked had Clemson been passed in the ACC, Klatt offered the following:
“Have they been passed? And the answer is ‘yes’, yes they have,” said Klatt rhetorically. “That’s the natural evolution of the sport, we should have expected it, and it’s time that we start to look at this season for what it is, which is clearly a Florida State/Miami look toward that ACC Championship game. This is nothing against Clemson. This is the natural evolution of college football. This is the natural progression of programs.”
Joel Klatt
Florida State and Miami? Surely you jest! The same Miami program who has won absolutely nothing in close to two decades and an FSU program that has beaten Clemson just once since 2014? Yet we are supposed to believe these two programs have somehow surpassed Clemson in their own conference.
Even a billionaire with the frugality of a Roman hedonist wouldn’t buy that.
I never thought there would be enough bias to revive Clemsoning, yet that is where we currently stand. And while neither Dinich nor Klatt have explicitly used the word, it is easy enough to read between the lines. Nobody believes in Clemson anymore, except…
Clemson.
Do not think for one minute that Dabo Swinney is not going to use this to his advantage. There has been a sense of calm around the Tigers’ program since the start of fall camp. Perhaps the calm before the storm. This Clemson team is talented, they are hungry, and they are tired of hearing their name drug through the proverbial mud. Swinney knows what his team is capable of, the players know it, and following the professions of doubt espoused against the Tigers, former Clemson offensive lineman and ACC Network analyst Eric Mac Lain knows it too.
“Here we go with this trash again,” fumed Mac Lain. “You’re talking about a Top 14 team. You’re not talking about a Top 5 preseason team. So, the left hook out of nowhere is crazy, but it’s something that for whatever reason some people want to do. Take shots at this conference. Take shots at Florida State. Take shots at Clemson. Things of that nature. And it’s remarkable to me, at the end of the day. Quite frankly, if you look at the Clemson offense, and I’ll be heading that way in three days, I think you see improvement. I think you see a quarterback going into year two as a starter.”
Eric Mac Lain
Mac Lain added, “We are so quick as a society (to declare) this guy is an all-world competitor right away. Easy, right? That’s why everybody that’s a 5-star quarterback comes in and does these things. No man, there’s not a lot of those guys. There’s very few, and it’s extremely hard to do.”
Mac Lain knows what it takes to win. He did, after all, win at the highest level while playing for the Tigers and has the hardware and jewelry to prove it. Sorry Dinich, Klatt, and Finebaum, if I trust his analysis more than yours. Have the Tigers slipped a bit in recent seasons? Sure they have! Do they have the talent and the make-up to be a championship contender in 2024? You’re darn right they do!
So, poke the bear at your own peril. It would be easy to cite any number of games in which a doubted Clemson team broke the hearts of a higher ranked opponent but there is a cemetery near Death Valley full of “tombstones” that you can visit if the inclination for further proof arises.
At the end of his segment, Mac Clain landed one final shot toward Paul Finebaum who had, of course, roundly agreed with Dinich’s assessment.
“For me, just the randomness of it, but it worked. It got our attention,” he said. ” There’s never any type of real analysis. There’s never any type of real reason. It’s just BS spewed out. It’s annoying. And again, I’m biased. I get it. It’s my school. It’s my conference. It’s a school in my conference, but at the end of the day, you gotta get a little tired of it, right? The card that is played, what are we even talking about? But hey, it’s worked. (Paul Finebaum) has a great career because of it, and congrats, I guess.”
Eric Mac Lain
Ouch!
Personally, I like to think of Clemsoning as winning. Sure seems that winning fits the definition much better when you look at the results. Three seasons of still being good, if not quite elite, does not erase a full decade of sheer dominance. But how soon some forget what was and what could easily be again.
Do not be surprised if the Tigers go full BYOG on August 31st in Atlanta when they take on the Georgia Bulldogs. When Clemson brings their own guts, they have a habit of taking their opponents’ too. I’m no grand prognosticator, but I have a feeling that would quiet the masses fairly quickly.
