ESPN analyst Greg McElroy broke down the ACC into tiers ahead of the 2026 college football season, placing Miami alone in Tier 1 as a national championship contender while grouping Clemson in Tier 2 as a College Football Playoff contender alongside SMU and Louisville.
Coming off a 7-6 campaign—the second-worst finish in head coach Dabo Swinney’s 17 full seasons—Clemson enters the year looking to rebound despite significant roster turnover.
“The team that everybody wants to bury, and I’m not doing it,” McElroy said on his Always College Football show. “I understand that Clemson went 7-6. I know it’s the fewest wins this program has had since 2010, and it was a genuinely rough year. They started 3-5, and Dabo Swinney himself said, ‘I feel like I’m in 2010 all over again.’ Then the draft came, and nine Tigers got selected. That’s tied for the most in the ACC, including two first-round picks along the line of scrimmage, so defensive and offensive line.”
McElroy analyzed how last season put Swinney’s traditional development model to the test in the modern roster-building landscape.
“Here’s the part that makes 2025 sting so much for Dabo specifically — his whole model is a bet, right? That if you recruit and you develop, instead of going out and prioritizing the portal — the talent runs in cycles, and eventually, you get to a point where you have a veteran-loaded roster, and you cash that roster in for a title run,” McElroy said. “And 2025 was supposed to be that cash-in year. They had 17 returning starters, the most veteran roster in America. Preseason top five, and yet it was the worst season in 15 years. So this bounce-back isn’t just about wins — it’s about whether or not Dabo’s blueprint can still hold up in this era. But here’s where I have to be careful, because it’s a lazy take just sitting there right now talking about Dabo and whether he does it the right way. The guy has won a couple of titles. He knows what he’s doing. I’m not going to do it.”
Quarterback Play and Offensive Outlook
With multi-year starter Cade Klubnik departed after 40 career starts, Clemson’s ceiling rests heavily on the quarterback position, where fourth-year player Christopher Vizzina steps forward while Chad Morris returns as offensive coordinator to re-establish a physical, two-back running game.
“The entire season might hinge on just one question — it’s the quarterback,” McElroy said. “Cade Klubnik had 40 career starts, and he’s gone. And Dabo, being Dabo, he didn’t necessarily want to go and get a portal quarterback. He said, look, Christopher Vizzina has been sitting here, and he’s been ready. He’s been waiting for this opportunity. This is a fourth-year player with one career start. But here’s the thing about that one start — it came against SMU, and Vizzina threw for 317 and three touchdowns. If that guy shows up, this could very easily become a playoff team.”
Grouping Clemson in Tier 2, McElroy emphasized that quarterback execution will dictate the program’s ultimate trajectory.
“I have Clemson in Tier 2 because of the talent and the coaching, I think are still Tier 2,” McElroy said. “They have actually embraced the portal this year with a lot of new additions. I love their wide receiver room. But the quarterback, that’s the whole ballgame when evaluating what Clemson’s ceiling might be.”
Defensive Strength and Front Seven
On defense, Clemson returns key production along its front seven, anchored by edge rusher Will Heldt and linebacker Sammy Brown—both selected to the 2026 preseason All-ACC team alongside cornerback Ashton Hampton and wide receiver Bryant Wesco Jr.
“If you watched them last year, there is some more interesting things to break down and digest, because they still have one of the top front sevens in the league along the defensive front,” McElroy said. “Will Heldt is a legitimate star off the edge. He had 15.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks a year ago. Sammy Brown is a first-team All-ACC linebacker who anchors one of the best rooms in the conference. The defense is going to be nasty.”
Schedule Breakdown and ACC Tiers
Evaluating the Tigers’ 2026 schedule, McElroy highlighted early home dates alongside tough matchups across the nonconference and ACC slates.
“Four of their first six are at home,” McElroy said. “Now, two likely losses — on the road at LSU, a home date with Miami. You have some toss-ups at Cal, at Duke, at Florida State, Georgia Tech and North Carolina, and then the rivalry game with South Carolina. You also get Virginia Tech as well.”
In McElroy’s broader ACC structure, Virginia, Virginia Tech, NC State, Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech, and Florida State make up Tier 3 as spoilers. Tier 4 includes Duke, Syracuse, Cal, Wake Forest, and North Carolina as bowl-bound teams, while Boston College and Stanford round out Tier 5 as programs with work to do.
