Former Tiger and current ACC Network analyst Eric Mac Lain let everyone know his feelings about what ESPN analyst Heather Dinich said about Clemson football heading into the 2024 season.
On Tuesday’s installment of ESPN’s Get Up show, analyst Mike Greenberg asked analyst Heather Dinich who the most overrated team in the AP poll is, with Dinich naming the Tigers.
“Clemson,” Dinich said. “Why so much love for the Clemson Tigers? They had four conference losses last year, which is as many as they’ve had combined in the past six seasons.”
The popular thing to do has been to doubt and even bas Dabo Swinney and the Tigers. Mac Lain was juiced on “Out of Bounds” with William Qualkinbush on The Roar WCCP FM on Tuesday afternoon, sharing what his disappointment with what she had to say.
“First of all, I’m just kind of sick of hearing people – and this isn’t just a one-person thing, this is an industry thing – I’m kind of sick of just hearing people talk about a conference, about a team, that they don’t know anything about,” Mac Lain said. “I’m so sick of it, and it’s ridiculous when you have, number one, a partner, a conference network… anytime I hear somebody that has no clue what they’re talking about, talking about a league, ex-league – or even worse, that clearly represents and has latched onto, and the only reason they exist is because of another league, talking about the ACC – I can’t stand it, and it just gets all kinds of clicks. …
“Just to look at the quote – and I didn’t watch it, I only saw it… What is, ‘Pretty good’ to you, Qualk? What does that mean? Is that top 50? Is pretty good top 20? What is pretty good? Because since I strapped the helmet on and played for the Tigers, Clemson has been top seven every single year in Power Five, outside of one where they lost arguably the best defensive coordinator the game has ever seen, and they were top I think 15 that year. So pretty good seems like quite the understatement. They’re one of the best. But ‘they’ve got to get a quarterback.’ Cade Klubnik was the No. 1 quarterback in his class, so I guess that’s not good enough… The deal with it all is, one, it’s such an unnecessary random shot. I don’t understand it.”
There will be agreement and disagreement with what Mac Lain had to say but it’s tough to argue against his points. Is No. 14 really that overrated for a program like Clemson with a defense like they have and the amount of talent they returned? I’m not saying they’re going to take that next step, but why not?
In college football’s vast history, we’ve seen quarterbacks improve in their second year as a starter. I know, I know. It sounds crazy how people have talked about Klubnik, but it happens!
A Broyles award-winning offensive coordinator taking the next step in year two with a new program? Nah, it could never happen. Do you see the point here? You can think Clemson is overrated, and that’s fine; just have actual rationale behind your statements. Speak with purpose.
“So the left hook out of nowhere, to me, is just crazy. But it’s something that, for whatever reason, certain people love to do, is 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,” Mac Lain said.
“Quite frankly, if you look at the Clemson offense… I think you see improvement. I think you see a quarterback that is going into year two as a starter. We are so quick as a society to think, yep, this guy should come in and he should be an all-world competitor right away. It’s easy, right. That’s why everybody’s a five-star quarterback and 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.”
“So for me, man, it’s just the randomness of it. But it worked,” Mac Lain added. “It got our attention, and we’re doing a radio show right now about it.”
Klubnik can make many look foolish in 2024.