For everyone who watched Clemson scrape by Wake Forest 17-12 in Death Valley for the Tigers’ homecoming, you know it was not a good performance from Dabo Swinney’s team.
Clemson’s defense looked phenomenal as they were continually put in bad situations that they could overcome through hard work and talent. On the other hand, the offense looked about as bad as we’ve seen all season, raising serious questions about what the rest of the season will look like.
Even so, the Tigers moved up three spots in ESPN’s SP+ rankings ($$$) update to No.11. What is ESPN’s SP+? Here’s a little breakdown.
SP+ is indeed intended to be predictive and forward-facing. It is not a résumé ranking that gives credit for big wins or particularly brave scheduling — no good predictive system is. It is simply a measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football. If you’re lucky or unimpressive in a win, your rating will probably fall. If you’re strong and unlucky in a loss, it will probably rise.
Clemson’s defense had to have made up for the offense in this one; otherwise, a move-up simply would not make sense. So, let’s look at the numbers here.
Clemson’s overall rating is 17.3 (No.11), the offense is 32.9 (No.26), the defense is 15.6 (No.7), and special teams is 0.0 (69). The overall rating has Clemson still ahead of Florida State, who moved up three spots to No.15.
From an analytical standpoint, Clemson is still a near-elite team… but we haven’t seen this translate onto the field yet. Basically, this team is drastically underperforming.
The Week 7 bye will allow this coaching staff and team an opportunity to clean things up as they look to play up to their potential.