For the second straight game, the Clemson Tigers had the college football world buzzing.
Granted, Dabo Swinney and the Tigers are always on the minds of the sport’s leading analysts — win or lose. That was true after Clemson’s ugly Week 1 loss to the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs and it was certainly true after Saturday’s 59-35 romp over NC State.
Clemson moved up four spots in both the US LBM Coaches Poll (to No. 15) and AP Top 25 (No. 17) Sunday following an explosive first-half performance against Dave Doeren’s Wolfpack in the ACC opener.
The Tigers led 28-0 after the first quarter and finished the afternoon with 523 yards of total offense. Quarterback Cade Klubnik lit up the NC State defense with three touchdown passes and a 55-yard touchdown run. Klubnik was 16-of-24 for 209 yards through the air.
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As we like to do every Monday, we take a look at what some prominent national college football writers and others in the sport’s media universe are saying about Clemson.
Starting at ESPN, analysts David Hale, Chris Low and others moved the Tigers up three spots to No. 14 in their weekly power rankings. As with the Top 25 polls, the Miami Hurricanes remained the ACC’s top-ranked team at No. 7. Clemson was ranked one spot behind coach Jeff Brohm’s Louisville Cardinals, who checked in at No 13.
The earliest the Tigers could face Miami would be the ACC Championship Game after the regular season, but they host Louisville on Nov. 2 in Death Valley.
Separately, ESPN ranked Clemson No. 17 in their updated SP+ rankings for all 134 FBS teams ($) after Week 4. The Tigers rose four spots from last week’s SP+ rankings.
Over at CBS Sports, college football prognosticator Jerry Palm now sees Clemson as the final at-large berth in his 12-team playoff projection after the Tigers’ dismantling of NC State and Appalachian State in back-to-back games.
In his updated bowl projections on Sunday, Palm has Clemson taking on No. 5 seed Alabama in the first round of the playoff at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa in what would be a renewal of the Tigers and Crimson Tide’s rich postseason history in the playoff era.
Palm sees Miami as the ACC champion and the No. 4 overall seed behind No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Utah. The winner of the No. 5 vs. No. 12 matchup would face the No. 4 overall seed in the quarterfinals round at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.
At Fox Sports, RJ Young moved Clemson up two spots to No. 12 in his weekly Top 25 rankings, one spot below the Missouri Tigers. Eli Drinkwitz’s team needed a missed field goal in double overtime to survive Vanderbilt over the weekend but improved to 4-0.
On3’s Andy Staples also moved Clemson into his latest College Football Playoff projection, giving the Tigers the No. 11 seed and a first-round rematch with Georgia at Sanford Stadium in Athens.
At least two veteran college football scribes were less bullish on Clemson’s playoff hopes. For now, The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel (subscription required) has the Tigers as his “First Team Out,” with Notre Dame, Missouri, BYU and Iowa behind Clemson.
Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde also has Clemson missing the playoff after Week 4. Forde has the Texas Longhorns as the No. 1 overall seed in his projections with Miami up to the No. 2 seed. Forde sees Penn State as the Big Ten champion over Ohio State, Oregon and others.
Next up for Dabo Swinney’s team in ACC play are the Stanford Cardinal in a prime time kickoff at 7 p.m. ET this Saturday in Death Valley. The game will be televised on ESPN.
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