USAT: Clemson, not Alabama, now face of college football

BamaNation

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The greatest show in college football swooped into Atlantic Coast Conference media days with ear-to-ear smiles, an unmistakable aura of justified confidence and, on the head of senior offensive lineman John Simpson, a blonde wig honoring its notably absent star quarterback.Clemson was last seen doing the unimaginable: dominating Alabama for the national championship, the program's second in three years...

Clemson has suffered a series of key personnel losses along the defensive line and elsewhere yet remains remarkably consistent along the sidelines, ensuring a degree of schematic continuity the Tide simply cannot match.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...-college-football-entering-season/1754234001/


Good! Bulletin board material! Keep it coming, national media!
 

selmaborntidefan

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Uh, no.


Clemson isn't universally reviled by people who are not fans of the team because they win so much.
Most fans outside of South Carolina who don't play the Tigers couldn't name the state where Clemson is located.


Alabama is the old Notre Dame or the 80s and 90s Miami Hurricanes (without the trashy behavior) or the 2003-2008 USC teams - either loved or despised in equal amounts.


Clemson IS a worthy and deserving champion and a helluva program (who, I should remind everyone, wouldn't have a national championship at all if not for having some Alabama boys as head coaches). They beat the fire out of us last January.

But as John Wooden noted: "A lot of teams have won ONE in a row." If 2018 Clemson was actually 1995 Nebraska (an overrated pile of nonsense but bear with me), they might better go look at what happened to 1996 Nebraska before thinking this is going to be an annual thing.


Just ten years ago, the sports columnists were all telling us how the 2009 SEC title game was about to become an annual affair, Florida and Alabama were going to meet in a classic every single year for the next decade. As it turned out, the game pretty much ended the UF coaching career of Urban Meyer.

Humility is only seven days away. These are 17 to 22-year old kids who start believing what they hear on TV and online. And not even Dabo Swinney has enough to divine wisdom to prevent that from happening.

Alabama is the Ric Flair - WE are the draw, not Clemson.

Now....come back in January and IF Clemson wins it again - then we can make this argument.
 

81usaf92

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Uh, no.


Clemson isn't universally reviled by people who are not fans of the team because they win so much.
Most fans outside of South Carolina who don't play the Tigers couldn't name the state where Clemson is located.


Alabama is the old Notre Dame or the 80s and 90s Miami Hurricanes (without the trashy behavior) or the 2003-2008 USC teams - either loved or despised in equal amounts.


Clemson IS a worthy and deserving champion and a helluva program (who, I should remind everyone, wouldn't have a national championship at all if not for having some Alabama boys as head coaches). They beat the fire out of us last January.

But as John Wooden noted: "A lot of teams have won ONE in a row." If 2018 Clemson was actually 1995 Nebraska (an overrated pile of nonsense but bear with me), they might better go look at what happened to 1996 Nebraska before thinking this is going to be an annual thing.


Just ten years ago, the sports columnists were all telling us how the 2009 SEC title game was about to become an annual affair, Florida and Alabama were going to meet in a classic every single year for the next decade. As it turned out, the game pretty much ended the UF coaching career of Urban Meyer.

Humility is only seven days away. These are 17 to 22-year old kids who start believing what they hear on TV and online. And not even Dabo Swinney has enough to divine wisdom to prevent that from happening.

Alabama is the Ric Flair - WE are the draw, not Clemson.

Now....come back in January and IF Clemson wins it again - then we can make this argument.
Like you said in another thread, "1995 Nebraska was ( falsely I may add) given the GOAT distinction because of what Florida did in 1996, not because of what Nebraska did in 94 and 97". I think Clemson would need to win this year or outlast Saban for the next 5 years to have the distinction of being THE MAN.
 

bamaga

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Clemson was last seen doing the unimaginable: dominating Alabama for the national championship,
Dominated? Dominated?! -won handily? Yes, Dominated? No! The game was fairly close except for a few plays! I do hope we get Bama / Clemson 5, Sunshine is over rated. His greatness is based on beating an average Bama defense. The way people are reacting, you would think Clemson put up 600 yards of offense!
 
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bamaga

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I guess it’s talking season, some writers are looking for a reaction! Good for them I guess! I wonder what they will write when Bama wins the 2019 National Championship!
 

GrayTide

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We are the better draw no doubt, but at this point Clemson is the better team until we beat them. With credit to Bill and his Ric Flair analogy, "to be the man you got to beat the man".
 

rgw

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Clemson has a fine program and clearly established themselves on the same rung as us but the reality is we've split last four between us and frankly the 2018 Sugar Bowl probably felt about the same to Clemson as the 2019 CFPCG felt to us. I think some across the nation are hoping and praying that we got 86'd in January rather than actually believing it. Let us see how 2019 unfolds. For all we know Alabama and Clemson meet again and Alabama salts the earth over Clemson, SC after the game.
 

DzynKingRTR

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I will not click on the link, I don't want to give the writer the satisfaction. I will say I do love an overreaction. Clempson wins a game (granted it was handily) and they all lose their minds. Suddenly clempson is the greatest team in the history of ever ever and Lawrence is the greatest QB ever ever. He is so full of awesome they might just rename the hypseman to the Trevor Lawrence. In fact he might just be so awesome they will rename the word award and the word trophy to Trevor Lawrence.

We shall see what actually happens this year. I am looking forward to how it all plays out. I love all the attention clempson is getting because even Dabo cannot keep his players believing his folksy ROY bus crap this year. The best thing that could have happened was Alabama losing that game they way they did. Good luck to clempson this year, they are going to need it.
 

selmaborntidefan

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We are the better draw no doubt, but at this point Clemson is the better team until we beat them. With credit to Bill and his Ric Flair analogy, "to be the man you got to beat the man".
I would agree with you except what the article is talking about is not who is the current champion, but who is the FACE.

When you think of CFB even now - I'll guarantee you more fans know who we are and how good we are/can be than know Clemson.

Ric Flair was still the face of WCW even when Sting was the champion.


I don't dispute your points, but I'm not in agreement with how they address the written article.

(I've got nothing against Clemson, and if it wasn't us, I'd probably be pulling for them in these playoffs).
 

selmaborntidefan

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Like you said in another thread, "1995 Nebraska was ( falsely I may add) given the GOAT distinction because of what Florida did in 1996, not because of what Nebraska did in 94 and 97". I think Clemson would need to win this year or outlast Saban for the next 5 years to have the distinction of being THE MAN.
Talking 95 Nebraska is a dicey proposition. I had one of those lug nuts want to talk about it the other day, and I haven't yet responded, mostly because I prime the whomping stick before swinging. His basic argument was "we beat four of the top ten teams and Alabama never did with any of their championships" and the whole "nobody was close at the final whistle" stuff.

Fine and good. But on the flip side, 2009 Alabama's schedule was light years ahead of 95 Nebraska.....and when EIGHT of your games are right out of the bakery, you don't get to double count the other four. In fact, there's not "really" much difference in poll rankings whether a team is 8th or 11th most years. One, two, and three are usually easy to pick out (look at the fact that we only get excited about "who is the fourth team" in the selection process) and teams 4-7 are usually closely matched, too.

95 Nebraska was a good team, but I'm still confused how "didn't have much of a schedule" got flipped into "greatest team ever" thanks to one ash whooping of an overrated Florida team.

And I stand by it - it's because Florida won in 96 that catapults Nebraska in 95 as years go by. "See, the team they clobbered was great!"

I've long said they're not even the best team of the 90s OR the best Nebraska team (71 imho)......so how can they possible be the greatest ever?
 

81usaf92

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Talking 95 Nebraska is a dicey proposition. I had one of those lug nuts want to talk about it the other day, and I haven't yet responded, mostly because I prime the whomping stick before swinging. His basic argument was "we beat four of the top ten teams and Alabama never did with any of their championships" and the whole "nobody was close at the final whistle" stuff.

Fine and good. But on the flip side, 2009 Alabama's schedule was light years ahead of 95 Nebraska.....and when EIGHT of your games are right out of the bakery, you don't get to double count the other four. In fact, there's not "really" much difference in poll rankings whether a team is 8th or 11th most years. One, two, and three are usually easy to pick out (look at the fact that we only get excited about "who is the fourth team" in the selection process) and teams 4-7 are usually closely matched, too.

95 Nebraska was a good team, but I'm still confused how "didn't have much of a schedule" got flipped into "greatest team ever" thanks to one ash whooping of an overrated Florida team.

And I stand by it - it's because Florida won in 96 that catapults Nebraska in 95 as years go by. "See, the team they clobbered was great!"

I've long said they're not even the best team of the 90s OR the best Nebraska team (71 imho)......so how can they possible be the greatest ever?
I still think had Florida got their rematch vs Nebraska in 96 then they wouldve blown the barn doors off of Nebraska, and Osborne rage quits before they could have been a dynasty. The 96 Florida team was far and away more impressive than the 95 Nebraska.

As far as Greatest Ever.... 1996 Florida, 2000 Oklahoma, 2001 Miami, 2004 USC, 2008 Florida, 2009 Alabama, 2012 Alabama, 2014 Ohio St, 2016 and 2018 Clemson rank higher in my lifetime than that Nebraska team.

FTR 95 Nebraska was a very good team but I don’t think blowing out Kansas,KSU, and Colorado compares to practically everyone after them who had won it.
 
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TideMan09

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It feels good having the media motivate our Boy's with articles like this.. Instead of feeding their egos calling them the best to ever walk a football field..
 

DawgAlum2054

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Yes, the team that has the 56th hardest schedule in the country, the team that plays zero top 10 teams, the team thats toughest games according to ESPN will both be from the SEC... yes, that team is the face of college football
 

tusks_n_raider

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To the victor go the spoils.

I'm fine with this right now.... We need our team to play with a chip on it's shoulder this year and start imposing our will on others with some physicality.

Let Clemson be the hunted with the target on their back all year.

The year's we enter the post season ranked lower that #1 tend to end best anyways.

But Clemson is the National 'Darling' right now and National Bama Fatigue has reached a fever pitch.

It is what it is..... I know we can only control who we play in the regular season.... but to really cement Alabama back on Top clearly..... Alabama has to not only win the NC this year..... they have to beat Clemson along the way.... and beat them decisively.

That's the only way the narrative swings back in our favor fair or not.
 

dWarriors88

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Dominated? Dominated?! -won handily? Yes, Dominated? No! The game was fairly close except for a few plays! I do hope we get Bama / Clemson 5, Sunshine is over rated. His greatness is based on beating an average Bama defense. The way people are reacting, you would think Clemson put up 600 yards of offense!
The word dominated refers to the scoreboard at the end of the game. We lost by a dominating amount of points. Despite the context of the game, thats not what people remember. People remember Sunshine dropping dimes, receivers making a couple of our DBs look like high school Juniors, our Oline not protecting, and Tua throwing two Ints. No one remembers we moved the ball more yards than clemson, no one remembers the red zone inefficiency. The Score was 44-16. Thats a dominating win no matter the reasons or excuses for losing. Alabama doesn't lose to anyone by that amount.

I stand corrected. Clemson had more Total Yards than we did. They moved the ball 482 Yards to our 443.
 
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Chukker Veteran

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It feels good having the media motivate our Boy's with articles like this.. Instead of feeding their egos calling them the best to ever walk a football field..
Here's today's version of the same stuff.

https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/2019/07/alabama-football-needs-a-cold-hard-slap-in-the-face.html

They mention things I'd rather not dwell on...the offense widely speculated as the best ever at Bama could not score in the entire second half...stuff like that.

In Saban-speak, I'm going to declare this as an antidote to rat poison. A big serving of humble pie.
 

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