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Clemson Football: Tigers ranked No. 2 in way-too-early 2019 CFB rankings

By Andrew Boardwine

SANTA CLARA, CA - JANUARY 07: Tua Tagovailoa #13 of the Alabama Crimson Tide is pursued by Christian Wilkins #42 of the Clemson Tigers during the second half in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Levi's Stadium on January 7, 2019 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
SANTA CLARA, CA - JANUARY 07: Tua Tagovailoa #13 of the Alabama Crimson Tide is pursued by Christian Wilkins #42 of the Clemson Tigers during the second half in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Levi's Stadium on January 7, 2019 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /
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After winning the National Championship in 2018, Clemson football is ranked No. 2 in USA Today’s way-too-early CFB rankings for the 2019 season.

The Clemson football team dismantled the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2018 National Championship game, defeating the Tide 44-16.

Despite the impressive victory, analysts are already going back to placing the Tigers as second fiddle.

USA Today released its way-too-early top-25 rankings this week and there’s no question who the top-two teams are.

Here’s a look at their top-15, which will change several times between now and the start of the 2019 season.

  1. Alabama
  2. Clemson
  3. Georgia
  4. Oklahoma
  5. Texas
  6. Ohio State
  7. Michigan
  8. LSU
  9. Washington
  10. Texas A&M
  11. Oregon
  12. UCF
  13. Notre Dame
  14. Florida
  15. USC

That’s the top-15, according to USA Today.

Clemson ranked behind Alabama is kind of a slap in the face to the Tigers, who just won by nearly 30 points, but I guess USA Today thinks that the Clemson defense is going to take a significant drop-off with the loss of guys like Clelin Ferrell, Christian Wilkins, Austin Bryant, Kendall Joseph and Dexter Lawrence.

The national media trust that Alabama is going to replace all the players that it lost to the NFL because the Crimson Tide have done it year after year. Even though I’d make the argument that Clemson has, as well, it’s clear that national analysts don’t pay as much attention to Dabo Swinney’s program as they should.

After the first two, I don’t really know who you put next. They went with Georgia, which has turned into a very talented program, but the Bulldogs did just lose three games.

Next. 5 returning offensive players who must step up. dark

It’s tough to really gauge some of these teams because there’s just not a lot of separation between the rest of the pack, at least not right now, in my opinion.

As far as the 2019 schedule is concerned, the Tigers currently have two teams- Texas A&M (10) and Syracuse (22)- ranked according to this poll.

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