Clemson Football: Paul Finebaum’s summer filled with Tiger talk

Though Paul Finebaum hosts a show about the SEC, he has spent just as much time- if not more- talking Clemson football this summer.

If you didn’t know any better, you might think that Paul Finebaum is in some way obsessed with Clemson football.

For the better part of the spring and now into the summer, the SEC analyst has spent many shows talking about the Tigers.

He began by giving Clemson credit in January, basically eating crow after he had predicted that the Tigers would lose in the regular season and not even be in the CFB Playoff to begin with. Well, it didn’t take too long for that credit he’d given to turn to excuses in favor of the Alabama Crimson Tide and the mighty SEC flag.

Finebaum has been one of the heaviest beaters of the drum that the SEC schedule is too daunting for a program like Clemson football. Though he has never addressed the facts that Alabama cruised through the SEC without really ever breaking a sweat, he continuously tries to push this narrative weekly in some capacity.

Though his show is supposed to be an SEC Network exclusive, Paul Finebaum has spent just as much of his time trying to discredit Clemson’s win in some way or making excuses for Alabama than actual time discussing the teams within the conference.

Why? Because it seems that the tide is changing (no pun intended). All of a sudden, Clemson is looked at as a legitimate threat to the sanctity of Alabama and the entire SEC.

And, let’s not forget this, either: Programs around the country can talk and think they have a shot at the National Championship, but this is really a two team race. Maybe a team like Georgia, Ohio State or Oklahoma emerges, but right now the Tigers and Tide are just on a completely different level.

But, instead of Paul Finebaum saying this- and he knows this in his heart of hearts- he refuses to admit it and instead looks for reasons to vaunt Alabama and Georgia ahead of Clemson with this narrative that the SEC is a tough conference to play in. The SEC once was a tough conference to play in- and it very well may be again someday- but for now, the conference just isn’t what it used to be. LSU, Auburn, Tennessee, Florida are all down.

He admitted back in May that Clemson was the No. 1 program in the country, but it was always with a catch: “Right now.” See, as soon as the 2019 football season begins, all of a sudden the Tigers won’t be No. 1 anymore in Finebaum’s mind. Honestly, they aren’t No. 1 right now either.

No matter what Clemson does, there will always be an excuse or crutch for the SEC as a whole. That’s how the conference has operated for much of a decade and Paul Finebaum is the poster child for the whole narrative.

Enjoy it, Clemson football fans. Ignorance is bliss, as they say.