Clemson football is using October to put college football on notice.
Everyone expected Clemson football to be good in 2020, but how good they would be was a mystery, even to head coach Dabo Swinney. Coach Swinney has been on record saying his first team was the best he had ever coached but this team’s depth was going to be a question and in some places, it still is.
However, the Tigers have used the month of October to make a definitive statement and let college football know that if you are going to beat them, you have to have an out of body experience.
Is it too late to be this cocky or sure about something? Maybe, but after what we have seen from the Tigers three games in October, there is a reason to be this sure.
After playing Virginia, Top 10 Miami, and Georgia Tech, the Clemson football offense is averaging 52 points a game while the Clemson defense is giving up just 13 points a game.
The scary part – Clemson football has not played a clean game yet and can still improve a lot in certain areas on both sides of the ball.
There is a big gap between Clemson football and everyone else.
At this point in the season, about halfway through, there is enough evidence to make the following statement – Clemson football is far and away the best team in the country. There is a clear gap between number one Clemson and number two Alabama and there is an even bigger gap between Alabama and everyone else.
With the Big 10 coming this week, we will know more about the national landscape by the first week of November and where Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan fit into the puzzle.
Looking ahead, the Tigers will not be challenged again until the first week of November when they travel to Notre Dame for the first time in program history and face off against the Irish in what will more than likely be number one versus number three as neither Clemson nor Notre Dame should lose before then.
When looking across programs that could challenge Clemson for the 2020 national title, teams seem to be deficient in one area of football.
For UGA, it is their offense. For a team that has recruited as well as the Dawgs have, they sure aren’t very good on that side of the ball. Their offensive line is terrible, they have no quarterback, there running back room is full of five-star players that haven’t lived up to the expectations and their receivers are more concerned with squirting water on opposing players than making catches.
Alabama has a legit offense, maybe the best in the country other than Clemson’s but their defense is the worst we have seen in the Nick Saban area.
Notre Dame is getting exposed as a fraud in a few weeks by the Tigers and no one else has played a single game yet.
After five games, Clemson football has to love where they are at in the process and the fact that they can get better should scare everyone.