ESPN estimates who might be the ‘next Clemson football’
The Clemson football program has ascended to heights that many fans never thought would be attainable and that has analysts looking ahead to see who else could somehow arise from the ashes and become the next great program.
In the last six years, Clemson football has made the CFB Playoff six-straight times, competed in four National Championship games and won two National Titles.
Before the Dabo Swinney era began, it had been two decades since the Tigers had won an ACC Championship and it would be 30 years before Clemson would win a National Title.
Now, Clemson is solidly in the mix for the top spot in the country year-in and year-out and the Tigers are envied by their opposition.
ESPN’s Bill Connolly just recently released an article looking at the data of which program might be the next Clemson.
The five he came to a conclusion on? Georgia, Notre Dame, Oregon, Penn State and LSU.
Our own @ESPN_BillC did some number crunching to estimate who can duplicate the Clemson formula 📈 pic.twitter.com/GM0Y7u5hER
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) March 11, 2021
Clemson football can’t be duplicated, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ascending programs around the nation
The fact of the matter is that there is only one Dabo Swinney. No one is going to look like a carbon copy of Clemson and none of those teams listed above have a energizing coach who is going to implement a culture like Swinney.
That being said, all five of those programs have shown promise in terms of the national scale.
LSU won a National Championship just a couple of years ago, but there are still questions around the stability of the Tigers with Ed Orgeron. Georgia is a perennial top-tier team with tons of talent, but the Bulldogs have consistently been underachievers for the last 40 years. Could that finally change under Kirby Smart like it did for Clemson under Dabo Swinney? It’s possible.
Oregon, Penn State and Notre Dame are a bit of a stretch at this point, in my opinion, but it doesn’t mean that they can’t get over the hump and become consistent national contenders with the right leadership and talent in place.
More than anything, it’s just a testament to what this Clemson football program has accomplished that this is even a discussion. Other fan bases want to be like the Tigers. They want to be the ‘next Clemson.’
If you had said 15 years ago that would be the case, I would’ve told you that you are crazy.