Clemson football: Oklahoma ranked ahead of Tigers in preseason poll

Clemson football ranked behind Oklahoma in 247 Sports’ preseason rankings

The 2021 Clemson football team has a chance to be special when it’s all said and done.

Though the Tigers are losing generational talents in the backfield in Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne, but there are few Clemson football fans who are worried about the production of the offense heading into the season.

Why?

Clemson will be starting former No. 1 overall QB D.J. Uiagalelei and there is a plethora of talent around him at the skill position players that makes Tiger fans believe this offense could actually be better than the previous year’s. 

In two starts, Uiagalelei threw for nearly 800 yards and accounted for six touchdowns. He is considered by many to be the best quarterback in the nation coming into the season.

Despite the promising talent returning on defense and the amount of stars the offense possess, Clemson is not ranked No. 1- or even No. 2 in the nation- by many pollsters.

Both Bleacher Report and 247 Sports previously published their preseason polls and neither have the Tigers inside the top-two.

Who’s ranked ahead of them? In both rankings, it’s Alabama (1) and Oklahoma (2), followed by the Tigers.

Oklahoma is going to be really good, but what makes the Sooners worthy to be ahead of Clemson football?

For those wondering, both Bleacher Report and 247 Sports have the same top-5:

1. Alabama
2. Oklahoma
3. Clemson
4. Georgia
5. Ohio State

What’s interesting, though, is the logic of putting the Sooners over the Tigers.

Oklahoma has one of the best WR corps returning in the nation and Spencer Rattler is sure to be a Heisman frontrunner, but what about the defense? When has any Big 12 team shown the propensity to be able to compete in the CFB Playoff? The answer is they clearly haven’t.

Oklahoma has a ton of returning talent, no doubt, but we shouldn’t base their National Championship potential based off a blowout of a depleted Florida team in the Cotton Bowl.

In the end, these preseason rankings don’t mean much. Clemson is going to have every opportunity in the world to establish itself as the frontrunner for a CFB Playoff spot at the very beginning of the season when the Tigers open up with Georgia.