Clemson football: Paul Finebaum predicts ‘changing of the guard’ with no Tigers in CFB Playoff

The Clemson football program will be looking to replace two of its top stars in QB Trevor Lawrence and RB Travis Etienne, and that has several analysts thinking the Tigers will take a step back during the 2021 season.

Clemson will turn the keys over to former 5-star QB D.J. Uiagalelei- who threw for nearly 800 yards and accounted for six touchdowns in two starts last season- and the Tigers will still have plenty of experience and talent returning on the defensive side of the ball.

Still, that doesn’t stop many from being skeptical.

SEC Network Analyst Paul Finebaum has made a living- in many respects- on being skeptical and critical of Clemson football and he’s back again.

On ESPN’s Get Up on Wednesday morning, Finebaum said he believes that Clemson is the most likely of the four teams from last season– Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Clemson- to fall out of the CFB Playoff this season. He pointed to Georgia game for his reasoning.

"“I would take Clemson out for this reason, Greeny. They meet the team that I think can get in in the first game of the season,” Finebaum said on Wednesday’s edition of Get Up!. “You have Georgia and Clemson in Charlotte, and if Georgia wins this game, and right now I think they’re going to, they vault to number one in the country perhaps. And yes, they still have to deal with Alabama later in the year in the SEC Championship game, but that would probably be about it. I think they’ll get by Florida and everybody else on their schedule. So, we could see a changing of the guard by the end of the first weekend of the regular season.”"

Even ESPN’s Heather Dinich said she was skeptical of the Tigers.

"“One is because I’m not convinced that their offensive line is going to be as good this year,” Dinich said via 247 Sports. “They’ve got questions at wide receiver even if Justyn Ross is cleared to come back, and who is behind their new quarterback in D.J. Uiagalelei? I don’t think Dabo Swinney even knows that. So god forbid he gets hurt, that is a huge question mark at quarterback in terms of depth at that position."

It’s not surprising that some would be discrediting Clemson football. They’ve done it for years.

It’s expected that Finebaum will discredit Clemson at any turn he possibly can. That’s been a characteristic of his analysis ever since the Tigers beat Alabama all the way back in 2016.

But it is a little surprising that Dinich would also question Clemson over the other three programs, who all have plenty of questions themselves.

I know Alabama is the perennial powerhouse and no one is going to question the Crimson Tide. But they’re replacing first-round wide receivers all across the field and they have as unproven of a quarterback as it comes.

Ohio State has a great stable of wide receivers, but the Buckeyes’ defense is unproven and they’ve got an unproven quarterback, as well.

Notre Dame couldn’t beat Clemson last year with Ian Book and now they’re somehow expecting that the Irish have a better shot at getting back to the CFB Playoff now that Book is gone? It just doesn’t make any sense.

Oh, and by the way, neither do their reasons.

If you take Finebaum’s approach, he acts as if the Georgia game is the ‘end-all, be all’ for Clemson. That’s just not true. If the Tigers win out and go 11-1 after a close loss to the Bulldogs, they’re going to get in no matter what SEC fans would like to think.

Dinich points to the offensive line and wide receivers- which are both legitimate questions- but then she lists her biggest reason being the question of the backup quarterback position. Why does everyone assume that Uiagalelei is going to get hurt?

It just doesn’t make much sense that you say a team isn’t going to make it to the playoff based off the fact that they have questions and the *backup* quarterback spot. You know who else doesn’t have a proven backup quarterback? Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, Iowa State, Oregon or Texas A&M. Just to name a few.

It just seems like the Clemson football team is being held to a double-standard when you look at the questions of many other programs across the country, who seemingly are just getting passes.