Clemson football: Defender snubbed from pre-season All-American team

As we move closer to the start of the 2021 college football season, more media outlets will publish their choices for preseason All-American teams and Clemson football has several players that will continue to be recognized.

College Football News recently published their pre-season defensive All-American team and Clemson football had a couple of players recognized and one that was ridiculously overlooked.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know just how talented the 2021 version of the Tigers defense is. You also know how deep they are and if they can build on last season, they could end up being one of the greatest defenses of all time.

The Tigers will bring back 10 of their 11 starters from 2020 and will add a ton of depth to a defense that played well except for the last time they took the field together in New Orleans and gave up more than 600 yards of offense.

If you know anything about Clemson football, then you know just how petty both Dabo Swinney and Brent Venables can be, and they have absolutely spent the entire offseason reminding their defense how bad they were all offseason.

Clemson football defense will pick up accolades all season

It should not shock anyone that College Football News had defensive tackles Bryan Bresee and Tyler Davis on their pre-season All-American team; Bresee was named to their first team while Davis was named to their second team.

This should not be a shock to anyone.

Bresee is on pace to be the first overall pick of the 2023 NFL draft should he decide to leave after three seasons. His combination of size, speed, and skill is something not many NFL defensive tackles possess. While Tyler Davis lacks the same type of size, his skill should not be ignored.

Davis is almost a spitting image of former Tiger great Grady Jarrett who didn’t let his small size deter him from becoming one of the best four interior defensive linemen in the NFL and Davis has that same work ethic, talent, and determination Grady possesses.

The biggest snub from the Clemson defense has to be defensive Myles Murphy, though this will simply be more fuel to fire for Murphy who continues to be overlooked by those outside of the program.

How bad was his snub by College Football News – they didn’t even have him listed among their top 12 defensive ends in the country.

1. Kayvon Thibodeaux, Soph. Oregon
2. Drake Jackson, Jr. USC
3. George Karlaftis, Jr. Purdue
4. Zach Harrison, Jr. Ohio State
5. Zachary Carter, Sr. Florida
6. Kingsley Enagbare, Sr. South Carolina
7. DeAngelo Malone, Sr. WKU
8. Tyreke Smith, Sr. Ohio State
9. Thomas Booker, Sr. Stanford
10. Myjai Sanders, Sr. Cincinnati
11. Cade Hall, Sr. San Jose State
12. Zion Tupuola-Fetui, Soph. Washington

Without question, all 12 defensive ends are very good, but Myles Murphy is elite and for him not to be mentioned among anyone’s top five is ridiculous.

Bresee, Davis, and Murphy will have a national coming-out party in Charlotte as there is little doubt they will lead the way to a season-opening win over UGA setting the tone for Clemson football’s fourth national title in program history.