Clemson Football: Are the Tigers overrated at number 4?

Nobody cares about preseason polls, right?  Even those that place Clemson football at number 4 are useless, right?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

One writer at CBSSports.com has an opinion and it’s not necessarily a good one for the Tigers. Shehan Jeyarajah believes the Tigers are overrated and has no problem explaining why, though starting off with “perhaps the best defense in the nation” is an odd beginning for the argument.

The gist of the argument is the same as we’ve heard before: The Tigers lost their coordinators and there are questions at quarterback and I can’t argue with either of those. Heck, I’ve spent a good part of the summer pointing them out.

Here’s my counter argument: Someone has to be number four and who are you going to put there over a team with “perhaps the best defense in the nation”, his words, not mine, though I would absolutely use them, and a fairly long recent history of performing well?  Number 5 Notre Dame, who repeatedly fails against top competition, has a new head coach and quarterback?  Number 6 Texas A&M who repeatedly underperforms and doesn’t know who their quarterback will be?  Utah?  Michigan? Oklahoma? Baylor?

You get my point – outside of the top 3 everyone has more than a few questions.  I’m not saying Clemson SHOULD be four, or will end up fourth, but I certainly understand WHY they are fourth given the list of options behind them.

There’s no requirement that the fourth ranked team be a juggernaut, close to perfection or even close to number 3 for that matter.  They should simply be the fourth best team in the country, even if they’d lose by 21 to number three.

Clemson football ranked number four has some up in arms, but find me a better team outside of the Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia

ESPNs FPI favors Clemson in every game, Sam Hartman may not be available on September 24th, the Tigers play N.C. State in Death Valley where they haven’t lost since that dime throwing Nathan Peterman took them down in 2016, we discussed Notre Dame already,  and…oh yeah…the Tigers may have the best defense in the nation.

To be clear, I think numbers 1 through 3 are the best teams in the nation and are a notch (or two) above the rest, at least sitting here in the preseason.

If the only underrated teams you can find are number 24 Houston and unranked Penn State, then really what’s the argument against Clemson at number four?  You didn’t claim Notre Dame, Texas A&M or Utah were underrated, so who would you have at number four?

The answer is there’s no one else as good as Clemson and that’s why they’re number four.