Clemson Tigers News: Clemson rises in SP+, Clemson United Players to Watch and Gary Barnes

Good morning Clemson Nation! Here is your Clemson Tigers News for Thursday.

Today’s Games

Clemson Women’s Soccer will host the South Carolina Gamecocks at 7:00 PM at Historic Riggs Field.

It’s not often that we see a team start their schedule against our archrival, so the squad would no doubt appreciate anyone who can come out to support the Tigers.

They will be doing a special promotion for the fans who attend.

Clemson climbs in the SP+ Rankings

When the SP+ Rankings were introduced earlier in the preseason, Clemson Football was 12th. The rankings have been updated as we approach the season, and the Tigers have jumped up to 7th, and are now the highest-ranked ACC program.

On the other hand, Florida State has dropped two spots from 10th to 12th.

Why would they change so much? The system’s creator and manager, Bill Connelly, says the primary changes to the system are to the way it looks at special teams and the ways the rules changes that govern the clock will impact play.

Certainly the disqualification of a key defensive player for Florida State had an impact on their ranking, but I suspect that offenses that push tempo, like Garrett Riley’s system, probably got more credit this time around from Connelly.

Clemson United has players to watch

The Clemson Men’s Soccer team has been honored by the United Soccer Coaches with three players named on their “Players to Watch” lists.

Forwards Ousmane Sylla and Alex Meinhard have been tagged as “Forwards to Watch”.

Midfielder Joran Gebert has been named a “Midfielder to Watch”.

Clemson Stat Geeks like me are rejoicing!

Clemson Assistant Athletics Director Ross Taylor announced on X (Twitter) this week that the statistics from every Clemson Football game since 1966 has been digitized and will be available to the public online.

Clemson Football legend Gary Barnes passes

We would like to express our sincerest condolences to the family of Clemson Hall of Famer Gary Barnes, who passed away this week at 83. Mr. Barnes played for head coach Frank Howard from 1959-61 before playing in the NFL. He caught the first touchdown pass in Atlanta Falcons franchise history.