Don't call it a comeback! Actually, that is exactly what it is. When it comes to the Clemson Tigers, they have a knack of eating away at deficits they create en route to come-from-behind victories. CBS Sports' Cody Nagel did a statistical deep dive into the hardest Power Four teams to overtake, the ones that are the toughest to put away, and the ones who have a baked-in clutch component to them.
Nagel's research on the best comeback teams in all of college football has Clemson firmly a part of it.
- Georgia Bulldogs: (4-5)
- Oregon Ducks: (4-7)
- Clemson Tigers: (4-10)
- Iowa Hawkeyes: (4-12)
Clemson is one of only four Power Four teams with a .250 winning percentage or better when trailing by seven or more points entering the fourth quarter since 2021. Georgia may take the cake at a .444 clip, but Clemson is not far off Oregon's trail, with Iowa nipping at the Tigers' heels a bit. Again, even the best teams in college football who trail by multiple scores with 15 minutes left to play rarely win.
As far as the closers component of Nagel's research is concerned, Clemson wins about .950 percent of its games when leading by seven-plus points heading into the fourth quarter. A slew of teams are better than them, but Clemson has more sizable leads than most of their contemporaries. As far as being clutch is concerned, Clemson has work to do... It wins less than half of its games in that sphere.
Fortunately, Clemson has earned its keep as being a team that saves its best when a game requires it.
Clemson knows how to come back, but must be more clutch to close out
Honestly, Nagel threw a lot of data in our faces. What can we glean from his three graphs of note and apply it to Clemson football? To put it simply, Clemson is above average in closing out games, elite at pulling off the comeback, but struggles to consistently be clutch in winning time. Got it? Good. What does this really mean? It tells us Clemson is at its best when it plays fast, and does not have to think.
When a team is playing from behind, you often have to keep it simple, stupid. Offenses are not trying to reinvent the wheel to get more points on the board. Teams with loaded rosters like Clemson has had at times can usually bank on their star power when going up against lesser, well-coached teams. All it takes is for one physical freak to break a tackle or catch a corner slipping to scamper to pay dirt.
Conversely, Clemson could be better at closing out games. In a way, the Tigers seem to have played tight in close games where they are leading late. Maybe the players or coaches are not as locked in as they should be? Maybe they are getting out-executed or out-schemed by their competition during critical stretches? Either way, Clemson needs to work on its how it closes out games with big leads.
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Ultimately, what this article should tell us is the talent and coaching is still most definitely there with Clemson, just maybe not the consistent, down-to-down execution of it all. It has been the separating factor from being the good football it is now, and the great one it used to be before COVID. Clemson will chase the rabbit like nobody's business, but will allow random peasants to climb the hill of a king.
While Clemson is never out of a game, the Tigers will repeatedly allow lesser teams back into them.
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