Football Outsiders's F+ rankings are posted for the first time with offensive, defensive, and special team rankings. Clemson comes in higher than what I expected as a team and an offense, ranked 11 and and 34 respectively. Of course the offense is a different beast with Deshaun Watson at the helm, but the Louisville defense is legit at number 1. Boston College isn't too shabby either, so the offense needs to improve over their 9 point performance. Special teams continues to be atrocious, as demonstrated by the Georgia, Florida State games and by the shock of a punt return, the exception that proves the rule. The Clemson defense is for real, not as good as Addazio is puffing them up, but top 10 (thinking of you, Raekwon McMillan and Urban Meyer).
Overall Clemson has played a very tough starting schedule with 3 top 15 schools and hung in there with young talent at the skill positions on offense. I still believe this team will continue to improve to end the year on a high note, maintaining the trajectory of the program in what I expected to be a down year.
Here are the rankings for teams more relevant to Clemson. Check out the full rankings here.
Team |
Team Rank |
Offense |
Defense |
Special Teams |
Georgia |
9 |
7 |
43 |
11 |
Clemson |
11 |
34 |
7 |
77 |
Louisville |
12 |
66 |
1 |
59 |
Florida State |
14 |
11 |
30 |
57 |
Boston College |
33 |
40 |
24 |
89 |
South Carolina |
42 |
3 |
89 |
76 |