Call me crazy, but I agree with Kirk Herbstreit. We are easily the 3rd best team in the nation.
We have a better defense than Florida especially on 3rd down. We have a better offense than Georgia, Florida, and Notre Dame as we are totally balanced in our scoring attack with less turnovers than these three teams.
Of course, the biggest jump always comes in week 2 so we will see how all these teams in front of us play next week.
Expect Clemson to be looking ahead to our matchup and get tested by Virginia. Clemson deserves to be ranked in the Top 2
Alabama plays against an overrated Jimbo Fischer and Texas A&M who should have lost to Vanderbilt unless Jimbo Fischer was holding back. Alabama deserves to be ranked in the Top 2
Both Georgia and Auburn are way overrated and don't deserve to be ranked in the Top 10. Neither have an offense going at or under 40% 3rd down completion and neither cracking 400 yards of total offense in their first game. IMO, this is the year Georgia fans and recruits start turning on Kirby Smart.
Florida plays no one special which means their defense will also start to gel, but giving up 600+ yards on defense is alarming. Their best test will be LSU and Georgia which really means they won't get tested until they play in the SEC Championship game. Until they play better defense Florida does not deserve to be ranked in the Top 7.
Finally, if you only rank the teams that have played then absolutely we deserve to be ranked #3. If you factor in the teams yet to play and give them credit for how they finished last season only then Oregon, OSU, and PSU deserve to be ranked among us, but not necessarily above us with the exception of OSU since they made it to the CFP last year. OSU is in the same league as Clemson and Alabama and deserves to be ranked in the Top 3.
With all that being said. The only difference between the Top 3 and everyone else deserving of the Top 7 is not personnel or talent, but execution. There are a lot of players getting quality time at Clemson that will never play in the NFL like Sweeney's and Venerable's sons. There are some studs behind them that need to be developed yet in the mean time their kids are making plays. I bring up the coaches' kids to emphasize it is not about talent, but execution. This is why the two biggest hires were in both Coach Feeley and Ed Reed, but none of it would have resonated with the players if it was not for D'Eriq King's leadership by example. He is our Tim Tebow who brings accountability to the locker room. This team is breaking the curse of entitlement that plagued us the day we let Butch Davis leave, but his teachings' remained until the final player he coached graduated or left for the NFL.
Expect us to be ready to go toe to toe with Clemson. Punch for Punch until someone flinches. North Carolina did it last year with a defense that was nowhere as good as our defense and an offense nowhere as potent and lethal as our offense. On offense it will be so much fun to watch King and Lashlee dial up plays against Venerables. We have proven that we can drive down the length of the field and score touchdowns or take the top off with our explosive plays from anywhere with anyone on our team.
On defense, expect our DL to harass Trevor all game long with Nesta being once again the unsung hero. Expect Hunte to get more playing time than Ford and make us a more complete dominant DL. Roche, Silvera, Hunte, and Phillips is our best option to attack the line of scrimmage. Our secondary is as getting better and will be one of the best in the nation with Bubba as our anchor. Our defense is built to stop Clemson's offense meaning Clemson does not like to drive down the field and we never allow teams to score quickly on us. We have a bend but don't break defense...that attacks the line of scrimmage. If we can get pressure from our DL up the middle which Nesta does so well then we are that much closer to being an elite defense. The more pressure we put on Clemson's offense the more mistakes they will make which also plays to our strength of taking the ball away.
However, we have to stop the run first. We can dismantle Clemson if we shutdown their running attack and this is why we need to switch up our DL starters. Hunte is flashing just like Rousseau was this time last year. If Rousseau had played more than 17 snaps against UF and UNC he could have been the difference maker. We also need to play Brooks over Jennings at LB, because Jennings tries to go through the blocker while tackling the RB allowing the RB to react by sidestepping to the vacant area. Our LBs have to practice all week how to shed or elude blocks all together. If we stop the run then we dismantle Clemson with Bubba and Blades in the secondary.
We have a better defense than Florida especially on 3rd down. We have a better offense than Georgia, Florida, and Notre Dame as we are totally balanced in our scoring attack with less turnovers than these three teams.
Of course, the biggest jump always comes in week 2 so we will see how all these teams in front of us play next week.
Expect Clemson to be looking ahead to our matchup and get tested by Virginia. Clemson deserves to be ranked in the Top 2
Alabama plays against an overrated Jimbo Fischer and Texas A&M who should have lost to Vanderbilt unless Jimbo Fischer was holding back. Alabama deserves to be ranked in the Top 2
Both Georgia and Auburn are way overrated and don't deserve to be ranked in the Top 10. Neither have an offense going at or under 40% 3rd down completion and neither cracking 400 yards of total offense in their first game. IMO, this is the year Georgia fans and recruits start turning on Kirby Smart.
Florida plays no one special which means their defense will also start to gel, but giving up 600+ yards on defense is alarming. Their best test will be LSU and Georgia which really means they won't get tested until they play in the SEC Championship game. Until they play better defense Florida does not deserve to be ranked in the Top 7.
Finally, if you only rank the teams that have played then absolutely we deserve to be ranked #3. If you factor in the teams yet to play and give them credit for how they finished last season only then Oregon, OSU, and PSU deserve to be ranked among us, but not necessarily above us with the exception of OSU since they made it to the CFP last year. OSU is in the same league as Clemson and Alabama and deserves to be ranked in the Top 3.
With all that being said. The only difference between the Top 3 and everyone else deserving of the Top 7 is not personnel or talent, but execution. There are a lot of players getting quality time at Clemson that will never play in the NFL like Sweeney's and Venerable's sons. There are some studs behind them that need to be developed yet in the mean time their kids are making plays. I bring up the coaches' kids to emphasize it is not about talent, but execution. This is why the two biggest hires were in both Coach Feeley and Ed Reed, but none of it would have resonated with the players if it was not for D'Eriq King's leadership by example. He is our Tim Tebow who brings accountability to the locker room. This team is breaking the curse of entitlement that plagued us the day we let Butch Davis leave, but his teachings' remained until the final player he coached graduated or left for the NFL.
Expect us to be ready to go toe to toe with Clemson. Punch for Punch until someone flinches. North Carolina did it last year with a defense that was nowhere as good as our defense and an offense nowhere as potent and lethal as our offense. On offense it will be so much fun to watch King and Lashlee dial up plays against Venerables. We have proven that we can drive down the length of the field and score touchdowns or take the top off with our explosive plays from anywhere with anyone on our team.
On defense, expect our DL to harass Trevor all game long with Nesta being once again the unsung hero. Expect Hunte to get more playing time than Ford and make us a more complete dominant DL. Roche, Silvera, Hunte, and Phillips is our best option to attack the line of scrimmage. Our secondary is as getting better and will be one of the best in the nation with Bubba as our anchor. Our defense is built to stop Clemson's offense meaning Clemson does not like to drive down the field and we never allow teams to score quickly on us. We have a bend but don't break defense...that attacks the line of scrimmage. If we can get pressure from our DL up the middle which Nesta does so well then we are that much closer to being an elite defense. The more pressure we put on Clemson's offense the more mistakes they will make which also plays to our strength of taking the ball away.
However, we have to stop the run first. We can dismantle Clemson if we shutdown their running attack and this is why we need to switch up our DL starters. Hunte is flashing just like Rousseau was this time last year. If Rousseau had played more than 17 snaps against UF and UNC he could have been the difference maker. We also need to play Brooks over Jennings at LB, because Jennings tries to go through the blocker while tackling the RB allowing the RB to react by sidestepping to the vacant area. Our LBs have to practice all week how to shed or elude blocks all together. If we stop the run then we dismantle Clemson with Bubba and Blades in the secondary.
