By TJ Chapman
Recently The Sporting News published a composite ranking of the top 25 teams for the 2025 season. Incredibly, the Clemson Tigers were not listed as one of the programs who received a No. 1 ranking by any of the 11 publications.
The rankings were comprised of top 25 polls released by The Sporting News, 247 Sports, Action Network, Athlon, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, USA Today and On3 Sports.
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The three programs that received No. 1 rankings were Texas, Ohio State and Penn State. The only other two programs that received a No. 2 ranking were Notre Dame and Clemson.
The top dogs of college football, the SEC and Big Ten, were heavily represented in the top 10 composite. The SEC landed four teams in the top 10 while the Big Ten has three. Notre Dame, Clemson and Miami make up the remainder.
Case Against Clemson as No. 1
When determining who will be the No. 1 preseason team a number of factors are considered. Depending on who is doing the rankings, conference affiliation sometimes plays a role. The SEC and Big Ten are rightfully looked at as the premier conferences in college football.
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Unfortunately for Clemson, the ACC is not looked at as a difficult conference to win. Since head coach Dabo Swinney took over in 2009, Clemson has won the ACC championship nine times, including six straight from 2015-2020.
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The Tigers last game was a playoff loss to Texas, 38-24, a game the Tigers were, for the most part, dominated in. Two large pieces of that playoff team, running back Phil Mafah and linebacker Barrett Carter, are now in the NFL. Replacing Carter will be tough, but not insurmountable. Replacing Mafah, on the other hand, will be difficult.
Clemson relied on the run game to open up the passing attack. Without an established RB1 teams can key on the passing game early on in the season. The opener is against LSU but is a home game for Clemson. If a feature back isn’t found in fall camp Clemson will have a tough time beating LSU.
Case for Clemson as No. 1
It can be argued that the most important position in sports is the quarterback position. When discussing the top returning college quarterbacks in 2025, Clemson’s Cade Klubnik is typically in the top three of that discussion. Klubnik has the experience, abilities and football intelligence that all coaches desire.
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In 2024 Klubnik threw for 3,639 yards with 36 touchdowns and six interceptions. He was also the second leading rusher with 463 yards and seven touchdowns. Klubnik is a leader who has put the Tigers on his back and led them to victory. The 50-yard touchdown run with 1:16 to put Clemson ahead at Pitt last November is just one example.
The question mark for the offense coming into the 2025 season is who will replace Mafah as the lead back. True freshman Gideon Davidson has the ability to be the starter but is unproven. Jay Haynes was third on the team with 295 yards and three touchdowns and is back.
The wide receiver room is stacked as the top three receivers return in Antonio Williams, Bryant Wesco Jr. and TJ Moore. Both Wesco and Moore are true sophomores who are big targets.
Clemson’s offensive line returns four starters including First Team All-ACC OT Blake Miller and Second Team All-ACC G Walker Parks. Clemson rotates a number of offensive linemen into their games, which means the backups have solid reps under their belts.
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The defense returns nine starters to a unit that had some issues against the run but overall was a very stout defense. In January, Swinney hired former Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Allen to run his defense. The only two starters lost are safety RJ Mickens and linebacker Barrett Carter, both of whom are now in the NFL.
The defensive line is anchored by Second Team All-ACC defensive end TJ Parker who led the Tigers with 11 sacks in 2024. Purdue transfer Will Heldt becomes one of the few incoming transfers that Swinney has signed in the transfer portal era. This unit will be tough to beat.
While Carter is gone the linebackers return the top two tacklers in Wade Woodaz and Freshman All-American Sammy Brown. The duo combined for 176 tackles and eight sacks. Barring injury Woodaz and Brown should lead the Tigers in tackles again in 2025.
The secondary is one of the best in the country, led by safety Khalil Barnes and cornerback Avieon Terrell. Freshman All-American cornerback Ashton Hampton gives Clemson one of the best pairs of shutdown corners. It will be difficult to pass against this unit.
Clemson vs. Others
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When discussing the other programs who have garnered attention as choices of preseason No. 1 all have glaring holes that Clemson doesn’t. Texas only returns one starter on the offensive line and the hype is mostly generated around quarterback Arch Manning. However, Manning has little game experience and his first game as the Texas QB1 in 2025 is at Ohio State. I don’t buy into potential for any player, I don’t care what his last name is.
Ohio State won the 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship. Head coach Ryan Day returns a lot on offense, including phenomenal wide receiver Jeremiah Smith. But the Buckeyes’ QB1 is redshirt freshman Julian Sayin, who has thrown only 12 passes in his career, not something you can be comfortable with for the No. 1-ranked team.
Penn State head coach James Franklin returns, arguably, the best team he’s ever had in Happy Valley. Franklin was able to convince his dynamic duo at running back, Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, to both come back. The offensive line returns four starters, including monster guard Olaivavega Ioane. While the defense loses big time players to the NFL, they return a lot of production and upgrade the defensive coordinator, hiring Jim Knowles from Ohio State.
The big question mark for Penn State is quarterback Drew Allar. Although the senior doesn’t lack experience like the other squads mentioned, Allar lacks consistency and execution. Unless Allar can fine tune his game for his senior season, 2025 will finish in disappointing fashion for Penn State once again.
