Josh Pate: ‘Clemson as structured over the last 8 years would compete for SEC championships and be one of the best teams in the league’
Josh Pate of The Late Kick Live said that Clemson, as structured, would have regularly competed for SEC Championships over the last eight years.
Clemson as structured over the last 8 yrs would compete for SEC championships and be one of the best teams in the league. https://t.co/3y1J32xDsO
— Josh Pate (@LateKickJosh) July 13, 2022
Pate was addressing a fan who said that the South Carolina Tigers would have been an eight or nine-win team at best if they had been playing full-time in the shark-infested waters of the Southeastern Conference.
@LateKickJosh you missed the point on your Clemson take. They would be a 9-4 or 8-5 team every year. So yeah they are better off now because they can make the playoff. They wouldn't otherwise. Easier to recruit when you're winning conference titles. Simple.
— Hustle & Crow 🐔🤙🏼 (@hustleandcrow) July 13, 2022
Clemson just suffered its first multi-loss regular season in 2021 since the 2014 season and had its second-worst regular season under head coach Dabo Swinney since he took over in 2010. Swinney’s first season saw those Tigers go 6-7, and while the 2011 season had more losses than the campaign that concluded last December, that season at least featured an ACC Championship.
Still, let’s not sit here and paint a picture of the sky falling in Southwest South Carolina. Swinney’s Tigers won two National Championships and has missed a total of two College Football Playoffs since the dawn of the CFP in 2014. During that time, Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence became first-round NFL Draft picks.
Clemson has the highest odds to be the next team to join the SEC
While the Big Ten has made waves this offseason with the additions of Los Angeles-based Pac-12 pillars USC and UCLA, the SEC has sat quiet just a summer after bringing Texas and Oklahoma over from the Big 12.
If college football’s flagship conference wants to solidify its standing as the class of the sport, Clemson would be the next logical addition. Luckily, they (along with Florida State) have the highest odds to be the next school to accept an SEC invitation.