Bowl projections, where Clemson ranks among unbeatens after Week 7

Clemson is a common pick for the College Football Playoff after a 7-0 start.

by TigerNet Staff - Tue Oct 18 16:53:02 GMT-04:00 2022

Everybody in college football has played at least six games and there's a good amount of data on everybody at this point to make more accurate predictions.

CBS Sports projects Clemson to take on Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl Playoff semifinal in Glendale, Arizona. Jerry Palm picks a pair of SEC East teams to rematch in the Peach Bowl with Georgia and Tennessee in the other CFP semifinal.

USA TODAY predicts the same CFP four, as well as The Athletic ($).

ESPN has a little different spin ($) with a Georgia/Clemson pairing in the Peach Bowl for Mark Schlabach and a Clemson/Ohio State pairing in the Fiesta for Kyle Bonagura. In Schlabach's scenario, Ohio State and Tennessee meet in the Phoenix area, while the other projection has Georgia and TCU in the ATL. Both go on to pick a Georgia-Ohio State final.

Athlon Sports predicts a Georgia-Clemson Peach Bowl and Tennessee-Ohio State in the Fiesta. Athlon also picks a Georgia-Ohio State national championship meeting in the LA area. 247Sports projects the same scenario.

ESPN ranked the remaining nine unbeaten teams and pegged Clemson for fifth currently behind Ohio State then Georgia, Michigan and Tennessee.

"Middle eight perfection aside, Clemson doesn't really have any particularly elite traits," ESPN's Bill Connelly says. "The Tigers' offense has rebounded nicely from last season's collapse, but they're 25th in offensive SP+ and not, like, fifth. Meanwhile, their defense is still good but only 19th.

"They're close-game masters, however -- 2-0 in one-score finishes this season, 31-7 since 2012 -- and a lot of it comes down to the proverbial 'little things.' The Tigers score touchdowns on 74% of their red zone trips (18th in FBS) and allow TDs on only 50% (24th). They create more turnover opportunities (and, therefore, turnovers) and force more three-and-outs than opponents do, and they reap the field-position rewards (15th in average starting field position). They average 6.4 yards to go on third downs (16th), and opponents are at 8.1 (24th). They rig the game in their favor and wait you out."

Saturday's noon home opponent Syracuse is ranked ninth out of the nine undefeated teams.

"The schedule has undoubtedly been rather light for a power-conference team -- their strength-of-schedule ranking, per SP+, is still just 87th, and they've beaten just one top-40 team -- but we don't yet know their ceiling midway through the season. They've been good at pretty much everything," Connelly said of Syracuse.