National analyst reacts to Clemson recruiting weekend, feedback from Tiger fans |
Brandon Rink
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- Monday, March 10 2025
The CBS Sports/247Sports analyst Josh Pate v. Clemson's online fanbase fight has been an offseason storyline in the long wait to the Tigers' 2025 football campaign.
First, he outlined his concerns for the program after a lower-than-usual team ranking for the 2025 class, and then Pate responded to the response to those comments with clarification but no real backtracking. So, his latest message to the Clemson faithful follows feedback received after Clemson's big Elite Retreat weekend, which featured five commits total, boosting the Team Composite ranking from outside the Top 25 to third currently. Pate described it as a positive step but not one he will overreact to. "What we just said there is not that they're terrible, they suck, they're falling into the abyss -- it's that they were on rung 10 of college football's ladder, and they're on about rung 7 right now," Pate said Sunday. "And if they maintain this pace, they won't fall below (rung) 6, but they will not elevate back to (rung) 10. Or, put a different way, it's going to take something above and beyond what they've been doing right now. So we've got a nice solid blip on the recruiting radar screen this past weekend. Not a slam dunk. Not definitive proof of anything, but it's good. There's no denying that. It's good, especially at the receiver position [the podcast was taped before the Tigers' third 4-star O-line pledge of the weekend with Chancellor Barclay late Sunday]." Pate reiterated comments on the perceived standard for Clemson football and wonders if the Tigers can return to the prestige of the College Football Playoff run from 2015-20. "It's always been layered for me with Clemson," said Pate. "Dabo has built something there that is such that it's never going to fall off a cliff. They're never going to torpedo into the mountainside. It's just that the standard was a national championship. It was them and Alabama, that's what it was in the mid-2010s. To ever get back there, the roster has to look the way it did. Maybe this is the first step toward getting there. This team is going to be good, I've said that every step of the way. This year's team should be the favorite to win the ACC. It's beyond 2025, that's when I wonder the most. That's when I have the most doubt. "Love the vibe though. I think he's (Swinney) hired really well. He has hired very aggressively. This is a good sign. I'm not going to get carried away with it. A good sign. That's where I am with Clemson right now." Pate's description of feedback over the weekend included a TigerNet reference. "I know how this works. It works the same way every time. Weirdly, it's this way with Clemson more so than other programs," Pate said. "I don't know why that is. What happens is, most people who started criticizing me on this front don't watch this show. So they see someone over on like TigerNet or someone like that claim I said something, which in and of itself is a lie. And then they believe and run with it and then they have this entire misconception in their mind about what was said. The folks that watch this show are normally the ones that come in in the replies and say, 'Yeah, actually that's not what he said.' I get it." More in the video below:
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