Re: Any have ESPN insider?: Best teams ever at power programs

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Jun 1, 2017, 2:02 PM

The Clemson Tigers capped off their 2016 campaign with a 35-31 win for the ages over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff final.

Does that victory make them the best team in the Clemson history?

To find out, I set up a grading system that measures many factors of all of Clemson's 22 teams that won national or conference championships.

The system uses a weighted bell curve structure that places a heavy emphasis on winning national championships, but also gives significant credit for conference record, wins against ranked opponents and having a large number of players on the All-America or All-ACC first teams. It also awards extra value for high rankings in the sports-reference.com simple rating system (SRS) and strength of schedule (SOS) metrics.

EDITOR'S PICKS

What's the best Alabama team ever?
How good was the 2016 Alabama team that lost to Clemson for the national title? Very good, actually. In this ranking of the best Tide teams ever, this year's team fared quite well.
This system was designed to allow teams from any era to be able to compete on a level field with teams from other eras. The idea here is that the John Heisman, Frank Howard and Danny Ford championship teams should not be punished for playing in eras that had fewer games per season, but rather should be measured on the relative strength of their particular achievements.

The system also was adjusted to a 0-100 point scale, with 100 being the best ranking a team could possibly achieve. (Note: The point totals listed below are weighted specifically for Clemson's title teams. This means if a team below has a higher or lower grade here than a team in the "best ever" Alabama team article, it does not necessarily mean that team should be considered better or worse than the corresponding Crimson Tide squad.)

Let's take a look at the top teams in Clemson history.

1. 1981

94.3 points (12-0, national and ACC champion)

Top players: Homer Jordan, Jeff Bryant, Jeff Davis, Terry Kinard, Lee Nanney, Perry Tuttle

It might seem surprising to see the 1981 national championship squad rank ahead of the 2016 team, but consider the strong suits of that 1981 club. This team set single-game program records for points scored (82, vs. Wake Forest), rushing yards (536, also vs. Wake Forest) and forced turnovers (nine, vs. Georgia), all of which still stand.

This club is one of only three Clemson squads to have two consensus All-Americans (Davis and Kinard). That duo led the 1981 Tigers to a team record for most forced turnovers in a season (41). This defense was so powerful it once had an 18-quarter stretch without allowing a touchdown and did not give up a single play of 30 or more yards all season.

These numbers weren't racked up against weak foes, either. This team is tied with the 2016 squad for the most single-season wins against top-10 opponents in program history (three).

Combine these elements with the highest SRS rating in school history (21.3) and this being the only undefeated team Clemson has had since joining the ACC, and it leads to the 1981 Tigers being rated as the best Clemson team of all time.

2. 2016

90.4 points (14-1, national and ACC champion)

Top players: Deshaun Watson, Wayne Gallman, Mike Williams, Ben Boulware, Carlos Watkins, Cordrea Tankersley

The 2016 Tigers tied the FBS record for wins in a season (14), had 11 victories against teams that finished with a winning record and beat five teams that won at least 10 games. Those marks led this club to have the highest schedule ranking in this group.

The toughest of those battles had to be in the CFP title game against an Alabama squad that came into the contest with a 26-game winning streak that included a victory over Clemson in the 2015 CFP championship.

The Tigers won this matchup despite being behind by 10 points headed into the fourth quarter. They are the only team to ever overcome this type of deficit against a Nick Saban club and are also the only team to defeat Saban in a national title game.

This team also had more than its share of individual achievements. The most notable of these was Watson becoming the first two-time Heisman finalist in ACC history, largely on the basis of his ACC-record 41 touchdown passes.

3. 2015

78.2 points (14-1, ACC champion)

Top players: Deshaun Watson, Shaq Lawson, Kevin Dodd, Cordrea Tankersley, Wayne Gallman, Artavis Scott

This was the first Clemson team to win back-to-back games against top-10 opponents (No. 10 North Carolina and No. 4 Oklahoma) and the second to win three games against top-10 teams in a single season. This club's 14 wins tied a single-season FBS record. Watson became the first consensus first-team All-America quarterback in team history, an honor he claimed in part due to setting the ACC single-season record for total offense (5,209). Were it not for a 45-40 loss to Alabama in the CFP title game, this team might have been able to claim the status of best team in Clemson history.

4. 1978

57.8 points (11-1, ACC champion)

Top players: Steve Fuller, Jerry Butler, Joe Bostic, Jim Stuckey, Randy Scott

If you ever wondered why Watson wore the Fuller No. 4 patch on his jersey, look no further than what the 1978 team achieved. This squad became only the second team in school history to post a double-digit win total, was the first to end a season ranked in the AP top six and landed Clemson's first ACC title since 1967. Fuller's stat line of 1,515 passing yards and seven touchdown passes looks minuscule compared with today's numbers, but Fuller was so respected that he won his second ACC player of the year award and landed a spot as a third-team AP All-American.

5. 1982

54.4 points (9-1-1, ACC champion)

Top players: Terry Kinard, William Perry, Johnny Rembert, Cliff Austin

The successor to the 1981 national title team stumbled out of the gate with a loss and a tie in the first two weeks of the season. They turned things around by winning the next four games by a combined 142-30 score, including a 48-0 win over Virginia that still ranks seventh in ACC victory margin by a Clemson team. Kinard led this charge by becoming the first Tigers defensive back to be named an All-American in two seasons.

6. 1987

53.7 points (10-2, ACC champion)

Top players: Michael Dean Perry, John Phillips, David Treadwell, Donnell Woolford, Terry Allen

This team had three first-team All-Americans (Perry, Woolford and Treadwell). It also had an impact freshman in Allen, who set a record for most rushing yards by a Clemson freshman (973) that still stands.

7. 1988

52.3 points (10-2, ACC champion)

Top players: Donnell Woolford, Jeff Nunamacher, Terry Allen, James Lott

This group helped Clemson post its first back-to-back double-digit-win seasons and did so while posting the fifth-highest SRS mark among this group (16.5). This club's Citrus Bowl win over Oklahoma was only the Tigers' third bowl win over an opponent ranked in the top 10.

8. 1967

50.7 points (6-4, ACC champion)

Top players: Jimmy Addison, Wayne Mass, Harry Olszewski, Buddy Gore

Don't let the 6-4 record fool you: This was one of Howard's best ACC teams. The 1967 squad outscored its ACC opponents by a combined 118-38 score and allowed only one ACC foe to post a double-digit point total (12, by South Carolina). It was the only Howard ACC team to go undefeated and untied in conference play and faced the fourth-toughest schedule in this group.

9. 1991

46.6 points (9-2-1, ACC champion)

Top players: Jeb Flesch, Levon Kirkland, Rob Bodine, Ed McDaniel, Ronald Williams, Robert O'Neal

The 1991 Tigers had arguably the best rushing defense in school history. This club set team records for fewest rushing yards allowed in a single season (733) and on a per-game (61.1) and per-carry (1.8) basis. Bodine may have been the best player on that side of the ball, as his 27 tackles for loss are tied for the second most in a single season in team history.

10. 1986

44.2 points (8-2-2, ACC champion)

Top players: Terrence Flagler, John Phillips, Jim Riggs, Michael Dean Perry

Flagler had arguably the best season ever by a Clemson running back. He set the single-season record for most 200-yard rushing games (two) and at one point posted 858 rushing yards in a six-game stretch, a mark that remains unmatched in school history.

Finally, here are the teams that rated 11-22.

11. 1900, 41.5 points (6-0, SIAA champion)

12. 1966, 41.2 points (6-4, ACC champion)

13. 2011, 39.4 points (10-4, ACC champion)

14. 1959, 38.9 points (9-2, ACC champion)

T15. 1965, 35.6 points (5-5, ACC champion)

T15. 1956, 35.6 points (7-2-2, ACC champion)

17. 1958, 26.0 points (8-3, ACC champion)

18. 1948, 22.8 points (11-0, Southern champion)

19. 1903, 9.6 points (4-1-1, SIAA champion)

20. 1940, 9.1 points (6-2-1, Southern champion)

21. 1902, 7.5 points (6-1, SIAA champion)

22. 1906, 0 points (4-0-3, SIAA champion)

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Any have ESPN insider?: Best teams ever at power programs

Re: Any have ESPN insider?: Best teams ever at power programs

CU one is posted below.***

Re: Any have ESPN insider?: Best teams ever at power programs

Beat me to it, thanks. They picked the top 5 I would have

That's a crazy year if I've ever seen it

Re: That's a crazy year if I've ever seen it

Thank y'all so much for posting this

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