College football preseason usually comes wrapped in optimism, but Josh Pate is taking a harder line on Clemson.
The analyst recently named six teams he considers "on the clock" for the 2026 season, and Clemson drew one of his sharpest warnings. Pate pointed back to where the Tigers were not long ago, then contrasted that with how far they have slipped.
"They played in Austin [Texas] in a Playoff game two years ago, which meant this time last year, it was time for Clemson to take the dreaded next step," noted Pate. "And they did, it was just a step backwards. Couple of steps backwards actually."
That decline has left Clemson in a place it hasn’t been since 2011: unranked entering the season. Back then, Dabo Swinney was still climbing.
Now, the concern is whether he and the program are sliding the other way. Swinney has been criticized for being slow to adapt to the NIL and transfer portal era, and Pate’s view reflects the growing suspicion that Clemson hasn’t adjusted cleanly.
The Tigers’ résumé from 2011 through 2022 was built on consistency. They won at least 10 games every year in that stretch, reached the four-team College Football Playoff six straight times from 2014 through 2020, and captured two national titles.
But the recent numbers tell a different story. Clemson has fallen short of 10 wins in two of the last three seasons, lost a first-round CFP game in 2024, and then stumbled to a 7-6 record last season, its worst mark since 2010.
"Last year was bad," said Pate. "Everyone inside Clemson expects them to bounce back.
I don't know that that's a given.... I'm just trying not to get sucked into it."
That skepticism has shown up in the preseason as well. Clemson was left out of the AP top 25, landed fourth in the ACC Media Poll, and had only four players - Bryant Wesco Jr., Will Heldt, Sammy Brown, and Ashton Hampton - selected as preseason All-ACC picks. Miami had eight players chosen.
Swinney, meanwhile, appears to have embraced a preseason in which the attention is pointed elsewhere, whether toward Miami or toward ACC challengers like SMU and Louisville. Maybe that takes some pressure off Clemson. Maybe it doesn’t.
"What if it's not better this year than it was last year?" asked Pate.
"It gets really uncomfortable. So I think Clemson, for many reasons, is on the clock."
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