Tennessee football: What CFP rankings should be after Week 9 of 2022
team. 879. . 8-0. . Tigers . 4
No. 5 AP and Coaches Polls
Struggling with the Syracuse Orange was already a bad look for the Clemson Tigers. In fact, they had trouble putting away Syracuse and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Wake is at least a top 25 team, and Clemson did beat them on the road. However, the way they looked against Syracuse is what puts them here.
Now, depending on the metric you use, they may have as high as the second highest strength of schedule among the top six outside of Alabama. However, the struggles they have shown outweigh that stat given the fact that it’s a mixed bag and depends on what you go by.
As for beating Syracuse, those struggles look worse now that Syracuse just lost in a blowout at home to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Ironically, Clemson visits Notre Dame this weekend after a bye. If they are going to move up, they need to win that game convincingly.
What does help Clemson is three top 25 wins, but at this point, Syracuse shouldn’t be in there. Tennessee football has as many wins over teams that should be in the top 25 and beat five teams in the top 25 when they faced them. That provides perspective on why Clemson is here.