JD PicKell: Clemson is the Chick-Fil-A of college football

For the past decade, Clemson has been of of the most successful teams in college football. The Tigers have won at least 10 games every season since 2011 and made six appearances in the College Football Playoff, the second-most of any school.

Head coach Dabo Swinney has accomplished all of this with somewhat atypical approaches, such as promoting coordinators from within and making minimal use of the transfer portal. Because of this, On3’s JD PicKell likened Clemson to one of America’s most popular fast food restaurant chains in a recent video.

“To me, Clemson is the Chick-Fil-A of college football,” PicKell said. “If college football is the fast food industry, Clemson is Chick-Fil-A. Chick-Fil-A does things differently than any other establishment. It’s super hard to franchise one — I think it takes around two years to even get a store. Closed on Sundays, they go next-level with the hospitality services they hire. It’s a different kind of culture, a different way of doing things at Chick-Fil-A. Similar to Clemson. They promote internally for their coordinators, they don’t use the transfer portal, they don’t really have guys transfer out. They do their business schedule a little bit differently.

“The reason why you’re okay with Chick-Fil-A being closed on Sundays is because they give you one of the best products out there. You don’t love it that they’re closed on Sunday, but you’re OK with it because of how phenomenal that product is. Same thing with Clemson. Nobody is scoffing at the way they’ve used the portal or the way they’ve used their coordinators or the way they recruit because it’s been working. That product at Clemson has been so next-level.”

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As successful as Clemson has been, however, last season was a bit of a disappointment. Coming off of their sixth straight appearance in the CFP, the Tigers had a new starting quarterback in DJ Uiagalelei following the departure of Trevor Lawrence to the NFL. They struggled with the transition through the first half of the season, getting off to a 4-3 start.

Clemson went on a six-game winning streak to end the year and still reach 10 wins. However, they did not play in either the ACC Championship Game or College Football Playoff for the first time since 2014. As the 2022 season approaches, PicKell warns that another lackluster season could cause things to start getting a bit more uncomfortable.

“Now, if Chick-Fil-A started serving you subpar chicken you’d say, ‘What the heck? And they’re not open on Sundays? What is the deal with this place?'” PicKell said. “Same thing with Clemson. If there is a continual drop off in what they’re doing with the wins and losses and product they’re putting on the field, you’re gonna have some people start to grow steadily unhappy. Hear me loud and clear: Dabo is not on the hot seat. Dabo Swinney is not getting fired. There is no unrest in terms of people being unhappy with Dabo at Clemson. But you see where I’m coming at with this. If the product declines, people will slowly but surely get more and more unhappy.”

There are plenty of question marks for the Tigers heading into 2022. For starters, it’s still unclear whether Uiagalelei is the right man at quarterback, which is why the Tigers added former five-star Hunter Johnson this offseason through the portal. They also lost both offensive coordinator Tony Elliott and defensive coordinator Brent Venables as both took head coaching jobs.

But if the past is any indicator, Clemson should have no trouble staking its claim as one of college football’s top teams in 2022. The Tigers will look to increase their current win streak to seven when they open the season on Sept. 5 against Georgia Tech.