Pete Thamel: Clemson stuck in ‘upper-middle class’ of college football, no longer a contender

Clemson took a step back in the eyes of college football experts around the country on Saturday due to a 33-21 loss to Louisville. On Friday, ESPN’s Pete Thamel revealed how Clemson’s lackluster performance affected his view of the team.

“I just don’t know what to make a Clemson this season,” Thamel said. “The two times they’ve played formidable opponents, they’ve turtled. And in the other games, they’ve absolutely blitzed everybody. So, difficult situation.

“It’s never easy to play at Virginia Tech, even though this isn’t a vintage Virginia Tech team. Kyron Drones, the quarterback for Tech, has been practicing in full. They’re expecting him to come back this week. I want to see an authoritative performance by these Clemson Tigers. I want to see them dominate from end to end.”

Clemson’s other loss this season came against Georgia in Week 1 and it wasn’t particularly close. The Tigers fell 34-3 to the Bulldogs, only amassing 188 total yards of offense in the subpar showing.

Nonetheless, Clemson bounced back, winning its next six games by an average margin of 27.3 points per contest. Unfortunately for Clemson, none of the wins stick out on its résumé, with not a single one of the victories being against a ranked opponent.

This weekend, the Tigers will have a chance to bounce back again; this time, against Virginia Tech. Although the Hokies aren’t ranked either, they’re 3-2 in ACC play and will provide Clemson with a challenge.

Alas, barring a blowout victory, a win may not be enough to move Clemson up the College Football Playoff Rankings. Thamel isn’t sure the team has what it takes to earn a spot in the upper echelon of college football this season.

“They, quite frankly, — [Stanford] Steve just mentioned — don’t deserve to be ranked in the playoffs,” Thamel said. “They just haven’t beaten anybody right now, and it’s this team that’s stuck in this upper middle class nether world, where they’re not good enough to really be competing to the standard Dabo [Swinney] set early in his career there.

“But yet, they’re still very good by most conventional metrics. So, it’s a weird little situation they’re stuck in there, where they’re sitting up in the middle class and they can’t break out.”

On Saturday, Clemson will look to make a statement as it squares off against Virginia Tech at 3:30 p.m. ET. The game will air live on ESPN.