A consensus Top 10 ‘Too Early’ preseason team after an ACC title and College Football Playoff berth, Clemson is an offseason darling. ESPN analyst Greg McElroy is certainly in the choir singing the Tigers’ praises.

McElroy did a breakdown of the likeliness of a CFP repeat for the 2024 participants, where he put Clemson in the “highly likely” repeat trips.

“While I think their schedule is tricky…every single game on their schedule is winnable, which is why the Playoff forecast for Clemson is highly likely heading into this year,” McElroy said.

An ESPN deep dive into the returning production pegged Clemson at No. 1 in college football, with 86% returning just on offense.

“One of my favorite teams of the offseason with what they bring back,” McElroy said. “They bring back eight starters on offense that was in the Top 11 last year. They went for over 451 yards a game and nearly 35 points a game. Cade Klubnik is the straw the stirs the drink. He got much better as the season went along last year. Was very impressed with his ability to drive the ball down field. That was something that was missing from two years ago. When you look at the progress that has been made on his downfield accuracy and their willingness to take chances downfield — and that was a huge point of growth for them and I would anticipate that growth continuing into this upcoming season. They also made it a point to utilize his legs. Last year he rushed for nearly 500 yards. He also had seven touchdowns…

“Also a position of concern the last few years, relatively speaking for Clemson, has been the wide receiver spot…But now they are deep and they are talented at the wide receiver spot…And the offensive line returns mostly intact.”

McElroy points to two key additions to bolster an already talented defensive group.

“One thing that was a factor last year is that they just didn’t have a ridiculous amount of depth along the defensive line, particularly at defensive end,” he said. “Now, T.J. Parker on one side, Peter Woods on the other, they’re both professionals. They’re both great. TJ Parker in particular, he’s one of the best players in the country at defensive end…Woods, I’d love for him to slide inside, and for the first time, Clemson really went out and tried to land a dynamic edge presence and they did so in the transfer portal. They went out and get Purdue transfer Will Heldt at defensive end. He had 16 quarterback pressures last year. And him and TJ Parker, now you have a dynamic pass rushing duo that can hold down the edges, which should free up Peter Woods to slide back inside in obvious passing situations. They still have depth along the defensive line. Stephiylan Green is in a really good spot. You also have a sixth year from DeMonte Capehart.

“There’s pretty much everything you could possibly want from Clemson you have back on defensive side. I also love the addition of Tom Allen the defensive coordinator. I think Wes Goodwin…probably got an unfair amount of criticism, but when you can take a guy like Tom Allen with that much credibility, with that much success calling plays defensively and you can add him to your staff — that’s gotta fire up Clemson fans all over the country. I love their chances of having a big year this year.”

McElroy has Clemson in the highly likely 2025 CFP category with Ohio State, Notre Dame, Texas, Georgia and Oregon. McElroy went a step further with Penn State to tab them as a lock, while another team high in returning production in Arizona State is “likely,” Tennessee (50/50 in his words) and Indiana (leaning to unlikely in his words) are “possible,” and SMU and Boise are “unlikely” to make it.

“I love their chances of having a big year.”@GregMcElroy says @ClemsonFB is HIGHLY LIKELY to make it back to the College Football Playoff in 2025 🐅#ALLIN | #Clemson pic.twitter.com/1sWOXHF7ow

— Always College Football (@AlwaysCFB) February 25, 2025