Paul Finebaum says Florida State has ‘pulled away’ from Clemson
If you know Paul Finebaum as a football personality, you know he has a lot to say about Dabo Swinney and the Clemson football program.
Finebaum recently made an appearance on ESPN’s McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning and discussed how he believes Florida State has passed Clemson as the attractive option in the ACC. No surprises here; Finebaum is a true Clemson hater, whether he’d admit it or not.
“I think they’re already less attractive, Greg,” Finebaum said. Clemson, if you go back to 2016, 2017, 2018 — they were at the epicenter. We all joked about how boring it is that Alabama and Clemson play each other every year. Nobody’s saying that anymore. They weren’t that big of a name until then. Clemson has always been a good football school, but it’s never been a main attraction like an Alabama or Georgia or Texas or Michigan or Ohio State. Now they’ve fallen off of that.”
It goes beyond just Florida State for Finebaum, however, who sees multiple ACC teams on the rise while the Tigers fall behind. For the analyst, Clemson becomes less attractive by the year.
“We know Florida State has pulled ahead of them. There are other schools that could do that as well. Miami is one you just have to wonder. If they get it right under Mario Cristobal, then that’s another school that could inch ahead of them,” Finebaum said. “And as you start divvying up the schools, we’ve already had discussions and conversations about who’s most attractive in the ACC. North Carolina is more attractive than them. Arguably Florida State would be, but that’s simply dependent upon whether you have the stomach for what they’ve been doing the last two years. Clemson has one toe in the water on that as well, so that immediately makes them less attractive.”
The 2024 season is an excellent opportunity for the Tigers to prove Finebaum wrong like they have MANY times before.
