Paul Finebaum Names College Football Powerhouse ‘Slipping Into Mediocrity’

On Friday's episode of ESPN's " First Take ", Paul Finebaum spoke alongside sports betting analyst Joe Fortenbaugh about a multitude of college football programs and previewed some of hotter matchups to start the 2024 season.

At the tail end of their segment, Finebaum boldly labeled the Clemson Tigers as potentially fading away amongst the other elite programs in the nation.

When Fortenbaugh spoke on the potential impact of a loss for Clemson in their season-opening clash with Georgia and a defeat to ACC foe Florida State later on, Finebaum abruptly added that he forgot Clemson still played football based on the program's recent disappearance from the headlines.

The Tigers have taken a bit of a step back from a tremendous period of six consecutive College Football Playoff appearances from 2015 to 2021, where the program won two titles.

"I forgot they still play football," Finebaum playfully said.

"Is Dabo Swinney in a missing persons bulletin right now? Because they had the ACC media days and usually Dabo controls the theater and I don't remember a single thing he said because he's still complaining about everything that's wrong with college football while his program slips into mediocrity."

Those are harsh words for Tigers fans to hear from Paul Finebaum, but Clemson's lack of noise over the past few seasons in comparison to other top programs has led to many media pundits like Finebaum to forget about them.

The best way for the Tigers to prove Finebaum wrong is by defeating Georgia to start the season and regain the championship swagger the program had in the late 2010's.

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