Win Week 1, and win them all.

That’s the No. 1 bold take ESPN’s ‘Stanford Steve’ Coughlin is getting behind this college football season for Clemson, saying that if the ACC Tigers top LSU, then it’s going to be an undefeated run.

He points to the veteran QB in Cade Klubnik and his receiver corps on hand first.

“I look just how different one year is in this sport, where last year when you looked at, say, I don’t know, the Top 12 teams in the preseason, and every quarterback was from somewhere else,” Coughlin said. “And now when you look, the rankings come out and there’s some people’s too-early whatever, these quarterbacks have been at the school for over a year at least. Or got recruited there. Example 1A, and maybe 1B, Austin, Texas with Arch (Manning), and Cade Klubnik who lost to Texas last year (with) Clemson). And when I watch Clemson, everybody wants to point to how Dabo didn’t use the portal. Internet having their way of how people should be doing things who have had success and won national championships, and he’s (Swinney) one of a handful of guys who has won a title that is still coaching in the sport.

“So, and more importantly when I look at Clemson, guys aren’t leaving to go other places. Now, what was Clemson when they were at the top of the world. It was Wide Receiver U, man. You go back and look at all the guys, going back to Nuk (Hopkins) all the way with Tajh Boyd, winning a national championship with Deshaun (Watson) with Mike (Williams), and it’s embedded.”

He also pointed to just how close Clemson came to the upset in Austin last December and what that feeling can do to build a team’s motivation.

“They get a stop late in that game (at Texas last year), and it’s a one-score game and they have the ball in Austin, Texas,” he said. “And I love what they bring defensively…They took the long road to get there (to having premium talent on the roster). They recruited them and developed them…I love what Clemson has and I still think the ACC is not where the league would like it to be. The league in some instances think they have five teams that are worthy of making the Playoff — they don’t…I look at Clemson as the cream of the crop of the conference though.

“And I look at what they have instilled, I look at the guys that are coming back and felt the failure in the biggest spot. They were sky-high upsetting SMU to get in the Playoff, and then a couple weeks later, they’re going home, and it’s winter conditioning, which is the most depressing thing in the world when your season is over and you have to think about winter conditioning as a player.

“I love that they went through it, succeeded, and failed, and didn’t get to their goal. That team is way too low in all these things (odds to win CFP)…They have exactly what I want in a team that I think is going to be successful in this ever-changing world of college football.”

In the same podcast he said that, his co-host Kevin Clark went somewhat opposite of him for his take by picking LSU to win on August 30 in Death Valley and go on to win the SEC.

“I think LSU is going to win the SEC. I think LSU wins Week 1. I think (Garrett) Nussmeier is gonna be one of the top quarterbacks off the board next year. I loved watching his film,” Clark said.

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