The team that drilled Clemson in the opening game of 2024 has four victories over FBS opponents thus far this season.

The five teams that Clemson has since beaten decisively have combined for six victories over FBS opponents this season.

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And one of those six victories came in a head-to-head matchup between two of those bad teams (Wake Forest's upset at N.C. State eight days ago).

On some level it might seem excessively negative to be pointing this out the day after Dabo Swinney's team ripped apart Wake Forest by a score of 49-14 in Winston-Salem.

As we wrote this morning, this team had a habit of playing down to competition over the previous three seasons and last year's 17-12 escape of the same Demon Deacons program was one of the leading examples.

So this team certainly is taking some steps forward with its ability to translate its superiority in talent to the scoreboard, evidenced by an average margin of victory of 29.4 points over the five-game winning streak.

Yet it seems fair to dispense credit for that while also, in light of the weak opposition as noted above, wondering how good this team is and how long before we'll be able to get a comprehensive examination of that.

There is undoubtedly an entire column to be written on the pros and cons of Clemson's residence in the ACC as it relates to evaluating the Tigers' strength.