Clemson Leads ESPN List of Returning Production Entering ’25
By: Staff Report February 25, 2025

Clemson boasts the most returning production heading into the 2025 college football season, according to ESPN.

ESPN broke down the returning production percentages for all 136 FBS teams (subscription required), and Clemson (81%) tops the list ahead of Arizona State (79%).

Illinois (76%), Texas Tech (75%) and Kennesaw State (73%) round out the top five.

“The only current members of the 80% club, Dabo Swinney’s Tigers are awfully tantalizing at the moment,” ESPN’s Bill Connelly wrote. “The defense returns 13 of 18 players with 200-plus snaps and adds a star pass rusher in Purdue’s Will Heldt. The offense, meanwhile, returns eight starters, including quarterback Cade Klubnik and a delightful trio of receivers in senior Antonio Williams and sophomores Bryant Wesco Jr. and CFP star T.J. Moore. (They should also get a full-strength Tyler Brown back; the 2023 freshman All-American was injured for much of 2024.) After ranking sixth or better in SP+ for six straight seasons from 2015 to 2020, Clemson has averaged a ranking of only 18.5 since. This should be its highest-upside team in five years.”

Clemson also leads the FBS in returning production percentage on offense (86%), while the Tigers have the seventh-highest returning production percentage on defense (75%).

While ESPN listed Clemson among the teams “most likely to improve” next season, a couple of the Tigers’ 2025 opponents – SMU and South Carolina – were pegged among the teams “most likely to regress” in 2025.

“No one in the country wants another shot at the CFP more than SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings, who suffered the worst game of his life against Penn State in the first round in December,” Connelly wrote. “If he can lead the Mustangs back to the promised land in 2025, he’ll do so without his leading rusher and five of his top six receiving targets and with two new starting linemen. Even more worrisome: A rock-solid defensive front six lost all six starters plus the top three backups at tackle. Few have worked the transfer portal better than Rhett Lashlee, but a lot of last year’s difference-makers are gone.”

“It’s not hard to end up with similar thoughts about South Carolina,” Connelly added, “though perhaps to a lesser degree, as about Ohio State: Sure, the Gamecocks will have holes to fill, but they’re going to have quarterback LaNorris Sellers and defensive end Dylan Stewart, who were two of 2024’s best freshmen, and that will fill quite a bit, right? Maybe. But there’s still a lot to replace, namely three offensive line starters and nearly every member of the front six not named Stewart. Only six of 15 defenders with 200-plus snaps are back, and while Shane Beamer is liberal with his portal usage, he’ll need quite a few hits to replicate 2024’s No. 13 finish in defensive SP+. (He’ll need a bit more consistency from Sellers too.)”