Clemson has been showered with praise over the offseason, and many pundits view the Tigers as a legitimate national championship contender in 2025.

However, former ESPN analyst Chris “The Bear” Fallica is clearly skeptical about all the hype surrounding Dabo Swinney’s team heading into the upcoming season.

Fallica, now with Fox Sports, said on the network’s Bear Bets gambling show that he’s “pumping the breaks on this Clemson love affair.”

“What did they really accomplish last year?” Fallica said. “Blown out in the opening game of the year against an SEC team. Noncompetitive in a home loss to Louisville. … Lost in your home field to South Carolina. Stole a game at Pitt that you had absolutely zero business winning. And then in the ACC Championship Game, SMU basically spotted you points with some ridiculous turnovers. I mean, this is a team that I think they were third or fourth in the nation in turnover margin last year. Now again, credit that you didn’t turn the ball over, but is that going to happen again this year? Who knows.”

Clemson’s over/under win total for the 2025 regular season is set at 9.5 wins, and Fallica believes 10 wins will be “extremely hard” for the Tigers to reach this year.

“I know Klubnik and those young wide receivers certainly had a little bit of rapport,” he said. “They still had some trouble running the ball. And we’ll see if the freshman, Gideon, can come in and maybe make them a little bit more explosive on the ground.

“But you look at the schedule this year, you got the SEC opener against LSU. And I know they’re a four-point home favorite over LSU. You’ve got to go to South Carolina. You’ve got to go to Louisville. You’ve got SMU coming in. Georgia Tech is on the road, and they are always a pain in the you know what to play. BC, I think is going to be scrappy with Bill O’Brien and some of the roster changes they’ve had there. I don’t know… I think 10 wins is going to be extremely hard.”

Clemson went 9-3 during the regular season last year, then won the 2024 ACC Championship Game against SMU before falling at Texas in the first round of the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.

Fallica can see this season potentially playing out for Clemson the way things did last year, when the Tigers lost their two regular season games against SEC opponents (Georgia, South Carolina) and suffered one ACC loss (Louisville).

“I could very easily see a situation where you’re looking at a Clemson team kind of like you had last year —  maybe they go 9-3 in the regular season with two nonconference losses to the two SEC teams,” he said. “You suffer one loss in ACC play, and you’re back in the ACC title game and you win it.”