David Pollack was “All In” on Clemson all offseason, and he’s one of the analysts who picked the Tigers to win the national title heading into the 2025 campaign.
Now, after Clemson’s struggles to start the season, particularly in last Saturday’s comeback win over Troy?
Pollack no longer seems to be so All In on Dabo Swinney’s squad, at least not right now.
“Hashtag ‘All Out’ – that’s what I thought. Like, gah-lee, bro,” Pollack said in an episode of his See Ball Get Ball show, regarding Clemson’s performance against Troy.
Of course, Clemson got down 16-0 at one point and trailed 16-3 at halftime before scoring 24 straight points in the second half, en route to ultimately beating Troy by a score of 27-16.
“Second half, they responded really well, but obviously talent wins out,” Pollack said. “You’re down 13 at the half. You storm back, 24 unanswered. [Adam] Randall got going. But they had 17 [rushing] yards at the half, man.”
Pollack, the former ESPN analyst and former Georgia/NFL linebacker, says he thinks Clemson has to find its identity again.
He pointed to the absence of star wide receiver Antonio Williams, who injured a hamstring early in the Week 1 loss to LSU and did not play against Troy.
“Because I think Antonio Williams was their identity,” Pollack said. “When you have your go-to guy, like, that’s your guy. That’s your security blanket. You know exactly who you’re going to when you get a matchup, and so that’s your guy that’s gonna win. He had 11 touchdowns last year. Like, he’s your touchdown guy. He’s your big-play guy. [Bryant] Wesco started to turn into that guy a little bit in this football game. They gotta figure that out. But I like the way they ran the football with Randall in the second half and got that going.”
While the Tigers turned things around in the second half, Pollack added that Clemson’s overall showing against Troy “was embarrassing.”
“That’s not how ‘All In’ should be, man. You should be better than that,” he said. “So, I was disappointed in what I saw.”
Clemson will try to put together a better outing against Georgia Tech this Saturday when the two teams meet at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta (12 p.m., ESPN).