ESPN analyst David Pollack says if Clemson is going to win a national championship, it has to fix what is going on at the safety positions.

He pointed out on the College GameDay Show Saturday that the Tigers’ issues against South Carolina last week, when Jake Bentley carved the Tigers up for 510 yards and five touchdowns, had a lot to do with what Clemson was not doing as opposed to what the Gamecocks were doing.

Players were out of position and did not know where to go at times. Pollack also showed why the Tigers were out of position and how Bentley took advantage of them.

“If you go to the secondary of Clemson, this might not be area that will be affected today, but down the road the safety play has to get better,” he said. “They have to understand how to protect the middle of the field and understand how to play the football in the air.

“You have to know when you are going that sometimes you just have to tackle the guy and sometimes you have to knock the ball down. I think that is a weakness that later on in the season it might get exploited.

“Again, the middle of the field. You have to be able to take care of the middle of the field. If Pitt can run the football and with play action, this is the spot Pitt can take shots against Clemson’s defense. If Clemson is going to win a national title. If they are going to win a playoff game, that has to get better. That has kind of been their weakness that I have seen so far.”