Greg McElroy liked Clemson last season, and he is even higher on the Tigers heading into the 2025 campaign.
The ESPN analyst believes the time is now for the Tigers to “break through” and get back to a national championship level.
“The Clemson Tigers enter into the 2025 season with sky-high expectations,” McElroy said on his Always College Football show. “We are contributing to those expectations, I might add. I liked Clemson last year. I thought there was a lot of progress made. I love Clemson going into this upcoming season. It does feel like it’s the first time in quite a while where the expectations feel tangible. It does feel like with what was returning off of a successful season last year, something can be built on — the foundation that has been laid out multiple years in the making now was this roster here in ‘25.
“Now is the time for them to break through and to return to the top of college football as a potential national championship contender.”
On his show, McElroy gave one big question for each ACC team in spring practice ahead of the upcoming season.
For Clemson (10-4, 7-1 ACC in 2024) – which is coming off its eighth conference title in the last 10 seasons – McElroy believes the biggest spring question is, will the Tigers find a pass rush and depth on the defensive line?
“They’ve got to find a pass rush. That is imperative,” he said. “They also need to find some depth along the defensive line. T.J. Parker is a complete game-changer at one defensive end. Peter Woods on the other, even though he got banged up a little bit, he’s probably not best suited to play defensive end. He’s probably going to be a little more disruptive on the interior. So finding a capable replacement for the edge to allow Woods to slide inside is of the utmost importance this upcoming season.”
Another position that McElroy says he’ll be eyeing closely is running back.
Phil Mafah, of course, has moved on to the next level. He recorded the 24th 1,000-yard rushing season in Clemson history last season but was hampered all year by a shoulder injury, especially down the stretch.
The Tigers also lost top backup running back Jay Haynes to a torn ACL in last year’s ACC Championship Game, leading Clemson to transition Adam Randall to running back full-time this spring following three years at wide receiver.
Meanwhile, true freshman Gideon Davidson has generated plenty of buzz this spring and caught the eye of head coach Dabo Swinney, who believes Davidson is the best running back from the 2025 recruiting class.
“One other position that I’ll be paying close attention to is the running back spot,” McElroy said. “Phil Mafah wasn’t the same. Down the stretch, they just didn’t run the ball very well whatsoever, and they’ve got a lot of injuries to that position. Their top backup last year got banged up in the ACC Championship Game. They are ridiculously thin at running back, which has forced a former blue-chip wide receiver in Adam Randall to make a full switch from wide receiver to running back.
“So he, along with a few others – Gideon Davidson is the name to know, he’s the freshman, and Dabo Swinney believes he could be one of the best freshmen running backs that they’ve had in his tenure there with the Tigers. That’s saying a lot, too. You think about (Travis) Etienne, you think about Will Shipley, guys that had a lot of success early in their career. If Dabo Swinney’s putting Gideon Davidson in that type of light, he might be poised to have a breakthrough season in year number one.”
McElroy added that he’s highly intrigued to watch Will Heldt after Clemson landed the former Purdue defensive end out of the transfer portal this offseason.
“One other thing that I’m really curious about is for the very first time, Clemson has started to dabble in the transfer portal just a little bit. They’ve tried in the past unsuccessfully. This year they tried and succeeded by bringing in Will Heldt from Purdue,” McElroy said. “That was one of the biggest signings I think because we talked already about what it would mean for Peter Woods if a new piece emerged at defensive end. Well, Heldt might very well be that guy. He will be a fascinating person to watch throughout the offseason because it’s one of the first transfer portal additions that Dabo Swinney’s ever gone out and landed, and he’s playing a position of need.
“Defensive end, they did not have enough depth, and the drop-off from the starters to the backups was considerable last year. Hopefully that won’t be the case with some of the reinforcements that have come in and some of the young players that have developed, for a sky-high season with expectations for the Clemson Tigers.”
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