Compliments in college football don't get much better than this.
On the Mike & Mike radio show on Wednesday, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit gave his thoughts on the Clemson football team, stating that the Tigers have "arrived to a point as a program where they are arm-in-arm with Alabama."
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Alabama has been college football's elite program for the past eight-plus seasons now, winning four national titles since 2009. The Tide have only lost 11 total games in that span, and have finished each of the past eight years in the AP Top 10.
Meanwhile, Clemson has become a legitimate powerhouse since Dabo Swinney took over as head coach midway through the 2008 season. Clemson is currently working on a streak of six seasons with at least 10 wins, and they have played against Alabama in the past two championship games, winning one. Alabama and Clemson are again ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the current AP Poll, so the two teams could be on a crash course for a third consecutive title bout.
All of that is to say this: it's hard to disagree with Herbstreit here that Clemson is currently on the same level as Alabama, and there is no reason to believe that status will change for either program any time soon.
