The 2001 Canes were the best team ever in CFB. Eleven starters were drafted in the first round by the NFL. There were 17 first rounders on the roster. Thirty eight players were drafted on that roster. At least four of those players are likely NFL HOFers (Reed, Wilfork, Gore and Johnson) and Sean Taylor very likely would have been a fifth (had his career not been cut short). Ed Reed is likely one of the top 3 NFL safeties of all time. He alone had nine INTs in 2001 which is almost as many as 2018 Clemson had as a team (12). Reed & Buchanon had more INTs than all of Clemson 2018. The 2001 Canes had more than double the # of INTs as 2018 Clemson (27 vs 12). Sean Taylor (a back-up) was on the path to being the greatest safety of all time.
The 2001 Canes smoked:
- 12th ranked Washington by a score of 65-7
- 14th ranked Syracuse 59-0
- 14th ranked FSU 49-27
- Rutgers 61-0
- 4th ranked Nebraska 37-14 (and Coker totally shut things down offensively at the half; otherwise it probably would have been 55-7). The score was 34-0 at the half and the game had become a laugher by the middle of the second quarter
On Defense, the 2001 Canes held opponents to an average of 9.75 points per game (which is far superior to 2018 Clemson's avg of 13.1 PPG).
In terms of Turnover Margin, the 2001 Canes had a differential of 2.4 which is far far superior to Clemson's differential of 0.5.
On offense, both teams scored about the same number of average Points per Game (44.3 for Clemson 2018 vs 42.7 for the '01 Canes).
On special teams, the 2001 Canes had a meaningful advantages:
- a much better Punt Returner in Phillip Buchanon who averaged 15.0 yards per return vs 7.7 for Clemson's Amari Rodgers. I couldn't find 2018 Clemson's Kick Returns stats (surprising) but it appears they weren't in the top 70 of Kick Returns so I left this out;
- a stronger PK as Todd Sievers averaged 80% of his FG attempts vs 69% for Clemson's kicker; and
- Freddie Capshaw also averaged 41.8 ypa vs 39.7 ypa for Will Spiers of Clemson.
The average margin of victory was 33 points for the 2001 Canes and 31 points for 2018 Clemson.
When you look at this year's defensive stats, you'll see that the 2018 Canes are better than 2018 Clemson in a few categories (total defense, pass defense, TFL & 3rd down conversion pct). This year's Canes DBs played better than Clemson's in 2018. Our 2001 DBs were also better than Clemson's. 2018 Clemson is stout in run defense and scoring defense (but overall 2001 Miami was much more stingy on defense yielding about 3.3 points per game less). Our RBs (Portis, McGahee, Gore & Davenport) were better, our TEs were better (Shockey & Winslow), our top WR (Johnson) was better, our defense was significantly better, our special teams were better, our turnover differential was better and our OL didn't yield a sack of Dorsey all year (which is astonishingly good).
In summary, the 2001 Canes were the best CFB team of all time.