Paul Finebaum rips Clemson’s ‘pettiness’ after Tigers player said Notre Dame, not Alabama, was best team they faced

Clemson OG John Simpson got the attention of ACC fans, SEC fans and Paul Finebaum Wednesday when he told reporters that Notre Dame, not Alabama, was the best team the Tigers faced in the 2018 season.

Discussing the story during his Wednesday show from SEC Media Days in Hoover, Alabama, Finebaum unloaded on Simpson’s comment, saying it reflected the “pettiness” of the Clemson program. Here’s what Finebaum said on his SEC Network show:

“I’m not in the business of criticizing college players,” Finebaum said, “but that is easily one of the stupidest comments I have ever heard. Alabama was a phenomenal football team last year. Notre Dame was good, but they were not as good as Alabama. Alabama would’ve destroyed Notre Dame, and what you get there in John Simpson’s comments is just the pettiness of a program that is unaccustomed to being at the epicenter of this sport.

“And Clemson has won two championships, and they deserve them. (Dabo Swinney) I think is a phenomenal coach. It’s a great program. But when faces of a program like that say stupid things like that, it’s demeaning to what the program has accomplished. And I’ve said this couple of times, I’m gonna say it again, Clemson just doesn’t know how to win yet. Maybe they will at some point, but not yet. And I hope that they can learn to deal with being No. 1 and being in the spotlight. Because so far, a lot of their comments and their behavior, both the last time two years ago and today, have been really embarrassing.”

Simpson’s comments appeared to be in direct response to Alabama LB Dylan Moses declining to call Clemson the better team in the national championship game (the Tigers beat the Crimson Tide 44-16) and calling Georgia the hardest team he faced in UA’s 2018 campaign. It’s unclear if Finebaum was aware that Simpson’s comments came after Moses’ comments made headlines.

LOTS of questions here at Media Day about the Alabama remarks about Clemson/Clemson not getting its credit. John Simpson says Notre Dame -not Bama- was the best team Clemson played.

— Grace Raynor (@gmraynor) July 17, 2019

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.