In this week’s edition of hot takes, I’ll be discussing the disrespect shown towards Clemson in the latest AP poll and the Carolina Panthers dilemma at QB. 

The absolute disrespect shown towards Clemson in the last AP poll shows that so far this year it has seemed like almost everyone has had it out for the orange and purple. The Tigers, who are undefeated, fell to No. 3 two weeks ago after LSU beat then no.7 Florida by 14 points. 

This is not a crazy fall after Clemson struggled against a UNC team who was unranked in Week 5 and has a less than impressive resume so far this season, but the AP poll released October 20th has Clemson at No. 4, behind Ohio State. This is the ultimate disrespect shown to Clemson, who started the season at No.1 for the simple fact that Ohio State has a worse strength of schedule so far and has done nothing overly impressive to make the jump over the Tigers. 

As it has been in years past, there is little to no movement in the AP poll throughout the year if the top teams stay undefeated, so why are the Tigers falling? It’s simple: the press is clearly tired of seeing the same teams atop the college football rankings and see Clemson as a scapegoat when it comes to changing things up. No matter how the press feels, Clemson is a top 3 team in college football and should be respected as such.

Clemson is not the only football team in the Carolinas generating buzz. The Carolina Panthers started the season 0-2 and had to bench former MVP Cam Newton due to a foot injury. While many thought the Panthers season was over after the benching of Cam Newton, back-up QB Kyle Allen and the rest of the Panthers have certainly proven those doubters wrong. The Panthers have gone on a 4-game winning streak since backup QB Kyle Allen stepped in. 

Normally the backup QB fills in for the starter for however long it takes, and once the starter becomes healthy again, he reclaims his job. This may not be the case for Cam Newton who has been battling injury over the past two seasons and has played pretty abysmally for someone of his talents. Not only is Cam Newton not looking very good as a QB option at the moment but Kyle Allen is looking great in his time as a starter and has the whole league buzzing about his story going from undrafted to being undefeated as a starter. It’s not only the fact that Kyle Allen has yet to lose as the starting QB, but it’s also his impressive skills as Allen has yet to throw an interception in his career in the NFL. With all this being said, some still have raised the question of what the Panthers should do when Cam Newton is healthy again. I believe the answer to be simple, the Panthers should stay with Kyle Allen. The 23 year old has looked pretty good in his 4 starts this season and has done nothing so far to lead us to believe that he won’t continue to play great. As for Cam Newton, if he does get healthy again but the Panthers decide to stick with Kyle Allen, he will likely be traded away, seeing that he does have 1 year left on his contract.