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Clemson Football: Tigers get bulletin board material from Paul Finebaum

By Geoffrey Knox

TAMPA, FL - JANUARY 09: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide talks with head coach Dabo Swinney of the Clemson Tigers after the Tigers defeated the Crimson Tide 35-31 in the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship Game at Raymond James Stadium on January 9, 2017 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
TAMPA, FL - JANUARY 09: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide talks with head coach Dabo Swinney of the Clemson Tigers after the Tigers defeated the Crimson Tide 35-31 in the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship Game at Raymond James Stadium on January 9, 2017 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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Paul Finebaum isn’t overly-excited about Clemson football‘s recent championship or their coach. Recently he made some comments concerning both.

Could a budding rivalry be brewing between the Tigers and the Tide? It may seem unlikely to some, but it isn’t totally out of the question. Seeing the Clemson Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide lock horns to decide the College Football Playoff National Championship for a third straight season isn’t an impossibility.

The hatred that exists between the Tigers and the South Carolina Gamecocks isn’t news. The same can be said for the animosity that resides in the ongoing war between the Tide and the Auburn Tigers. What wasn’t expected was some bad blood spilling onto the gridiron as a result of Clemson and Alabama meeting in two title games, but that’s exactly what may have happened.

Now it appears Paul Finebaum may have fanned the flames.

Finebaum is a fixture on ESPN’s SEC Network. He’s also a legendary radio personality and sports author. His opinion holds a ton of weight for an abundance of sports fans, particularly those in the southeast. With that being said, it’s no surprise his comments related to a caller on his show allegedly equating Dabo Swinney to Nick Saban have a few Tigers fans hot under the caller.

A caller gets Finebaum heated:

Team takeovers on the SEC Network prevented any of us from seeing it live, but TigerNet.com  posted the audio. Here’s some of what Finebaum had to say in reference to the caller’s statement:

"“How can you put Dabo in the same sentence as Nick Saban? Who died and made Dabo Swinney the greatest coach of all time? He’s got one national championship, ok? I don’t understand this.” He didn’t stop there. He took a shot at the entire fanbase stating “Since when did Clemson become the ‘it’ school in the universe? I’ve never heard a more intoxicated fan base in my life.”"

A little motivation?

It’s long been debated as to whether or not coaches pay attention to this kind of stuff. Swinney put an end to those questions in his post game interview following his team’s final victory of the season. “Ask Ohio State if we’re a fraud” he belted as he took a little time to answer some criticism his team had received from one of the most popular and well-known voices in sports talk radio, Colin Cowherd.

Next: 10 biggest CFB scandals of the century

Coaches pay attention. They act like they don’t, but they do. The last time a popular sports media personality took a shot at Clemson, they used that as motivation and rode the wave to some pretty positive results. Could Finebaum’s comments spark a similar type of run? We’ll have to wait and see what happens.

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