Three-Point Stance: Clemson's resilience, Charlie Strong, regrets

Today’s edition looks at Clemson's resilience, Charlie Strong's predicament and my five biggest five-star regrets.

RELATED: College football's breakout stars from Week 5 | Rivals.com Five-Star Club

The reason I picked Clemson to win the national title this season was on display Saturday night in front of an amazing crowd against Louisville. If I could sum it up in one word it would be this: resilience. Deshaun Watson is great, the offense is loaded with weapons and I loved the defense despite the losses. But what I loved the most about the Tigers was that they had been in tight games before and always showed fight.

That’s exactly what we saw Saturday against the amazing Lamar Jackson and a super-talented Louisville team. Watson didn’t have his best game and numerous mistakes were made on both sides of the ball, but against a team that is as good as any it will face this season, Clemson still found a way to win.

Oh, and the Tigers did it in front of a ton of recruits that can’t help but be influenced by what they saw and experienced. Three of the top five prospects in the 2018 class - quarterback Trevor Lawrence, defensive end Xavier Thomas and running back Zamir White - were all on hand for the big game and Clemson has a great shot at all three.

Betting against Clemson when it comes to landing five-star prospects is not smart lately as the Tigers have signed seven such prospects since 2014 behind only Alabama (15), Florida State (9), USC (8) and tied with Tennessee and Auburn. What makes Clemson's success with five-star prospects even more impressive is that all of those other programs listed have had more fertile recruiting home territories than the Palmetto State. In fact, of the Tigers' seven five-stars, none have come from in-state. No other program mentioned above can make the same claim. Impressive stuff.

Charlie Strong’s seat is very hot for many reasons, but the biggest is the opening at LSU. Now that the Tigers have parted ways with Les Miles, they are now the leading contender to steal rising star Tom Herman away from the Houston Cougars. But the Longhorns' powers-that-be and big-time boosters know that Herman has been interested in the Texas job from the moment he landed in Houston. It won't be pretty if Texas decides to hang onto Strong through another average season while fans and alumni watch Herman head to the SEC.

Strong needs to beat Oklahoma this weekend, we all know that, but he also needs to nearly run the table and get to nine wins. That would mean his team, which can’t cover or tackle anyone, would have to corral offenses like Baylor and TCU if the Longhorns can somehow get past the Sooners.

A losing season could be in the works here based on what we’ve seen in the last two games. How can Texas truly expect to beat the Sooners, Bears, Horned Frogs or even potent offensive teams like Texas Tech and West Virginia?

Recruiting will be impacted greatly with Texas athletic director Mike Perrin coming out and saying everything will be evaluated. I can’t see any way Strong survives the year and I see Herman as the next coach in Austin, where he will bring a national title back to the Longhorns.

It's Five-Star Week here at Rivals.com, so I thought I’d share my five greatest regrets when it comes to prospects not earning that fifth star. Keep in mind that a few of these were well beyond my decision-making capacity at the time, but I was still part of the equation.

1.) RB Todd Gurley – This one is on me. I was not only in charge of national rankings at the time but also in charge of the Mid-Atlantic region and North Carolina. I liked Gurley a lot and Rivals.com was the only site to have him ranked ahead of the more popular North Carolina back that year in Keith Marshall, but I knew when we finished ranking that I would regret this one. I tried to get Gurley into the Army Bowl that year as a member of the selection committee but the roster was full. If he had played at Army, he would have been a surefire five-star, but either way I take the blame.

2.) WR Dez Bryant – I wasn’t in charge of the national rankings nor was I in charge of Texas in 2007, but I certainly had a voice and I wanted Bryant to be a five-star. And I wasn’t the only one. He ended up at No. 54 in the country and No. 9 at wide receiver behind some good ones (Chris Culliver, Arrelious Benn) and some duds (Terrance Toliver, Duval Kamara), but the film I saw on Bryant was every bit as good if not better than A.J. Green’s film the next year and we had him No. 9 in the nation. Academics and some stubbornness at the top led to this bad call.

3.) LB Brian Cushing – I was one of the national guys the year Cushing came out and was in charge of New Jersey and I pushed hard for him to be a five-star. In the end, I was shot down and Cushing was ranked No. 53 in the country. A stellar career at USC, a first-round pick by the Texans and an NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honor was enough for me to give a few “I told you so’s” over the next many years.

4.) RB LeSean McCoy – McCoy was a five-star at one point, but after a horrific broken ankle, I broke down, with some help from others, and dumped him down to a four-star and No. 43 in the country in 2006. It didn’t help when he regressed a bit in prep school and shared time at running back at Milford Academy, but he still wasn’t 100 percent. I should have stuck to my guns and kept him as a five-star since the ankle injury was never career-threatening. He’s proven to be a five-star talent.

5.) TE Aaron Hernandez – Sounds crazy to say right? I pushed a future convicted murderer to be a five-star prospect. But back then, Hernandez was just an amazing talent from my home state who dominated at every level. He destroyed the competition in Connecticut as expected, he was awesome at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and he was much better than Aron White, who ended up being our No. 1 tight end that year. Hernandez finished No. 66 in 2007 and it was a lack of respect for New England football or some people thinking I was pushing a local kid who played in my old conference to be higher than he should be. But I knew he was an amazing talent. I just didn’t know everything else at the time.