Clemson Tigers Rise In Latest Edition of AP Top 25 Poll After Bounce Back Game

The Clemson Tigers are climbing their way back up.

Brian Bishop-Imagn Images

The Clemson Tigers earned a big bounce-back road win over the Virginia Tech Hokies on the road this week on the heels of the embarrassing beatdown the week prior at home against the Louisville Cardinals.

Last week, Clemson's ugly showing saw them take a massive step back in the polls from No. 11 all the way down to No. 19 in the AP Top 25. But after the big conference road victory over the Hokies, the Tigers have started to climb their way back in a positive direction, up two spots to No. 17. Unfortunately for Clemson however, the College Football Playoff rankings - which released their first version of the season last week - were not quite as kind.

The Tigers wound up at No. 23 in last week's CFP rankings and the new edition will be released this week on Tuesday night.

Clemson now sits at 7-2 on the season and 6-1 in conference play. The Louisville defeat appeared last week to put the Tigers behind the eight ball with regards to their hopes to make the ACC title game and a chance to make the CFP, but a Miami loss to Georgia Tech this week throws a bit of a wrench into things and the Tigers now sit in second place behind SMU and ahead of the Hurricanes.

Clemson wraps up conference play next week with what now looks like their biggest game of the season with a road trip at Pittsburgh against a ranked Panthers team that has been one of the surprises of the conference so far this year.

The playoff ranking will be very telling on Tuesday of what the committee thinks of the Tigers ahead of their conference finale, but for the moment it appears that no matter what the number is, Clemson is in control of its own destiny heading down the stretch of what has been a roller coaster of a season for Dabo Swinney and the Tigers.