Greg McElroy reveals his three biggest disappointment teams in college football

We’re already five weeks into the 2025 college football season, plenty enough time for some significant storylines to emerge. One of them is just how disappointing some teams have been.

ESPN analyst Greg McElroy sat down and discussed the three teams that have disappointed him most: Clemson, Florida and Penn State. He went into his reasoning on each.

Let’s start with the Tigers. Dabo Swinney‘s bunch has gotten off to a 1-3 start despite being pegged as a preseason Top 10 college football team.

“The biggest disappointments are probably pretty clear,” McElroy said on the Always College Football podcast. “Probably not going to be that surprised to know that Clemson, to me, has been one of the biggest disappointments of the season. I had them preseason No. 1. Totally missed on this one, completely. Really did.”

As college football has evolved, many have wondered if Swinney has evolved along with it. Some will point to his use of the transfer portal in recent months as a sign he has embraced some of the changes. Others aren’t so sold.

But one concrete area the Tigers are coming up short relative to their college football peers is on offense. It just hasn’t been good enough.

“I look at their quarterback in Cade Klubnik, who I thought was going to be one of the best quarterbacks in college football,” McElroy said. “Hasn’t materialized this year. I thought defensively, they’d be able to disrupt the quarterback’s timing and rhythm. That hasn’t happened as often as I’d hoped. They haven’t been very balanced offensively.

“They’re just a little out of sorts. Can Clemson get back and end up finishing with a decent record? Perhaps, but they are a far way away from where I thought they’d be coming into the season, knowing the returning production that they had on both sides of the ball.”

Add Penn State to the disappointments list

The outlier in McElroy’s most disappointing teams in college football in terms of record, Penn State, is only just now coming off a setback. That, of course, was an overtime loss to Oregon at home.

“We’ll go next to Penn State. You’re probably sitting there saying, ‘Hang on a second, they have one loss. That loss is in overtime to an elite football team,'” McElroy said. “Fair enough. But when I look at Penn State, they look exactly like they looked at times last year. That to me is what’s been disappointing.”

Like Clemson, the offense has been the primary source of angst in Happy Valley. It’s simply not executing at the level you would expect given the talent of the personnel in place.

“I have not seen the crazy progress offensively,” McElroy said. “I have not seen a newfound commitment to creating explosive plays offensively. I have not seen great progress made by Drew Allar, their quarterback. In some areas, I think he’s kind of regressed in a couple spots, as well.

“So I think Penn State, still everything in front of them, but I had them No. 2 in the preseason. Right now I wouldn’t have them in the top 10. Love their defense, think they battle. To give up only 17 points in regulation to an offense like Oregon says an awful lot about that group at all three levels. I think that’s a really good group. However, what’s holding Penn State back from national championship candidacy is high-level play offensively and being able to manufacture explosive plays. They couldn’t do it last year and so far we haven’t seen very much to believe that they can do it this year.”

Floundering Florida finishes the list

This one won’t require a whole lot of explanation. Florida won its final four games of the 2024 college football season and had an emerging star quarterback in DJ Lagway.

Someone needs to put out an APB for the latter, because he’s been totally missing this season. McElroy dialed in.

“Then lastly it’s Florida. I had them at No. 16 in the preseason,” he said. “To start the way they’ve started is really disappointing. And I don’t think I had them winning against LSU on the road, wouldn’t have had them winning on the road at Miami. Those two teams I loved, both had them in the top 10 there in the preseason. But losing to USF, and the big issue at Florida is how out of sorts they look offensively.

“Their identity is running the football. They haven’t been elite running the football. Their quarterback, DJ Lagway, was a top 10 quarterback coming into the season. He hasn’t played that way, not even close to reaching his potential. Here’s hoping they can get things back on track, but right now the three biggest disappointments in college football for me have been Clemson, Penn State and the Florida Gators.”