Dabo Swinney has long been one of the best coaches in college football. Despite a brief lull when NIL and the transfer portal really kicked in, Clemson remains a genuine top-tier program. He hasn't won a title in seven years, but Swinney has kept the Tigers the cream of the crop in the ACC.
Where does that leave him in terms of all the college coaches since 2000? Near the top. Swinney ranked third on Pat Forde's list with Sports Illustrated, behind only Nick Saban and Urban Meyer. He outranked an interesting name, Kirby Smart, who has two titles since 2020.
Forde said, "He had a Sabaneque run from 2015 to ’20, making six straight playoffs, playing in four championship games and winning two of them. What happened before and after that stretch was awfully strong as well, with seven other seasons of double-digit victories."
Swinney's titles are the only ones won outside the Big Ten and SEC since 2013, so his championships are perhaps a little more weighty than most. "Swinney has almost pulled up alongside Bobby Bowden as the all-time greatest Atlantic Coast Conference coach, and at age 55, should have many good years left in him—including this season, when many predict the Tigers will be a top-five team," Forde concluded.
Swinney briefly looked as if the transfer portal and NIL era, two things he tried to stay out of and remain true to the old identity of the sport, would overwhelm him and leave him and his program a relic of a bygone era. Clearly, as Clemson enters a top-10 team again ahead of 2025, that's not the case.