Clemson Football: Dabo Swinney is a top head coach in the country
Across the country, there are college football programs with some of the best coaches not only collegiately but in the entire game of football.
Among these coaches is Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney who, in his time with the Tigers, turned a great program into an elite program that competes year in and year out with the best competition in the country. The Dabo Swinney era of Clemson football has been, in many ways, incredible.
Though the Tigers haven’t been the national championship contender we’ve been used to them being over the past two seasons, the program remains one of the elites, with Swinney remaining one of the best coaches in the game today. PFF’s Max Chadwick recently released his top 25 head coaches in college football, with Swinney making the top 5.
Here is what Chadwick ranked Swinney and had to say about him and the other top 5 coaches.
While there’s certainly a conversation brewing between Saban and the next coach on this list, the Alabama leader gets the nod here for being the greatest college football coach of all time.
Saban has won a record seven national championships over his head coaching career, and the Crimson Tide have finished top 10 of the AP poll every year since 2008, his second season on the job. Even after losing Bryce Young, Will Anderson Jr. and both coordinators, Alabama is still second in odds to win it all next year. That’s a testament to Saban’s consistent dominance during his tenure in Tuscaloosa.
Smart and the Bulldogs just won their second-straight national championship, and the only head coach to accomplish that feat this century is the man above him on this list.
Making that even more impressive is the fact that Georgia had a record 15 players taken in the 2022 NFL Draft, including five in the first round. Even with that turnover, the Bulldogs still went a perfect 15-0 in 2022.
Like Saban, his former boss, Smart has constructed Georgia in a way that it never rebuilds, it just reloads. The Bulldogs are currently the betting favorites to win the national championship next season (+240). If they do, Georgia will become the first school since the Great Depression to win three straight (Minnesota from 1934-1936). After that, it’d be hard to not place Smart at the top of this list, even above the GOAT.
Harbaugh has led Michigan to back-to-back Big Ten championships and College Football Playoff appearances. Perhaps more importantly to Wolverines fans, they’ve also beaten arch-rival Ohio State twice in a row. Before that, the last time Michigan won the Big Ten was in 2004 and the last time the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes was in 2011.
The next step for Harbaugh is to bring home a national championship to his alma mater. With one of the best rosters in the country next year, there’s a good chance he’ll do so.
Although the last two years haven’t been up to the Clemson standard, it’s important to contextualize how elite of a standard it is.
Clemson finished in the top 10 of the AP poll for seven-straight seasons until 2021. Before Swinney took over, the Tigers last did that in 1990. Clemson has won seven of the last eight ACC championships and a couple national titles under Swinney as well (2016 and 2018). With the best offensive coordinator in the country on his payroll in Garrett Riley and a quarterback with sky-high potential in Cade Klubnik, Swinney could get back to his elite ways this season.
f you’re a quarterback, you’re going to want to play for Lincoln Riley. Three of the last six Heisman Trophy winners have been his signal-callers, including this past year’sCaleb Williams.
Notable quarterbacks under Lincoln Riley since 2017
*projected 2024 NFL Draft
In five years at Oklahoma, Riley won four Big 12 championships and brought the Sooners to the College Football Playoff three times. In his first season at USC, the Trojans went 11-3 and were one win away from making the College Football Playoff. The year before he got there, USC went 4-8. With the reigning Heisman winner returning, Riley should have the Trojans knocking on the door of the College Football Playoff once again.
