On Wednesday, CBS Sports released its ranking of the top 25 Power Five college football coaches entering the 2022 season.
After a panel of CBS Sports’ college football experts cast their ballots, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney came out ranked as the No. 3 coach on the list, behind Alabama’s Nick Saban at No. 1 and Georgia’s Kirby Smart at No. 2.
Swinney fell one spot from his ranking of No. 2 on CBS Sports’ coaches ranking in 2021, and CBS Sports Writer Tom Fornelli does not agree with Swinney dropping in the rankings behind Smart — who was ranked No. 7 last year before taking Swinney’s previous spot at No. 2 after leading Georgia to the national title last season.
“This is the worst ranking of the year, and it’s nothing but recency bias,” Fornelli wrote regarding Swinney’s ranking. “There are two coaches in the sport today who have won multiple national titles, and Swinney is one of them. He’s won two at Clemson, but last season, in what’s considered a “down year” by the standards Swinney himself set, the Tigers “only” won 10 games and failed to win the ACC. Nevermind that it was the 11th straight season Swinney’s Clemson team won 10+ games or the first time they’d failed to reach the College Football Playoff since 2014. I don’t mean this as disrespect to Smart, who took Swinney’s spot at No. 2, but this is a failure by my fellow panelists.”
Under Swinney, Clemson has appeared in the College Football Playoff six times, made it to the national championship game four times and won two national titles. In the CFP era, only Saban and Alabama have more CFP appearances (seven), national title game apperances (six) and national titles (three).
Last season, Swinney guided Clemson to its 11th consecutive season of at least 10 wins. Florida State (14 from 1987-2000) and Alabama (14 from 2008-21) are the only other programs ever to post 11 consecutive 10-win seasons.
With Clemson’s victory over Iowa State in the Cheez-It Bowl to conclude last season, Swinney earned his 150th career win in his 14th season (including an interim stint in 2008) to move past Barry Switzer (149) for sole possession of the third-most wins through the first 15 seasons of a coaching career in FBS history. He also joined Urban Meyer (165) and Bob Stoops (160) as the only coaches in FBS history to win 150 games in the first 15 seasons of a head coaching career.
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