Dabo Swinney is not only the Clemson football program’s best head coach of all time, but he is also one of college football’s best.
Since Swinney took over the Tigers program, Clemson has had the best run it has ever had, and by a wide margin. Swinney’s presence changed the trajectory of this program and helped develop it into a multi-time National Championship winner and consistent contender.
Considering Swinney’s excellent resume, which includes two National Championship wins, both against Nick Saban and Alabama, and eight ACC Championships, there truly aren’t many as impressive as Swinney. According to the Athletic’s ($$$) latest article naming college football’s Mount Rushmore of coaches, Swinney made Ari Wasserman’s list.
This one is out there. I know it is. And I had a hard time adding him to this list because his inability to adapt in the portal era is leading to a Clemson slide. But how many other coaches in the modern era of college football have taken a solid program and turned it into an absolute juggernaut? Has anyone even come close to doing what he did? Every single coaching hire that’s made in the sport now is done so with the hopes that coach can duplicate what Swinney did with Clemson. There are other coaches out there with more national titles and more wins, sure, but the baseline fact that he accomplished something that nobody else has done recently still blows me away. I’m very opinionated about some of the things he says and how he approaches his job in 2024, but nobody can ever take away what he built at Clemson. I admire him greatly for that.
While it may be out there, it’s tough to argue against Swinney’s work at Clemson. Many people aren’t on board with Swinney’s portal-era track record, which I get. Even so, watching how wild and seemingly unregulated the portal era has been, Swinney sticking to what he believes is impressive in its own right.
Clemson has one of the best coaches in the history of the game.