Dabo Swinney no longer has a vote in the Coaches Poll, as he chose to withdraw from the poll this season for the first time in his head coaching career after the hoopla that occurred last season when he ranked Ohio State No. 11 in his final Top 25 ballot.
But if Clemson’s head coach still participated in the Coaches Poll, he would certainly vote for the Tigers as a Top-25 team this season.
“Absolutely. No question,” Swinney said during his press conference Tuesday. “I didn’t vote this year, though. This is the first time in my head coaching career. I opted out of that. 13 years of doing that. Just all the drama last year, it was a distraction for my team. Based on what I felt, I felt it was just something I could eliminate. Don’t matter anyway. Who cares.”
Clemson (7-3, 5-2 ACC) is currently unranked in the Coaches Poll and AP Top 25 as well as the College Football Playoff rankings.
In the latest Coaches Poll, the Tigers received just four votes, tied for the second-fewest among teams that received votes outside of the Top 25. Clemson didn’t receive any votes in the latest AP Poll.
Swinney feels that comes with the territory for his program, which, prior to this season, hadn’t been unranked in both the Coaches Poll and AP Top 25 since October 2014.
He also believes the Tigers being unranked says that people aren’t giving their opponents due credit, considering that Clemson’s three losses came to Georgia (No. 1 in both the Coaches Poll and AP Poll), Pittsburgh (No. 19 in the Coaches Poll, No. 20 in the AP Poll) and NC State (No. 24 in the Coaches Poll, No. 25 in the AP Poll).
“I think it just comes with who we are as a program,” Swinney said. “Nobody wants to give our opponents some credit. Georgia’s pretty good. Pretty good. I think we played them pretty good. They only scored three points on us. We scored the other seven. NC State’s pretty good, a pretty good team. At their place, double-overtime. Pitt’s pretty good. At their place, had our chance to win it.
“So, I think it’s more ‘Clemson stinks’ as opposed to the ‘opponents are good.’ I think that’s just something that kind of comes with who we are as a program, whether that’s fair or not. I just think we lost to some good teams that were better than us that day.”
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