ESPN analyst says 'it has been a minute' since Dabo Swinney was Top 10 coach

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is seen as not even a Top 10 coach by one ESPN analyst, but he ended up voted fourth by the outlet overall.

by TigerNet Staff - Fri Apr 05 11:26:46 GMT-04:00 2024

It's the offseason, and the hot takes are flowing. The latest? ESPN assessments that Dabo Swinney might not even be a Top 10 coach in college football right now.

The go-to outlet for the College Football Playoff came together to rank Dabo Swinney as the No. 4 coach overall, but that wasn't without some consternation.

"Dabo Swinney at No. 4 feels high to me, given his unwillingness to adjust to today's game. I think he's a great coach, and what he has done at Clemson is legendary work. They need to build a big statue of him on that campus at some point. But if you aren't willing to do all the necessary things to compete at the highest level of the game, you can't be top five. There's a great argument you can't be top 10 either, especially when one considers what those below Swinney have done and are doing," said ESPN's Harry Lyles Jr.

And ESPN's Bill Connelly makes just that argument as he didn't vote for Swinney in his Top 10.

"It all depends on the statute of limitations, right? If we're judging coaches by their résumés, Swinney should be second on the list at worst," Connelly said. "It's hard to beat two national titles and seven ACC championships. But while he remains a very good head coach, it's extremely difficult to make the case that he has been anywhere close to one of college football's 10 best over the past three years. Clemson has finished 14th, 13th and 20th in the past three final AP polls and has retreated from national title contention to one conference title in three seasons and wins in the Cheez-It and Gator Bowls.

"Swinney's refusal to adapt to the evolution in roster management, and his insistence on continuing to build through high school recruiting, is endearing in a way, but it has made Clemson far less nimble than other top programs when it comes to plugging holes from year to year. And right now, it appears that Clemson is merely a top-15 or top-20 program. Most still aspire to that, but it's an unquestionable letdown for a program that once made six straight CFP appearances. Make no mistake: If we had ranked 15 coaches, I would have had Swinney on the list. But it has been a minute since he was a top-10 coach."

ESPN's David Hale took up for the Tiger head coach and ranked Swinney third.

"The standard is so unbelievably high that even a stretch in which only a small handful of teams have been better is considered a failure," Hale said. "Yes, Swinney has kept some of the most recent shifts in the sport's landscape at arm's length, but despite the criticism and, yes, the missed playoffs, he has still churned out NFL talent, won a bunch of games and positioned Clemson, once again, to win the ACC and return to the new, expanded postseason."

ESPN's entire Top 10:

1. Kirby Smart, Georgia (100 points)

2. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama (62)

3. Kyle Whittingham, Utah (56)

4. Dabo Swinney, Clemson (50)

5. Mike Norvell, Florida State (49)

6. Dan Lanning, Oregon (37)

7. Steve Sarkisian, Texas (35)

8. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss (29)

9. Lance Leipold, Kansas (28)

10. Ryan Day, Ohio State (27)