Dabo Swinney makes Mt. Rushmore of CFB Coaches for national outlet |
Clemson head football coach
Dabo Swinney has etched his name into the record books, and to one national writer, he is in the top four coaches of all-time.
The Athletic assembled the Mount Rushmore of college football coaches, and Swinney made that group of four for The Athletic's Ari Wasserman ($). "This one is out there. I know it is," said Wasserman. "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." Swinney has exactly 170 wins going into the 2024 campaign, having notched two national titles (2016, 2018), eight ACC titles (2011, 2015-20, 2022), and six College Football Playoff appearances (2015-20). He is one of three active coaches in FBS football with a national title (Kirby Smart and Mack Brown, the others) and one of two with multiple (Smart, the other). Wasserman's entire Mt. Rushmore of coaches is Nick Saban, Pete Carroll, Woody Hayes and Swinney. Wasserman was joined on the article by David Ubben, who had a Top 4 of Saban, Bill Snyder, Knute Rockne and Eddie Robinson.
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