ESPN's rank for Dabo Swinney in top-10 coach 'national contenders' |
ESPN released a tiered ranking of the best coaches in college football, and two-time national champ Clemson coach
Dabo Swinney
is right at the top ($).
ESPN has Swinney in a top-10 "national contenders" tier at No. 2 overall behind Alabama's Nick Saban and ahead of Georgia's Kirby Smart. "Swinney took over a Clemson program that had become a frequent underachiever (and occasional punchline) and turned it into a national power," said ESPN's Adam Rittenberg. "Clemson made the CFP every season from 2015 to 2020, winning national titles in 2016 and 2018 and twice finishing as the national runner-up. Swinney has dominated the ACC with seven league titles and nine division titles, and his teams have won no less than 10 games since 2010. No one has consistently challenged Saban's Alabama teams on the national stage better than Swinney and Clemson." In the next tier of coaches are Miami's Mario Cristobal and UNC's Mack Brown. Wake Forest's Dave Clawson is listed among the overachievers in head coaches. Former Clemson offensive coordinator and new Florida head coach Billy Napier is among the rising young coaches off to a fast start. "Like Kirby Smart, Napier came from a coaching family in Georgia, and apprenticed under Saban at Alabama during a solid run as an assistant. He capitalized on his first head-coaching opportunity at Louisiana, guiding the Ragin' Cajuns to two league titles, four division titles and two AP top-16 finishes in an increasingly competitive Sun Belt. He set Louisiana's single-season wins record in each of his final two years there. Napier now gets the SEC opportunity he has been waiting for at title-starved Florida," said Rittenberg.
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