In the late 2010s, Nick Saban’s primary rival in college football coaching was Dabo Swinney. Leading the Clemson Tigers, Swinney participated in four national championships over five years, securing titles in 2016 and 2018. Clemson’s strength persisted with a College Football Playoff (CFP) appearance in 2024.
However, The Athletic recently dropped Swinney in their ranking of college coaches due to Clemson’s challenging 2025 season. Entering the season as No. 4, the Tigers struggled early, losing to LSU, Georgia Tech, and Syracuse, causing their record to plummet to 3-5. Although they managed to win their last four games, securing a spot in a bowl game, they lost the postseason Pinstripe Bowl to Penn State.
Analyzing Clemson’s performance over the past decade highlights a trend of increasing losses. From consistently losing one or two games per season, the record shifted to two or three losses, then four, and last season reached six. This shift indicates an ongoing trend that Chris Vannini of The Athletic believes might continue.
Dabo Swinney drops out of the top tier for the first time since this exercise began. He has two national titles, but the last one was eight years ago. The Tigers have one CFP appearance in the last five years, and last season’s 7-6 record was Swinney’s worst since 2010. You can’t deny the highs, but the Tigers aren’t close to the bar he set and are trending downward.
The decline is especially frustrating as Brent Venables, Swinney’s former defensive coordinator, successfully led the Oklahoma Sooners to last year’s CFP. Despite a significant home loss to Alabama, the Sooners, led by quarterback John Mateer, remain optimistic.
In contrast, Clemson’s prospects are less promising. This year marks the first time in 15 years that the Tigers won’t start the season with a ranking. Even Nick Saban does not expect much from Clemson this season.
I think we’ll see if they’re back. I know they’ve got a lot of question marks too, whether it’s quarterback, and they got a lot of holes to fill. I mean, everybody thought they were going to be, you know, the class of the town last year, and it just completely disintegrated on them.
If the current trend continues, Swinney’s reputation may suffer further.