Clemson football: Dabo Swinney will pass hall of fame coaches in 2020

Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney will pass some well-known coaches during the 2020 football season.

Unless you are living under a rock or simply refuse to admit to the greatness that is Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney, his 130 wins since 2008 means he is on track to becoming the greatest coach in college football history.

He is currently on pace to be the all-time wins leader in major college football should he decide to stick around that long. Coach Swinney has said many times he will coach as long as Clemson will have him, though someone will gladly pick him up should that ever happen.

With the expectations that Clemson has before them in 2020, we will see Coach Swinney pass some pretty prominent members of all the all-time college football wins club at various points throughout the season.

You’ll notice at all of the various win totals, it could take less for Coach Swinney to move up another spot.

With three wins this season, Coach Swinney will pass former UNLV and USC (the real USC) coach John Robinson.

Coach Robinson led USC to five conference titles and the 1978 Coaches’ National title during his two stints Los Angeles. He coached the Rams for eight seasons in between. He last coached UNLV from 1999-2004.

He ended his coaching career with 132 wins.

George O’Leary

Coach O’Leary is well known to Clemson football fans from his tenure at Georgia Tech in the ACC from 1995-2001. He is well known throughout college football for taking his dream job at Notre Dame and being fired shortly thereafter for a lie that was caught on his resume by a local media person in South Bend.

After spending several years in the NFL, he took the head coaching job at the University of Central Florida where he coached for more than a decade.

During his coaching tenure, he won five conference titles and was the National Coach of the Year in 2000.

When O’Leary retired in 2015, he had accumulated 133 wins.

Mark Dantonio

Coach Dantonio is a former Nick Saban disciple that abruptly retired just a couple months ago after national signing day. He was nearly 50 when he got his first opportunity to be a college head coach in 2004 at the University of Cincinnati.

From 2007-2020, he was the head coach at Michigan State where he was named the Big Ten coach of the year twice and won three Big Ten titles.

From 2004 until the end of the 2019 college football season, he accumulated a record of 132-74.

Should Clemson football win 12 games during the 2020 college football season, Coach Swinney will pass several more of the great all-time coaches in major college football history.

Charles McClendon

Charles McClendon spent his entire career as a head coach at LSU. During his 18 years at the helm of the Tigers, he won 137 games and one SEC Championship. He was the 1970 coach of the year and was elected into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986.

Wallace “Wally” Butts

Butts was the head coach at UGA from 1939-1960 and was their Athletic Director from 1948-1963.

During his time as the Bulldogs head coach, he won 140 games, four SEC titles, and the 1948 National Title. Butts was also a three-time SEC coach of the year and has been elected into both the Georgia-Florida Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.

Howard Schnellenberger

Coach Howard Schnellenberger is best known for bringing the Miami Hurricanes to prominence after taking over the job in 1979.

Under his direction, Miami became “The U” and he helped guide them into one of the national powerhouses in college football after winning the 1983 National title.

During his time as a college football coach, he led the programs at Miami, Louisville, Oklahoma and helped start the program at Florida Atlantic in 1999.

He accumulated 141 wins and was 1983 National Coach of the Year.

Coach Swinney will enter the 2020 Clemson football season 100th on the all-time coaching wins list. Should Clemson go 15-0 and win a third national title under his guidance, he will finish the year 69th all-time.