Clemson football: Dabo’s place in coaches rankings

I’m not a big rankings guy.  How’s that for starting off a post I’d like you to read about…rankings of college football coaches and Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney’s place in said rankings.?

Dabo came in third in the CBS College Football Experts Power 5 Coaching Rankings poll that came out recently, behind Nick Saban and Kirby Smart.

Coming in third of sixty-five isn’t bad, but Tom Fornelli thought it was “the worst ranking of the year.”

"Dabo Swinney: This is the worst ranking of the year, and it’s nothing but recency bias. There are two coaches in the sport today who have won multiple national titles, and Swinney is one of them. He’s won two at Clemson, but last season, in what’s considered a “down year” by the standards Swinney himself set, the Tigers “only” won 10 games and failed to win the ACC. Nevermind that it was the 11th straight season Swinney’s Clemson team won 10+ games or the first time they’d failed to reach the College Football Playoff since 2014. I don’t mean this as disrespect to Smart, who took Swinney’s spot at No. 2, but this is a failure by my fellow panelists. 2021 rank: 2 (-1)"

Given everyone acknowledges Saban is number one until he retires and the guy ranked second just won the National Championship, I don’t have an issue with Dabo at three, especially when you have already acknowledged there is no set criteria and there is some turnover in the voters every year.

"Well, volatility will always play a role in the process because our group of voters, consisting of writers from both CBS Sports and 247Sports, aren’t given a set of guidelines to follow. We just rank coaches from 1-65 using any criteria we choose to follow, and then we see the results. Some value accomplishments on the field above all else, while others may give greater weight to recruiting prowess or the possibility of future success."

Personally, I’d put Dabo second, but I get that I’m likely biased towards the Clemson head coach. What I think is interesting is perhaps there’s something else at play here: an assumption that Georgia will win more National Championships.

The Dogs certainly could win another championship, but I wouldn’t assume it.  The last time we looked, Alabama and 90% of the nation assumed the Tide’s best team ever in 2018 would steam roll Clemson.  We all know how that turned out.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 4416 times:  You shouldn’t assume anything about college football.