After making his first College Football Playoff in years, Dabo Swinney seems to have gotten his confidence back. OK, I don't think the Clemson football coach ever really lost that confidence, but he got his fastball back.
For years, it felt like the Clemson brand was getting stale because of the head coach's inability to adjust to the times -- meaning mostly the transfer portal and NIL.
The Tigers' recruiting classes were lagging behind and Swinney was avoiding the transfer portal like the plague. He even said that guys in the portal were generally not good enough to compete for snaps at Clemson which was just flat-out wrong.
Swinney has since adjusted, utilizing the portal a little more and NIL doesn't seem to be an issue anymore, especially in the 2026 recruiting class.
Clemson had the No. 29 recruiting class in the country in 2025 which isn't quite to Swinney's standard, but the 2026 class shows that he has been reinvigorated as head coach. Making the playoff this past season seems to have reignited the fire under him. His 2026 class is ranked No. 2 in the nation so far.
That's right, the Tigers are up to 13 commitments after landing four-star defensive lineman Kameron Cody this past weekend and that's good enough for the second-best class in college football.
And there's still a long way to go.
While Swinney does currently have the No. 2 class, there's a chance he could land the No. 1 group if he can land some of his Plan A guys and finish with a class of about 23-25 guys, at least. Couple that with some quality portal additions and Swinney could finish with one of his best overall classes ever for 2026.
Make a playoff again in 2025 and sign a top-five class for 2026, and you will have a program back on top of the sport and ready to re-enter the glory days.