Once again, the folks up in Bristol just don’t get it.
If you bleed orange and spend your Saturdays in the shadow of the Blue Ridge, ESPN’s latest so-called analysis isn’t just off base—it’s downright insulting. Bill Connelly just released his rankings of the best college football coaches of the 2020s, and if you’re searching for the man who brought two shiny national championship trophies home to the Upstate, you’ll be searching a long time.
Dabo Swinney—seven College Football Playoff trips, a resume that stacks up with any legend in the sport—completely left off the list.
Short Memories and Shiny Objects
The national media must have a serious case of amnesia. Winning it all in 2016 and 2018, leading the Tigers to six straight Playoffs—none of that seems to matter when there are flashier names to hype up.
Connelly’s list puts Indiana’s Curt Cignetti at No. 1 and SMU’s Rhett Lashlee at No. 2. While the so-called experts are busy swooning over a couple of good years in Dallas, they’re turning a blind eye to the gold standard set in Death Valley.
“Rhett Lashlee ranks second overall thanks to his stellar run at SMU,” Connelly wrote. “Even with a slight step backward in 2025, his Mustangs have ranked between 12th and 24th in SP+ for the past three seasons, a mammoth achievement for a school that hadn’t pulled off a top-25 rating since 1984 and had averaged an 88.0 ranking since returning from the death penalty in 1989. Seeing him in second might feel shocking, but it shouldn’t.”
Is it shocking? Not really. Is it disrespectful? You better believe it.
The Path Back to the Top
Let’s call it like it is—we’re Tigers, and we don’t sugarcoat. Last year’s 7-6 finish and that Pinstripe Bowl loss to Penn State? Not the Clemson standard. But writing off Dabo Swinney? That’s just foolish. Only Alabama has more Playoff trips than Clemson. That’s the company we keep.
The climb back to the top starts now, and it starts with a familiar face. Dabo brought Chad Morris back to spark an offense that sputtered last fall. And wouldn’t you know it, Connelly is already hedging his bets on the reunion.
“Hiring an old friend, as Dabo Swinney has done here, frequently fails to generate the success of the first go-round, and Morris hasn’t pulled the strings for a good college offense since 2017,” Connelly wrote. “But after Clemson stumbled from 16th to 65th in offensive SP+ last season, odds still favor Morris overseeing improvement.”
September Can’t Come Fast Enough
If the experts want to put James Franklin at 16 or Lane Kiffin at 8 ahead of a coach with two national titles, that’s on them. The Tigers have always preferred to settle things where it counts—on the field.
We’ll see Lane Kiffin and his LSU crew down in Baton Rouge on September 5. Bobby Petrino and North Carolina come to the Valley on September 19. And James Franklin’s Virginia Tech team visits in October. The schedule is set. The stage is ours.Dabo Swinney doesn’t need a spot on some summer ESPN list. He’s got the rings, he’s got the recruits, and now he’s got the best motivation of all. The national media just handed Clemson its biggest chip on the shoulder in ten years.e.
Go ahead, ESPN. Keep doubting. We prefer it that way.