No surprise, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney leads the way in this national outlet’s ACC football coach rankings.

USA Today stacked up all 17 coaches in the ACC heading into the 2025 season, and as you’d expect, Swinney is slotted at No. 1.

Of course, Swinney is now entering his 18th season (and 17th full season) as Clemson’s head coach and enters the 2025 campaign as the program’s all-time winningest coach, the winningest coach in ACC history and the first coach to lead the Tigers to multiple national championships.

Clemson has won nine ACC titles under Swinney, including eight in the last 10 seasons, while he has guided the Tigers to seven College Football Playoff appearances during his tenure.

“Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” would be an appropriate soundtrack for Swinney’s career,” USA Today’s Blake Toppmeyer wrote. “His sign, develop and retain method still gets results. Clemson won the ACC last season after not adding a single transfer. Clemson did add a few transfers this offseason, but if you’re going to mostly kick it old school, do it with a coach who develops rosters as well as Swinney. At his peak, Swinney won 55 games and two national titles in a four-year span, behind great quarterbacks and wide receivers. He won’t recreate that, but Clemson remains nationally relevant.”

Louisville’s Jeff Brohm is No. 2 on the list, with SMU’s Rhett Lashlee, Florida State’s Mike Norvell and Miami’s Mario Cristobal rounding out the top five.

Clemson doesn’t play Miami during the 2025 regular season, but Swinney’s Tigers will square off against SMU/Lashlee (Oct. 18), Norvell/FSU (Nov. 8) and Brohm/Louisville (Nov. 14).

Other ACC coaches that Clemson will face off against during the upcoming regular season include Georgia Tech’s Brent Key (No. 6 in USA Today’s ranking), Duke’s Manny Diaz (No. 9), North Carolina’s Bill Belichick (No. 10), Syracuse’s Fran Brown (No. 11) and Boston College’s Bill O’Brien (No. 12).

Former Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott, now entering his fourth season as Virginia’s head coach, is ranked No. 16 ahead of Stanford interim coach Frank Reich.

“Elliott’s tenure shows no indications of progress, a bad sign for a coach entering his fourth season,” Toppmeyer wrote. “Virginia lost six of its final seven games last season, cranking up the hot-seat thermostat. Despite Elliott’s background as a successful offensive coordinator, his teams consistently struggle to score.  Elliott assembled a big batch of transfers for a final swing at this.”