CBS Sports ranked the top 25 Power 4 coaches ahead of the 2026 college football season, and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney is no longer in the top 10.

A panel of 10 voters at CBS Sports came up with the coaches ranking, and Swinney landed at No. 11 – down eight spots from where he was, at No. 3, when CBS Sports ranked Power 4 coaches entering the 2025 season.

Here’s what CBS Sports wrote about Swinney, who is entering his 19th season (and 18th full season) as Clemson’s head coach in 2026:

“It seems the respect for Dabo’s past accomplishments has begun to wane among our panel. Swinney has won two national titles, so I don’t know how one of our voters can truly justify ranking him 28th (nobody else had him lower than 15th), but none of us can ignore recent results, either. Swinney has been slow or unwilling to adapt to the sport as it has evolved, and it’s having an adverse effect on Clemson’s performance on the field.”

Swinney has a career head coaching record of 187-53. He is Clemson’s all-time winningest coach, the winningest coach in ACC history and the first coach to lead the Tigers to multiple national championships. The Tigers have won nine ACC titles under Swinney, including eight in the last 11 seasons, while he has guided Clemson to seven College Football Playoff appearances.

Swinney’s four national championship game appearances are more than any other active coach, and Swinney and Georgia’s Kirby Smart are the only active coaches with multiple national titles. In 13 of the last 15 years, Swinney’s Clemson program has won 10-plus games. However, the Tigers have won fewer than 10 in two of the last three years while making the playoff just once in the last five seasons following a remarkable run of six straight playoff appearances from 2015-20.

Now, Swinney’s Tigers head into the upcoming campaign hoping to bounce back from a 7-6 record in 2025, the second-worst season in Swinney’s tenure at Clemson.

CBS Sports’ Cody Nagel made a bold prediction for each ACC team ahead the upcoming season, and for Clemson, Nagel predicted that “2026 will mark the end of the Swinney era.”

CBS Sports also ranked the 10 college football coaches “under the most pressure” in 2026, including Swinney. Additionally, CBS Sports published an article on the college football coaching carousel, and Swinney was listed among 25 coaches “to keep an eye on when the carousel starts spinning in 2026” and who “could be on the move after the 2026 season.”

The Athletic predicted the head coach for each Power 4 program in 2030. For Clemson, the Tigers’ projected coach in 2030 is not Swinney, but instead … current SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee.

Swinney and his Tigers will open the 2026 season against the LSU Tigers on Sept. 5 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La. (7:30 p.m., ABC).

It will mark the LSU head coaching debut for Lane Kiffin after he was hired this past November to replace Brian Kelly, who was fired in October. Kiffin checked in at No. 9 in CBS Sports’ Power 4 coaches ranking entering the 2026 campaign.

“Lane Kiffin shies away from the spotlight as much as possible, but darn it, that doesn’t stop us from recognizing his abilities as a coach!” CBS Sports wrote. “OK, so, in all seriousness, a lot of things can be said about Kiffin and how he handles his business off the field. There aren’t nearly as many things that can be said about his ability as a coach other than “he’s pretty damn good at it.” He left a program that he had in the playoffs for one he believes gives him a better chance to win a national title. That means he’d better do it (and soon), or he could suffer the same fate as the LSU coach who we had ranked in the top 10 at this time last year, too.”

Indiana’s Curt Cignetti is No. 1 in the coaches ranking after leading the Hoosiers to their first-ever national title in football last season. Georgia’s Smart, Ohio State’s Ryan Day, Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman and Oregon’s Dan Lanning round out the top five, in that order.

Coming off a national title game appearance last season, Miami’s Mario Cristobal is the highest-ranked ACC coach at No. 7. Along with Swinney, other ACC coaches in the top 25 include Virginia Tech’s James Franklin (No. 13), SMU’s Lashlee (No. 15) and Louisville’s Jeff Brohm (No. 24).