Ahead of the upcoming college football season, ESPN published an article Friday ranking the top 10 coaches in the sport.

Clemson’s Dabo Swinney cracked the top five, coming in at No. 4 behind Utah’s Kyle Whittingham at No. 3, Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer at No. 2 and Georgia’s Kirby Smart at No. 1.

ESPN determined its coach rankings by tallying points from a panel of 10 reporters’ votes for the top 10 coaches, on a scale of 10-1 with a first-place vote counting for 10 points and a 10th-place vote counting for one point.

Smart took the top spot with 100 points after getting all 10 first-place votes.

As for Swinney (50 points), ESPN noted that he got four votes for second place, but also wasn’t even included on four reporters’ ballots.

A couple of ESPN writers threw shade at Swinney in their reactions to the coach rankings, including Harry Lyles Jr., who wrote that Swinney’s No. 4 ranking “feels high” to him and “there’s a great argument” he shouldn’t be in the top 10.

“Dabo Swinney at No. 4 feels high to me, given his unwillingness to adjust to today’s game,” Lyles Jr. wrote. “I think he’s a great coach, and what he has done at Clemson is legendary work. They need to build a big statue of him on that campus at some point. But if you aren’t willing to do all the necessary things to compete at the highest level of the game, you can’t be top five. There’s a great argument you can’t be top 10 either, especially when one considers what those below Swinney have done and are doing.”

Meanwhile, Bill Connelly defended why he left Swinney out of the top 10, writing that “it has been a minute since he was a top-10 coach”:

“It all depends on the statute of limitations, right? If we’re judging coaches by their résumés, Swinney should be second on the list at worst. It’s hard to beat two national titles and seven ACC championships. But while he remains a very good head coach, it’s extremely difficult to make the case that he has been anywhere close to one of college football’s 10 best over the past three years. Clemson has finished 14th, 13th and 20th in the past three final AP polls and has retreated from national title contention to one conference title in three seasons and wins in the Cheez-It and Gator Bowls.

“Swinney’s refusal to adapt to the evolution in roster management, and his insistence on continuing to build through high school recruiting, is endearing in a way, but it has made Clemson far less nimble than other top programs when it comes to plugging holes from year to year. And right now, it appears that Clemson is merely a top-15 or top-20 program. Most still aspire to that, but it’s an unquestionable letdown for a program that once made six straight CFP appearances. Make no mistake: If we had ranked 15 coaches, I would have had Swinney on the list. But it has been a minute since he was a top-10 coach.”

Swinney, the first coach in program history to lead Clemson to multiple national championships, has compiled a 170-43 head coaching record entering his 17th season (and 16th full season) as the Tigers’ head coach in 2024.

Last season, when the Tigers went 9-4, Swinney passed Frank Howard for sole possession of the Clemson record for career head coaching wins, and also passed Bobby Bowden with his ACC-record 12th bowl victory.

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