David Pollack believes Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers are in store for a “big” 2025 season.

In an episode of his David Pollack College Football show, the ex-ESPN analyst and former Georgia/NFL linebacker weighed in on which college football coaches have the most to gain over the course of the upcoming campaign.

Among the coaches who came up in the discussion was Swinney – one of three active coaches with an FBS national championship (Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Ohio State’s Ryan Day) and one of only two with multiple national championships (Smart).

Based on the dialogue during Pollack’s show, the reasoning for Swinney being one of the coaches with “the most to gain in 2025” is that if he were to win another national title, it would be the “ultimate mic drop” for Swinney, so to speak, as far as proving that his way of doing things works in this crazy era of college football.

“Dabo obviously there for a different reason,” Pollack said. “But I think Dabo’s lost the luster, and people now question whether he is that guy. Dabo has two championships. Kirby has two. That’s the list of active coaches that have two. Like, they are in a league of their own.”

Pollack went on to say that he thinks “a lot of the ingredients that made Dabo and company successful are starting to come back into place.”

“Not wanting to adapt to the portal, but adapted to the portal a little bit,” Pollack said. “Not having a QB, finally got his QB. Not having receivers for a little while, finally got the receivers.”

“I think that this year is going to be a big year for Clemson,” added Pollack, a College Football Hall of Famer, three-time All-American and first-round NFL draft pick.

Swinney’s Clemson teams have played in four national championship games, more than any current coach, and Swinney has made the College Football Playoff seven times, also more than any current coach.

Now entering his 18th season (and 17th full season) as Clemson’s head coach, Swinney enters the 2025 campaign as the winningest coach in ACC history with 180 victories. He guided Clemson to its 13th 10-win season in 14 years and its eighth ACC title in a 10-year span in 2024, when the Tigers beat SMU in the 2024 ACC Championship Game to earn an automatic College Football Playoff berth in the first year of the 12-team CFP era.

–Photo courtesy Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports