ESPN ranked the best college football coaches of the 2020s, and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney isn’t on the list.

Last July, ESPN’s Bill Connelly ranked Swinney as the 10th-best head coach of the last 20 years.

However, Swinney didn’t make Connelly’s ranking of the best head coaches of the 2020s.

Indiana’s Curt Cignetti is No. 1 on that list, followed by SMU’s Rhett Lashlee.

“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.”

Former Michigan and current Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh ranks No. 3 on Connelly’s list, with Georgia’s Kirby Smart and legendary former Alabama coach Nick Saban rounding out the top five.

Former Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, now entering his first season as LSU’s head man, is ranked No. 8. Clemson will open the 2026 season against Kiffin and LSU on Sept. 5 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.

Former Penn State head coach James Franklin, who’s heading into his first season as Virginia Tech’s leader, is ranked No. 16. Clemson will host Franklin and the Hokies at Memorial Stadium on Oct. 24. Connelly ranks Virginia Tech as the No. 2 team with a first-year head coach most likely to improve.

Under Swinney, the Tigers have participated in the College Football Playoff seven times, tied with Ohio State for second to Alabama’s nine appearances. Clemson holds the record for consecutive years making the CFP (six straight seasons from 2015-20), and during that span, the Tigers reached the national championship game four times and won two titles (2016, 2018) while finishing in the Top 5 of the CFP rankings every year. Clemson has six CFP victories overall, third to Alabama’s 10 and Ohio State’s seven.

However, the Tigers have only made one CFP appearance since 2020 – a short-lived one in 2024 that ended with a first-round loss at Texas in the inaugural year of the 12-team format. Then, this past season, things turned sour for Dabo Swinney’s program as it suffered through a 7-6 campaign — the second-worst season in Swinney’s tenure as Clemson’s head coach — which was capped off by a Pinstripe Bowl loss to Penn State in a clash of two disappointing, preseason top-four teams.

Swinney re-hired Chad Morris as offensive coordinator in an attempt to revitalize the Tigers’ offense. Connelly ranks Clemson at No. 5 among teams with first-year offensive coordinators most likely to improve.

“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.”

North Carolina, with new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino, is ranked as the No. 1 team with a first-year OC most likely to improve. UNC will travel to play Clemson at Memorial Stadium on Sept. 19.