{"id":67568,"date":"2025-05-21T12:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T12:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/67568\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T12:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T12:53:11","slug":"espn-college-football-head-coach-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/67568\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN College Football Head Coach Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Clemson gears up for what many believe could be a national title run in 2025, ESPN’s college football reporters are giving head coach Dabo Swinney his due \u2014 placing him among the sport\u2019s coaching elite once again.<\/p>\n

Swinney landed at No. 3 overall in ESPN\u2019s updated head coach rankings heading into the new season, earning 87 points in the network\u2019s voting system. He trails only Georgia\u2019s Kirby Smart (119 points) and Ohio State\u2019s Ryan Day (97 points), with the panel noting that there is little separating the coaches in the 3\u20136 range.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a clear line of delineation between No. 3 and No. 6,\u201d ESPN\u2019s Kyle Bonagura wrote. \u201cThere are logical arguments that could be used to advocate for Swinney as high as No. 1… this shouldn\u2019t be misconstrued.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Clemson<\/p>\n

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, right, and Ohio State coach Ryan Day before last year’s semifinal. A rematch is set for Jan. 1. Clemson Fans Fiesta Bowl Coaches Conference\u00a9 KEN RUINARD &sol; Greenville News via Imagn Content Services&comma; LLC<\/p>\n

The Only ACC Coach in the Top 10<\/p>\n

Swinney stands as the only ACC coach ranked in the top 10, though several of his conference peers did receive votes, including North Carolina\u2019s Bill Belichick (10 points), Louisville\u2019s Jeff Brohm (6), and SMU\u2019s Rhett Lashlee (3). LSU\u2019s Brian Kelly, who will bring his Tigers into Memorial Stadium for a primetime season opener on Aug. 30, was just outside the top 10 with 13 points.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Rounding out the top five behind Swinney are Notre Dame\u2019s Marcus Freeman (64 points) and Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian (62).<\/p>\n

Swinney\u2019s Legacy \u2014 Still Among the Game\u2019s Best<\/p>\n

Now entering his 17th full season at Clemson, Swinney boasts a remarkable 180-47 career record, making him the winningest coach in both Clemson and ACC history. He has led the Tigers to two national championships, seven College Football Playoff appearances, and nine ACC titles, including eight of the last ten.<\/p>\n

Since 2011, Swinney’s program has finished with 10 or more wins in 13 of the last 14 seasons, further solidifying its consistency at the top of college football.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

He and Kirby Smart remain the only active head coaches with multiple national championships, a testament to Swinney\u2019s ability to not just build, but sustain, a championship-caliber program amid a rapidly changing college football landscape.<\/p>\n

Up Next<\/p>\n

Swinney and Clemson kick off their 2025 campaign in the spotlight, hosting LSU under the lights on August 30 at 7:30 p.m. on ABC. With expectations high and a roster stacked with NFL-caliber talent, the Tigers\u2019 longtime head coach will once again be under the national microscope \u2014 exactly where he\u2019s thrived for over a decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Clemson gears up for what many believe could be a national title run in 2025, ESPN’s college…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[331,382,12,7,6496,12642,626,49,48,1446,2250],"class_list":{"0":"post-67568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-dabo-swinney","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-head-coach","13":"tag-head-coaches","14":"tag-kirby-smart","15":"tag-ncaa","16":"tag-ncaa-football","17":"tag-ohio-state","18":"tag-ryan-day"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114545924922454383","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}