Ranking the five best college football coaches after Nick Saban's retirement

3) Dabo Swinney, Clemson

On record alone, Dabo Swinney would be No. 1 on this list. The Clemson head coach has a .798 winning percentage, and he has brought his Tigers to the championship game of the College Football Playoff four times, winning twice (both times against Saban and Bama). Clemson finished the year with a top-four ranking six years in a row from 2015-20, and outside of Alabama, there's been no better program for the past decade.

It's easy to forget that "Clemsoning" was once a thing, and that the school was an afterthought in the national conversation before Dabo got there and turned things around, elevating the program into the dominant force in the ACC and a true national power.

In the past three years, Clemson has fallen off a bit, but even these "down" years still resulted in an average of 10 wins and a top-20 ranking each year. Dabo has become a victim of his own success, and whereas Clemson was once the giant-slaying underdog, they've now become the giant, and nobody roots for Goliath.

Other fanbases have reveled in Dabo's slight fall from grace. Whether it's jealousy over his past success, annoyance stemming from his public comments regarding NIL, or his known aversion to the transfer portal, Dabo has become the coach that other fanbases love to hate. An Alabama grad that has long been the assumed successor of Saban in Tuscaloosa, Dabo's chances at the Bama job never got off the ground, as the fanbase showed its displeasure at the prospect of bringing him home.

For as much as he's become a punching bag (possibly literally?), Dabo is still one of the best coaches in the game, and the rest of the names below him have a long way to go to catch up.