Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tiger's have sat atop the ACC since FSU's post-Jameis/Jimbo swoon began.
Here is how it came to be:
Swinney took over a 7-6 squad in 2009 and produced a competitive team that went 9-5 and played for the ACC championship losing to GT for the second time that season. Other losses included Maryland , TCU, and South Carolina. Modest improvement considering the previous year.
Side note: Miami was 9-4 that season and narrowly lost to Clemson at home in OT. We also defeated GT handily at home but as usual donked off a couple conference games on the road and finished well behind GT for a shot in the ACCCG
The following year Swinney came out and **** the bed going 6-7 in 2010. I'm sure he was on the hot seat following that season. Miami had a slightly better but similar year and a late season loss to USF cost Randy Shannon his job and Al Golden was brought in along with "The Cloud."
2011 was a step in the right direction for Dabo. His slightly more mature talent was able to muster a respectable 10-4 season. Obviously not good enough by Miami standards but not terrible either for a team trying to get over the hump. What should have been a great season with a big win early against perennial division and conference favorite FSU was spoiled by late season losses to in conference, middling teams GT, NC ST, and rival South Carolina. The season crash landed with an embarrassing bowl stomping by West Virginia, this was the birth of "Clemsoning" and were Dabo the coach at Miami he may well have been canned.
2012 was a season in which Clemson became a threat to the power that was FSU at the time. The first recruiting classes that Dabo had pieced together had matured into a very competitive and confident squad. Clemson lost two games that season to quality teams in FSU and South Carolina, both finished the season ranked. Clemson capped off a good year by defeating LSU in the Chik Fil A bowl by 1 pt 25-24, finishing 11-2 in year 4.
Side note: Recruiting at Clemson had not been bad prior to Dabo although the 2009 and 2010 classes were fairly poor 36th and 27th. Still, to this point Clemson was a top 10-15 recruiting team and would remain as such for the foreseeable future. The 2020 class was the first top 5 class under Dabo. Clemson has had just four top 10 recruiting classes under Dabo. 2015 (9th), 2018 (7th), 2019 (10th), and 2020 (3rd)
2013 was a mirror of 2012. Two losses to their biggest rivals. One a thrashing by Florida State at home 51-13 (in year 5 of Dabo's tenure) and the other loss to South Carolina, again, at the end of the season on the road. They managed an impressive bowl victory against OSU in the Orange Bowl to somewhat salvage the season and finish 11-2.
Clemson took a slight step back in 2014 losing to every ranked team they played during the regular season. A big win against Oklahoma capped an otherwise pedestrian year to go 10-3. It is worth noting a TF Deshaun Watson played but was not a starter and did not play in the bowl game against Oklahoma.
In 2015 Deshaun Watson took over as starting QB for Clemson and took them all the way to the National Championship game losing in a barn burner to Alabama. The following season Watson and Clemson won the title. The National Championship win removed the "Clemsoning" monkey from Dabo's back and solidified his reputation as an elite coach in CFB. They have dominated the ACC ever since and have been in the National Title game 5 straight seasons, going 2-3 in that span.
To be honest Clemson didn't achieve much of anything until they hit on a QB eval in Watson, they were lucky to follow that up with another elite NFL level QB in Lawrence. In fact the past 10 or so champions had 1st round talent at the QB position. Only Alabama has managed to win a National Title with mediocre QB play by having an oppressive defense and ridiculous O line and running game. We probably will never recruit in the trenches at a level that will allow us to dominate regardless of our air game and even Alabama has begun to transition away from that style as the game becomes more open and defense becomes more difficult to play. The key to winning a national title in today's landscape is to build a solid team on both sides of the ball and then hit on a QB eval. We will likely continue to come up short until we hit on a QB with 1st round talent. The key is for us to hang around that 10-2/11-1 range and recruit in the top 10 or so to stay well stocked for when the time comes that we hit on a QB.
All this to say that the road to dominance requires patience and some luck. Even if we stumble down the stretch this year that does not mean all hope is lost. Manny has proven that he can field a competitive defense even when he doesn't have great players at every level. That defense can be dominant when he has the right talent. It appears he is recruiting that type of talent right now. The jury is still out on the offense but the holes in this current team are evident and the staff is working to fill them. Winning in spite of deficiencies is the mark of a good staff. We may not look great doing it right now but it takes time to build a program that can dominate decent football teams week in and week out.
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