The current landscape around college football doesn’t allow coaches the time to build up a program, as a win-now mentality creates turnover in the college coaching ranks. Dabo Swinney doesn’t know if he would have survived in the SEC, or if he would survived any other athletic director than Terry Don Phillips.
At 140-33, Swinney (.809) enters the 2020 season as the winningest active coach by percentage in the FBS among coaches with at least five seasons of head coaching experience. With the addition of the 2020 ACC Championship, all 12 of Swinney’s recruiting classes have won at least one ACC title in their careers, and every recruiting class since 2012 has earned at least one College Football Playoff berth.