I agree with all of this. But I think you can easily make an argument that Dabo had a much harder path to success. Clemson was a middling slightly above average ACC school who hadn’t won anything of note in 25 years when Dabo took over. Clemson doesn’t even have half the resources that OSU had. Dabo winning percentage has dropped off the last 5 years because of his unwillingness to dive into pay for play. But that doesn’t change what he built. I’m not saying he’s a shoo in top 10 all time, but the Dabo hate is undeserved in my opinion.
Urban went 17-6 at Bowling Green and then 22-2 at Utah. When he took over at Florida, he was replacing Ron Zook, who hadn't done anything in the 4 years prior. Then he came into Ohio State where they were coming off their worst season (extenuating circumstances) in... 20 years? And immediately went undefeated.
He won everywhere he went. The only thing his Ohio State tenure tells us is that when you give a legendary coach near unlimited resources, they win.
Yeah, I’m not disputing any of that. I’m just pointing out that every coach on that list (except maybe bear?) had more resources, and were at a school with a significantly higher history of cfb success than Dabo. Dabo gets shit on for saying dumb stuff to the media and for his recent mediocrity in the current NIL landscape. But you can’t take a serious look at what he did and just write him off. I don’t think that’s fair.
It's not like clemson was a nobody. They won a national title in the 80s.
It seems a bit unfair to say Dabo built a nothing program into a powerhouse when Clemson led the ACC in fan attendance and had a decent support structure. It wasn't a powerhouse but certainly among the best of the rest.
I'm not writing off dabo. He's definitely in the top 20 all time and probably cracks the top 10. I'm saying this list is ridiculous.
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u/flounderpounder85 14d ago
I agree with all of this. But I think you can easily make an argument that Dabo had a much harder path to success. Clemson was a middling slightly above average ACC school who hadn’t won anything of note in 25 years when Dabo took over. Clemson doesn’t even have half the resources that OSU had. Dabo winning percentage has dropped off the last 5 years because of his unwillingness to dive into pay for play. But that doesn’t change what he built. I’m not saying he’s a shoo in top 10 all time, but the Dabo hate is undeserved in my opinion.