College football analyst predicts Dabo Swinney's Clemson as national championship contender

College football analyst Josh Pate believes Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers are legit national title contenders next season. Clemson won the ACC last season and snuck into the College Football Playoff but lost in the opening round to Texas.

With Cade Klubnik returning at quarterback, Pate believes the school is a legitimate title contender.

“If I were to make a list of the top five most important players this year in college football, he’d probably be on that list,” Pate said about Klubnik, via Athlon Sports.

Pate also compared Klubnik to Joe Burrow at LSU before the 2019 season. He believes Clemson has built the offense around him and the Tigers are poised for a breakout season.

“Even if he’s just what he was last year, that’s good enough to win the ACC,” Pate said. “If we’re talking about doing more, about scaling up, I think he’s in the right situation to do it.”

Pate feels that if Clemson can beat LSU in their season opener, it will project them as legitimate national title contenders.

The Tigers have the eighth-best odds of winning the national title at +2000, which implies a 4.8% chance of winning it all.

Clemson's Dabo Swinney has plenty of confidence in his team

Dabo Swinney is entering his 18th season as the head coach of the Clemson Tigers. Swinney and Clemson last won the national title in 2018.

Entering the 2025 season, Swinney has full confidence in his group and his team.

"I'm excited about where we are and what's to come," Swinney said, via TigerNet. "We've just stayed focus on the purpose ... We just do what's best for Clemson.

"We always do that year in and year out ... You can't have the highest graduation rate in America and be top in the country in retention in this crazy free-agent world and go sign a million portal guys ... Everybody likes to make up their own stories and narratives and get clicks and all that, but in the meantime, we just keep winning."

Swinney and Clemson will be favorites to win the ACC again, but the goal for the coach is to win another national title.

Clemson has notable games against LSU, North Carolina, SMU, Duke, Florida State and South Carolina.