College football analyst claims Dabo Swinney's recruiting class "not good enough" for Clemson's standard

With past successes, Dabo Swinney has set high expectations for his Clemson program. The Tigers won national titles in 2016 and 2018 and reached the College Football Playoff in 2015 and 2019. All but two NFL drafts since 2013 have seen a Clemson player selected in the first round.

However, future Tigers teams may not have as many top-tier players, according to CBS Sports college football analyst Josh Pate.

"Dozens and dozens of you came at me and said the same thing," Pate said Tuesday on "Josh Pate's College Football Show." "And you allege that I was misunderstanding what they'd just done over there. Yeah, they signed the No. 26 class, but there was only 15 kids in it. It was a very small class. ... The average player was ranked 90.48."

"In terms of average player grade, they finished 16th. Okay, so that's 10 spots better. Having said that, I'm telling you, the class just isn't good enough, and this is three years in a row they've finished outside the top 10."

Comments begin at 5:05

Has Dabo Swinney slipped with recruiting?

Dabo Swinney and Clemson won an ACC title and reached the College Football Playoff last season, but their success didn’t quite yield an elite recruiting class. South Florence (S.C.) defensive lineman Amare Adams is the Tigers’ lone five-star pledge in the class, according to 247Sports.

Milton (Ga.) offensive tackle Brayden Jacobs, Liberty Christian Academy (Va.) running back Gideon Davidson, Belton-Honea Path (S.C.) running back Marquise Henderson, offensive tackle Easton Ware and Maury (Va.) edge rusher Ari Watford are all four-star Clemson enrollees.

"I'm looking at the caliber of roster they have," Pate said. "It doesn't look like Clemson over the past several years. The mid-20 teens, late-20 teens Clemsons, which were superteams, doesn't look anywhere close to that. I don't mean they're comparable. I don't mean we're splitting hairs. I mean, it's not close. To me, it's not close."

"My concern ... is not that they're gonna fall off the face of the Earth, is not that Tiger Stadium up there won't still be amazing, and they may not still contend for the ACC. What I said was I'm concerned that, after 2025, the caliber of team they're gonna have there, the caliber of roster they're gonna have there is such that they won't be able to meet their standard."

Pate asked rhetorically whether Clemson’s standard is to compete for a national championship. To live up to that, he said Dabo Swinney's teams will have to resemble, at least somewhat, the squads he built in the past.

Pate also pointed out that recruiting rankings can be faulty and that the Tigers could still develop their recent classes.

"I think Dabo's made some incredible hires," Pate said. "I think he's really re-tooled his organizational structure in an effective way, so full credit there. So, this may be where they give themselves and edge. ... They may have much bigger transfer portal plans than I or anyone else knows about."

Dabo Swinney has previously made a point not to rely on the transfer portal to build his roster.