ACC football coach rankings move Mario Cristobal to front ahead of Dabo Swinney
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College football is just around the corner, with the start of the ACC preseason taking place July 15-17 in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the 2026 ACC Football Kickoff. The head coaches and top players from all 17 schools kicking off the season with media interviews and other obligations. The league is among the most interesting with their coaches, too.
Miami coach Mario Cristobal leads a group of coaches with plenty of storylines for next season after leading the Hurricanes back to the national championship game. So does Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Virginia Tech’s James Franklin, who’s in his first season with the Hokies after a long tenure at Penn State.
Who are the ACC’s best coaches heading into 2026? Here’s a look at USA TODAY’s preseason head coaches rankings in the conference:
1. Mario Cristobal, Miami
Cristobal put together one of the most impressive coaching seasons in recent memory in 2025, leading Miami through a College Football Playoff gauntlet to the national championship game. The Hurricanes defense dominated down the stretch, although they narrowly earned a CFP bid over Notre Dame, which beat them in Week 1 of the season. They upset Ohio State and took down Texas A&M and Ole Miss before playing Indiana closer than anyone in the postseason. Cristobal went 12-13 his first two seasons at Miami, but has a 23-6 record the past two seasons and has created a strong, defensive-minded culture similar to the Hurricanes of old.
2. Dabo Swinney, Clemson
One of the most historically successful active head coaches in college football, Swinney has two national titles and nine conference championships at Clemson, but has fallen off in recent years. The Tigers had a disappointing 7-6 finish last season despite having loads of NFL talent and being a trendy preseason national championship pick. Swinney and Clemson are 26-14 the last three seasons, which is a step down from their dominance of the 2010s. The 18th-year head coach is still one of the best coaches in the conference, but he has to prove he’s still got it.
3. James Franklin, Virginia Tech
James Franklin took a quick downturn at Penn State after leading the historic program to consistent success at an important time in its history. Franklin took the Nittany Lions to the CFP semifinals in 2024-25, but was fired midseason last October after dropping consecutive games to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern. Penn State had huge expectations last season, although Franklin was a huge reason for how the team earned those expectations due to his success through 12 seasons. He finished his tenure with five top-10 ranked finishes, four New Year’s Six bowl wins and a CFP semifinals appearance. He’s looking to prove last year was just an aberration, although with a new school at Virginia Tech.
4. Rhett Lashlee, SMU
Lashlee has been impressive in his four seasons with SMU, winning 11 games in back-to-back seasons in 2023 and 2024 before winning nine games last season. The fifth-year head coach also led the Mustangs to their first-ever CFP appearance as a first-year ACC program that made the jump to Power Four. Lashlee is building SMU into one of the top programs of the ACC each season, but is still looking to take the next step as a program nationally.
5. Jeff Brohm, Louisville
Nothing about Brohm is flashy, but his teams are consistently successful. The fourth-year coach has a 28-12 record at Louisville in three seasons, and has helped bring the Cardinals back to prominence. Brohm won nine games and eight games in back-to-back seasons, respectively, at Purdue — a tough school to win at — before returning to his alma mater and attracted interested from bigger suitors last offseason. He has been consistent at Louisville, but can Brohm take the Cardinals to new heights?
6. Brent Key, Georgia Tech
Key has rebuilt the culture at Georgia Tech, bringing back a smash-mouth brand of football that fans might expect from a former offensive line coach. The 47-year-old former Alabama assistant went 9-4 last season, and the Yellow Jackets at one point were ranked No. 7 nationally before ending the year with losses in four of their last five games. He has also shown a strong ability to recruit, landing strong transfer portal and high school classes. Georgia Tech looked like the best team in the ACC for points of last year, and is aiming to get back to that at a consistent rate.
7. Manny Diaz, Duke
Diaz has overall done a solid job at Duke, but his tenure has been a bit confusing. He won the ACC championship last season, although the Blue Devils went 7-5 in the regular season, reaching the title game due to a long list of tiebreakers. He has been solid, which is all you can ask for at Duke, which will never be a football school. He has an 18-9 record in two seasons. The former Miami coach is certainly meeting expectations, and could be a candidate for a better job after another strong year.
8. Jake Dickert, Wake Forest
Dickert quietly had one of the better first seasons with a new school in 2025, leading Wake Forest to a 9-4 record with a Duke’s Mayo Bowl win over Mississippi State. It was the school’s first winning season since 2022. Another strong season for Dickert, who was 23-20 in four seasons at Washington State, could make him a hot name in the coaching carousel once again.
9. Pat Narduzzi, Pittsburgh
Pat Narduzzi has won eight or more games in six of his 11 seasons, with his best finish coming in 2021 when the Panthers won 11 games thanks to Heisman Trophy finalist Kenny Pickett. Narduzzi and Pittsburgh have finished ranked in the Top 25 twice during his tenure, and usually find themselves near the top of middle pack in the ACC standings. Pittsburgh is capable of blow-up seasons under Narduzzi, but the expectations aren’t much more than that, mostly due to the school’s place in the pecking order.
10. Tony Elliott, Virginia
Elliott was on the hot seat entering last season, but coached Virginia to one of its best finishes in years, as the Cavaliers finished No. 16 in the rankings with an 11-3 record. Elliott was 11-23 in his first three seasons at Virginia after a long tenure at Clemson, where he won the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant in 2017 as co-offensive coordinator. With another strong season, Elliott could prove his rebuild is working and move up multiple spots in the rankings.
11. Dave Doeren, NC State
Similar to Narduzzi, Dave Doeren and NC State are never bad, but are hardly very good. The Wolfpack have won nine games four times in Doeren’s 13 seasons with only three losing seasons sprinkled in. NC State, though, has never finished ranked higher than No. 19, and has never won double-digit games. He meets expectations of the program more focused on basketball, though.
12. Fran Brown, Syracuse
Brown would’ve been much higher on this list a year ago after going 10-3 in his first season at Syracuse. The former Georgia assistant didn’t build on that success in 2025, finishing 3-9 in his second season at the helm. Brown can still prove last season was an aberration, especially with quarterback Steve Angeli missing most of the season due to injury.
13. Mike Norvell, Florida State
Norvell is a tough coach to grade. He did lead the Seminoles to one of their best seasons in recent memory with a 13-1 record and an ACC title in 2023, but he has also led the program to a pair of wildly disappointing seasons, especially by Florida State standards the past two years. Florida State is 7-17 the last two seasons, including the worst season in program history in 2024 after going 2-10. His pair of double-digit win seasons made him a hot commodity on the open market and he even reportedly garnered interest for Alabama’s opening after Nick Saban retired. Now, he’s likely on the hot seat.
14. Tosh Lupoi, California
Lupoi has been a hot name for a few seasons now after multiple seasons as Oregon’s defensive coordinator under Dan Lanning. He finally found his spot as a first-year head coach at Cal, where he is poised for a solid first season with quarterback Jaron Keawe-Sagopolutele. He hasn’t coached in his first game yet, so it’s hard to put him any higher than the bottom. But it wouldn’t be surprising at all if he ends up skyrocketing up these rankings ahead of next season.
15. Tavita Pritchard, Stanford
In a similar boat as Lupoi, Pritchard has a tough task ahead at Stanford, one of the worst teams in the conference. But with general manager Andrew Luck leading the program, maybe Pritchard can get the Cardinal back on the right track. Pritchard was most recently the quarterbacks coach for the Washington Commanders, helping lead Jayden Daniels the past two seasons. The former Stanford offensive coordinator has his work cut out for him as he returns for the head job.
16. Bill O’Brien, Boston College
O’Brien went 7-6 in his first season at Boston College, but failed to build momentum with a terrible 2-10 finish in 2025. After a successful start to his tenure with the Houston Texans, winning four AFC South titles from 2014-2019, he was fired after an 0-4 start in 2020. O’Brien then spent multiple seasons as the offensive coordinator at Alabama and then the New England Patriots in 2023 and Ohio State in 2024, winning a national title with the program. O’Brien went 15-9 in two seasons as Penn State’s head coach from 2012-13 before bouncing for the NFL, but his college head coaching career largely hasn’t been all that impressive.
17. Bill Belichick, North Carolina
Everyone knows Bill Belichick’s resume with the New England Patriots, winning six Super Bowls as head coach from 2001-23. He’s one of the best NFL coaches ever, but his one season so far at North Carolina was far from a success, as the Tar Heels went 4-8 and looked largely unorganized and dysfunctional at times. The 74-year-old is also the oldest coach in college football, and still has a lot to prove at the college level. It was an experiment hire for North Carolina, but paired with his large salary making him one of the highest-paid coaches in college football, he’ll need to start winning games.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ACC football coach rankings move Mario Cristobal to front ahead of Dabo Swinney
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