Dabo Swinney, James Franklin & Brian Kelly latest to have preseason Top 10 teams finish unranked

Lackluster seasons by Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, former Penn State coach James Franklin and former LSU coach Brian Kelly put the trio in a not-so-illustrious club: coaches with Associated Press preseason Top 10 teams that finished the year unranked.

When Penn State and Clemson met last month in the Pinstripe Bowl, it was a pairing of college football’s two biggest disappointments in 2025.

Penn State started the season ranked No. 2, while Clemson was No. 4. Both finished the year unranked in the AP Poll.

It was the first time Swinney had a preseason Top 10 team finish the season unranked. However, for Franklin, who was fired at Penn State after a 3-3 start, it was the second time he had a preseason Top 10 team finish the season unranked. The other time was at Penn State in 2020.

Kelly, whose Tigers started the season at No. 9, also failed to live up to preseason expectations and was fired after a 5-3 start. It’s the second time Kelly had a preseason Top 10 team finish the year unranked. The other time was at Notre Dame in 2016.

There are currently nine active coaches who had preseason Top 10 teams finish the season unranked, including new LSU coach Lane Kiffin, the only coach in college football history to have a preseason No. 1 team finish the season unranked. In 2012, when Kiffin was at USC, the preseason top-ranked Trojans finished 7-6. 

Besides Swinney, Franklin and Kiffin, the other current coaches with preseason Top 10 teams that finished unranked: Florida State’s Mike Norvell (2024); USC’s Lincoln Riley (2023); Oklahoma’s Brent Venables (2022); Baylor’s Dave Aranda (2022); Iowa State’s Matt Campbell (2021), now at Penn State; and Oregon’s Mario Cristobal (2020), now at Miami.

While Franklin and Kelly have had multiple teams that didn’t live up to preseason expectations, they can’t match Jimbo Fisher in that department. Fisher is the only coach in NCAA history with three teams ranked in the top six in the AP Preseason Top 25 polls that finished the season unranked.

Fisher did so at Florida State in 2017 and then at Texas A&M in 2021 and 2022. 

In all, there were 12 schools that were ranked in the AP Preseason Top 25 that finished the year unranked. They were: No. 2 Penn State, No. 4 Clemson, No. 9 LSU, No. 11 Arizona State, No. 12 Illinois, No. 13 South Carolina, No. 15 Florida, No. 16 SMU, No. 17 Kansas State, No. 22 Iowa State, No. 24 Tennessee and No. 25 Boise State.

Of those 12 teams, six will have new coaches this fall: Penn State, LSU, Michigan, Florida, Kansas State and Iowa State.

BYU led a dozen schools that exceeded expectations. The Cougars finished No. 11, the highest ranked team that was not ranked in the AP’s Preseason Top 25. The others that went from unranked to Top 25: No. 14 Utah, No. 15 Vanderbilt, No. 16 Virginia, No. 17 Iowa, No. 18 Tulane, No. 19 James Madison, No. 20 USC, No. 22 Houston, No. 23 Navy, No. 24 North Texas and No. 25 TCU.

Current coaches with AP preseason Top 10 teams that finished unranked

Coach, school Year                        Preseason ranking

James Frankin, Penn State ’25        No. 2
Dabo Swinney, Clemson ’25          No. 4
Mike Norvell, Florida State ’24      No. 10
Lincoln Riley, USC ’23                   No. 6
Brent Venables, Oklahoma ’22       No. 9
Dave Aranda, Baylor ’22                No. 10
Matt Campbell, Iowa State ’21       No. 7
James Franklin, Penn St ’20           No. 7
Mario Cristobal, Oregon ’20          No. 9
Lane Kiffin, USC ’12                     No. 1

Other recent coaches, no longer coaching

Brian Kelly, LSU ’25                      No. 9
Brian Kelly, Notre Dame ’16         No. 10
Sherrone Moore, Michigan ’24    No. 9
Mack Brown, UNC ’21                  No. 10
Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M ’22      No. 6 
Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M ’21       No. 6
Jimbo Fisher, FSU ’17                   No. 3
Gus Malzahn, Auburn ’18             No. 9
Gus Malzahn, Auburn ’15              No. 6
Mark Richt, Miami ’18                   No. 8