Dabo Swinney has hilarious reaction to 'most handsome coaches' list

You can add "most handsome" next to Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney's many adjectives. A recent study by RotoGrinders analyzed the best-looking head coaches in college football. Swinney ranked third on the list behind Duke's Manny Diaz at No. 1 and Indiana's Curt Cignetti at No. 2. Swinney was a

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You can add "most handsome" next to Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney's many adjectives.

A recent study by RotoGrinders analyzed the best-looking head coaches in college football. Swinney ranked third on the list behind Duke's Manny Diaz at No. 1 and Indiana's Curt Cignetti at No. 2.

Swinney was asked for his thoughts on the story at the end of his weekly Tuesday press conference

and had a humorous response.

"As in good-looking? Finally something comes my way," he exclaimed. "I thought you were gonna say, like, 'most hated guy' or whatever."

When told that he ranked behind Diaz and Cignetti, a good-natured Swinney began laughing at the whole spectacle and seemed at a loss for words on just how to respond.

"We'll have to process that," Swinney said.

"What kind of reputable website is this?"

RotoGrinders, which is registered in Tempe, Arizona, according to a domain information search, reported to "analyzing three images of every FBS head coach, totaling 414 images across 138 coaches, using facial landmark analysis to identify 468 facial landmarks per image."

The story adds:

"Each image was assessed against two sets of facial-proportion reference measures: neoclassical facial proportions and the Pallett-Link-Lee ratios. The six measurements were converted to relative 1 to 10 scores based on how closely each image matched the selected reference proportions. The three image-level scores were then averaged, and the final coach result is displayed on a 100-point scale for readability."

Swinney garnered a 70.8 score while Diaz topped the list with a 75.9 mark. The Clemson coach was amused by the whole concept of a "most handsome coaches" list.

"Wow. Did Kath (Swinney's wife) get 22 votes?" he marveled to a room full of laughter.

Swinney then shared a story that involved a past ranking of college coaches' most attractive spouses.

"I do remember -- oh, Kath, she would be so mad at me -- I do remember, I don't know what year... but they did the 'coach's hottest wives' or something. And she was the second 'hottest wife,' and I was like, 'Well, who was No. 1? And I think it was Lane Kiffin's wife. I can't remember. This was a long time ago.

"Those of you who know Kath, y'all know... she don't like microphones. She don't like any attention. She's just mortified if she's ever, like, the center of attention, and I mean she was so humiliated by that. So, I don't know who did that, but I had some fun with it."

Swinney said it was "good to know" that a study found him attractive. He concluded:

"Me, Cignetti and Diaz, we have the same agents so maybe it was just based on our agency. So, you might want to check that. I still have some debate. I'm about to call Manny and I'm going to text them guys."

The "third most handsome" head coach is preparing for the Tigers' ACC opener against North Carolina Saturday at Clemson Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is noon ET. The game will be televised on ESPN.

Tar Heels coach Bill Belichick, incidentally, ranked 123rd on RotoGrinders' list of the most handsome coaches in college football.

Dabo Swinney on who will start at quarterback for Clemson against UNC

📸 Butch Dill, IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect https://t.co/LDnpEfOgvw pic.twitter.com/FKGCK9xIHO
— Clemson Wire (@Clemson_Wire) September 15, 2026