When I was at State, there were no genuine monsters in the ACC—at least none we did not create ourselves. Florida State was in the midst of burning out at the end of the Bobby Bowden era, and Clemson was flailing endlessly under Tommy Bowden, who has probably never actually earned a job in football but had a good last name.
In the last half decade, FSU returned to form, and Dabo Swinney emerged as the right guy at the right time for Clemson; he was a cheat code of sorts, unlocking Clemson’s unrealized potential, and it makes you wonder why it took this long.