On an episode of his Always College Football show, ESPN analyst Greg McElroy broke down the different types of pressure that various head coaches are facing heading into the 2025 season.

McElroy put Clemson’s Dabo Swinney among the group of coaches under one particular category of pressure – “College Football Playoff or bust” pressure.

“Now, Dabo Swinney has endless job security,” McElroy said. “But I think Dabo Swinney, this is the year they’ve had circled. This is the one. This is the one they’ve circled, dating back to when they went and got Cade Klubnik, got him, put him into the lineup a little bit as a freshman, then he became the starter year two. It wasn’t a great year. They’ve made massive additions in the coaching staff by going out and getting Garrett Riley a couple years ago from TCU after a great TCU run, by going out this past year and getting Tom Allen from Penn State to be their defensive coordinator. They’ve been able to retain a lot of their talent that they’ve developed and cultivated over the years, and guess what – Dabo went out to the portal for the first time this year and really made it a priority to land some guys at positions of need.”

Along with Swinney, McElroy included Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer, LSU’s Brian Kelly and Miami’s Mario Cristobal in the “CFP or bust” pressure category.

For Swinney and his Clemson program, McElroy believes “anything less than the playoff this year for Dabo Swinney would be a massive disappointment.”

“Look, they made it last year,” McElroy said. “Last year’s team wasn’t as good as this year’s team is probably going to be. That’s the way I see it. People might see it differently.”

McElroy has expressed multiple times how high he is on Clemson heading into 2025 – back in January, he even said that he thinks the Tigers should be viewed as the nation’s No. 1 team entering next season.

In his latest comments, McElroy reiterated that he’s “a huge believer in Clemson this year.”

“If they don’t make it on the year that Dabo Swinney has had circled, citing the importance of high school recruiting, homegrown talent, creating a culture – if they can’t break through this year, that would be a real, real bummer for all the wonderful fans of the Clemson Tigers,” McElroy said.

“So, I’m very bullish on them. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but there’s pressure being felt right now in Clemson to perform here in ‘25.”