Prepping for the NFL: How ACC coaches compare at developing defensive stars

By Bryan Fischer
Published

Editor's note: This is part of an ongoing series on how college coaches fare at developing players for the NFL. Check out previous stories on ACC offensive players, Big 12 defensive players, Big 12 offensive players, Pac-12 offensive players, Pac-12 defensive players, Big Ten offensive players and Big Ten defensive players.

It may seem like the ACC is a league that is in a revolving door of crisis every few years, but when it comes to the head coaches running up and down the sidelines in the conference, things are seemingly as good as ever.

Two of the five active head coaches to have won a national title reside in the ACC, and quite a few others hoisted trophies as an assistant. Toss in recent additions like Jeff Brohm at Louisville and Miami luring alum Mario Cristobal back to Coral Gables — or young guys filling a ton of promise like Florida State's Mike Norvell — and it's an impressive top-to-bottom lineup that underscores the level of play in the league has been raised week in and week out.

Whether they've won it all or are just getting started in a top job, though, all understand that college football remains driven by the underlying principle of having better players than your opponent. Before you even get to the Xs and Os that are on display each Saturday, having the Jimmys and the Joes tends to be the best prognosticator of success on the field.

But just how good are coaches when it comes to finding all those good players and, well, coaching them up?

Following the 2023 NFL Draft, FOX Sports pulled decades worth of recruiting data and looked into just how productive (or not) each active Power 5 coach was at both recruiting and developing players — and at what positions — when it came to the ultimate eye in the sky of the NFL.

More stories on ‘Prepping for the NFL’

In the seventh part of a series about developing NFL talent in college football, here's a look at how some of the coaches in the ACC have fared over the years in terms of best producing defensive talent:

Defensive ends

The Best: Dabo Swinney (Clemson)
Others of note: Mack Brown (North Carolina), Dave Clawson (Wake Forest), Dave Doeren (N.C. State), Mike Norvell (Florida State)
Surprisingly disappointing: Pat Narduzzi (Pitt)

One of the biggest reasons why Clemson has been able to ascend into being one of the nation's elite programs under Dabo Swinney has been the strength of its defensive line, and the numbers bear that out when looking at the impressive list of names that have moved to the next level.

Of the 11 defensive ends under Swinney to be drafted, a remarkable seven of them wound up being top-100 picks, with four of them going in the first round. The median selection of the group is in the range of 41st overall — or towards the middle of the second round — despite a plethora of guys taken at the position over the course of 15 years.

At the high end, every five-star defensive lineman Swinney has recruited through the class of 2020 has wound up being drafted — save one in Xavier Henry, who is still playing for the Tigers. There are also a host of quality development stories like former two-star recruit Andre Branch blossoming into an early second-round pick, or Clelin Ferrell going from a lower four-star into an eventual top-five pick.

While it's true that Swinney has had plenty of raw talent to work with (average star rating among those drafted: 4.1), his ability to maximize it and send guys along their way after three seasons remains impressive and really is only comparable to a handful of peers in the SEC.

Up the road in Chapel Hill, Mack Brown actually has a full dozen defensive ends drafted over the years, but has done so in more than double the number of seasons that Swinney has. The veteran coach also has one fewer top-100 picks and one fewer first-rounder but still has been able to develop some notable names into stars. This dates back to his first-ever draft pick during his one season as head coach at Appalachian State, on to top-10 pick Greg Ellis during his first stint at UNC, and eventually to former three-star Jason Strowbridge winding up as a fifth-rounder during his current tenure. 

While the sheer numbers that Swinney and Brown have churned out catch the eye, Dave Clawson's ability to develop at Wake Forest has also been impressive. Three former Demon Deacons defensive ends have been drafted since the head coach arrived, with two of them becoming top-100 picks. Recent third-rounder Kobie Turner was a former unrated player out of high school who came up from the FCS ranks at Richmond before flashing enough for NFL scouts to go 89th overall to the Los Angeles Rams.

Fellow offensive mind Norvell has also seemed to know that the best way to find success is to find some pass rushers as he's had three of them in three draft classes since arriving at Florida State. That includes a first-rounder last year in Jermaine Johnson (who, before going to Georgia, went the junior college route out of high school), and a pair of fourth-rounders who were much more highly touted out of the prep ranks.

Curiously, Pat Narduzzi stands out as being a bit light in the department (especially as a defensive-minded head coach). He's found several defensive tackles recently but has had just one defensive end taken across eight seasons in charge. At least 2021 third-rounder Patrick Jones qualifies as a great testament to coaching players up, as he arrived on campus as a two-star originally and left as a top-100 pick. Still, there are not the overall numbers you'd expect from a coach who has won the division title a few times.

Defensive tackles

The Best: Dabo Swinney (Clemson)
Others of note: Mack Brown (North Carolina), Dave Doeren (N.C. State)
Surprisingly disappointing: Mario Cristobal (Miami)

As noted above, Swinney has made it a point to recruit talented players in the trenches, and NFL evaluators have been flocking to Clemson to see them in ways that are really only equaled by a handful of SEC programs. The Tigers have had nine DTs taken during the past decade and a half and more than half have gone on to be top-100 selections.

There's also a lot more nurturing of talent on the interior line compared to defensive ends under Swinney, with a fairly similar overall number but a lower average star ranking for those drafted. There are plenty of guys like ex-three-star Darell Scott (Swinney's first draft pick as head coach) going in the fourth round, or megastar Grady Jarrett beginning his college career with the same three-star evaluation. Of course, the last three defensive tackles taken from Clemson have also all been first-rounders who were prep five-stars originally, so it works both ways.

Again, due to longevity, Brown has sent 12 defensive tackles to the league, more than anybody outside of Nick Saban. That group has impressively had a median selection just outside the top 100 (113 overall to be exact) and includes former first-rounders like Casey Hampton and Marcus Tubbs at Texas plus the likes of 31st-overall pick Rick Terry back during the first go-around at North Carolina. 

However, Brown hasn't had a single defensive tackle taken higher than the fifth round since 2009 and has underachieved slightly in recent seasons when you factor in recruiting rankings.

That isn't the case with Triangle rival Doeren, who has seen three of his four Wolfpack defensive tackles taken inside the first three rounds of the draft. Of that overall quartet, B.J. Hill and Larrell Murchinson were both three-stars before their middle-round selections, while the likes of Alim McNeill more than lived up to their original four-star ranking coming out of high school.

One outlier worth bringing up is Miami's Cristobal, who hasn't had an interior defensive lineman taken over the course of a full dozen seasons in charge of a program. The former offensive lineman and respected OL coach has sent three DEs to the pros, but no DTs.

Linebackers

The Best: Mack Brown (North Carolina)
Others of note: Dabo Swinney (Clemson), Jeff Brohm (Louisville)

Brown has turned nearly as many linebackers (17) into draft picks over the years as the remaining 13 other active ACC head coaches have combined (24). The same is true for all 14 coaches in the Big 12 (21) and the dozen in the Pac-12 (20), too.

While Brown has certainly been coaching for a while, that's still a pretty stellar coaching record that, again, is really only comparable to Saban's. Seven of the UNC coach's 17 linebackers (41%) also went inside the first 100 picks, and the list of first-rounders included the likes of Derrick Johnson at Texas and longtime vet Brian Simmons during the first coaching stop with the Heels. Since the internet recruiting area took hold, Brown has also sent a solid number of five- and four-stars to the league and even helped a former four-star quarterback in Chazz Surratt wind up as a top-100 selection.

The overall quantity is enough to get the nod over Clemson's Swinney, who also has seen some notable misses with the five-star linebackers he's gotten over the years. Of the five five-stars recruited at the position, two failed to hear their name called in the draft, just one (Stephone Anthony) wound up as a first-rounder, and the other two were mid- to late-round selections. 

That gets balanced out some by other developmental success stories among the nine LBs drafted under Swinney. The prime example is Isaiah Simmons, a lightly recruited late three-star from Kansas who wound up going in the top 10 of the draft, while fellow three-star Tanner Muse wound up in the third round after a productive career with the Tigers.

Speaking of getting the most out of those without too much recruiting fanfare, Brohm has been pretty good at the position, too. Across six seasons just at Purdue, the new Louisville coach had four linebackers drafted — none of whom rated above three-stars out of high school. Derrick Barnes came close to being a Day 2 selection as well despite a two-star label coming out of his prep career.

Defensive backs

The Best: Mack Brown (North Carolina)
Others of note: Dabo Swinney (Clemson), Mario Cristobal (Miami), Pat Narduzzi (Pitt), Mike Norvell (Florida State)

UNC's Brown has produced more NFL defensive backs (27) than 12 of the ACC's head coaches have had total draft picks and is second only to Saban in terms of overall production at the position across all active college football head coaches. 

Remarkably, 60% of defensive backs drafted under the veteran head coach have been top-100 selections, which helps explain why he sports a median selection that hovers in the third round of the draft. Brown has seven first-round defensive backs over the course of three decades and tends to skew slightly toward producing better safeties than corners after his especially productive stint in Austin. 

Still, Swinney is no slouch, and he'll catch Brown in a few seasons if he keeps churning them out at a tick better than one per draft class on average. While the Clemson coach has a median selection outside the top 100, he's done so with relatively less talent than he has to work with at any other defensive position.

This results in successful development stories like T.J. Green going from two-star to the second round several years ago, or Cordrea Tankersley arriving on campus as a three-star and exiting as a top-100 pick. On the top end of the scale, every five-star defensive back through the class of 2020 recruited by Swinney has gone inside the first 50 picks.

Narduzzi isn't swimming in the same recruiting waters by any stretch of the imagination but a reputation for producing DBs dating back to his time at Michigan State has shown up during his tenure at Pitt. While none of his five top-100 picks played in the secondary, he has sent eight DBs to the league in eight seasons and only two of those players were ranked above three-stars coming out of high school (Damar Hamlin and Jordan Whitehead).

Miami's Cristobal isn't quite as productive overall as the aforementioned coaches but has had top-100 picks at defensive back across all three of his head coaching stops (and nine in 12 years overall). He's done especially well when it comes to four-stars out of high school but had a tremendous development story to tell when a two-star he recruited and coached at FIU in Jonathan Cyprien became the first pick of the second round a decade ago.

Up the turnpike in Tallahassee, Norvell has also notably seen three defensive backs taken in three draft classes at FSU. His lone secondary selection as head coach at Memphis is also worth a mention given that a former unrated high school player who went the junior college route eventually became a late-round pick.

Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.