Paul Johnson and Dabo Swinney Prove Their Critics Wrong

Regardless of what happens against their rivals South Carolina and Georgia Saturday, the Clemson Tigers and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will meet in the ACC Championship Game for the right to represent the ACC in the Orange Bowl.

Paul Johnson coaches Georgia Tech, and Dabo Swinney coaches Clemson. If you've followed these two coaches over the last one-and-a-half to two years, you know they had a lot of critics doubting whether each could succeed at his respective school.

Let's start with Paul Johnson.

Johnson had always been a nice coach. The early part of his career was highlighted by winning two I-AA national titles in 1985-1986 as offensive coordinator of the Georgia Southern Eagles. Back then he ran his version of the option offense with a guy named Tracy Ham. Ham was one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks college football has ever seen.

Johnson had successful offensive coordinator stints at Hawaii and Navy, setting all kinds of school records along the way. He went back to Georgia Southern as head coach and won two more I-AA championships. He moved on to be head coach of the Naval Academy, where Navy had their most successful run of football since the 1960s. Navy beat Notre Dame for the first time in over 40 years while Johnson was there.

Come on though; Georgia Southern and Navy aren't big-time college football. How could his throwback triple option offense succeed at a BCS school? Georgia Tech gave him a shot, and the rest is history.

Critics said you couldn't run the option anymore in major college football; the defenses were too fast. If it did succeed for a little while, defenses would figure it out. Fans would be bored by the offense. This experiment was doomed to fail.

Paul Johnson, ever confident in his offense and abilities, proved his critics all wrong. All he's done while at Georgia Tech is win 19 of his first 24 games for a .792 winning percentage. His offense is second in the country in rushing and first in the ACC in total offense. Apparently defenses didn't figure it out the second time around.

He's taken a Georgia Tech program mired in mediocrity and has them ranked in the top 10 and in the midst of their best season since the 1990 national championship season. Georgia Tech fans love him. Anyone care to doubt him anymore?

Let's talk about Dabo Swinney now.

Swinney was moving right along in his career pretty well. He was coaching wide receivers and tight ends at Alabama for most of latter part of the '90s, but then he hit a road bump. When he was fired in 2001 with the rest of the Alabama staff, he worked in real estate for nearly two years.

Tommy Bowden gave him the chance to get back into coaching, and in 2003 Swinney joined the Clemson staff as wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. He would develop a reputation as a very good recruiter and assistant coach.

When Bowden departed Clemson in 2008, Swinney was named interim head coach. The college football world figured Swinney was just a short-term solution until the Tigers could find a more experienced head coach.

Swinney, ever energetic, began the Tiger Walk (Clemson players arm in arm walking toward the end zone during pregame) and the "All In" rallying cry. Opposing fans at best found Swinney harmless and at worst a coach wasting time with motivational gimmicks.

After a 4-3 finish and a Gator Bowl appearance, Swinney was given the reins of the Clemson program. Most still felt this was a mistake. He just didn't have enough experience.

Like Johnson, Swinney proved his critics wrong. A loss to Maryland early left many skeptical, but Swinney rallied the troops, and the Tigers have won six straight games. Clemson won its first ACC title of any sort in nearly 20 years by capturing the ACC's Atlantic Division. This is something Bowden could never accomplish.

If you doubt Swinney's coaching ability, you're making a mistake. He and offensive coordinator Billy Napier made adjustments to a struggling offense to get the ball into C.J Spiller's hands and get the tight ends more involved in the passing game. Clemson, known for its roller coaster-like play, is playing its most consistent football in many years.

These are two head coaches that believe in themselves and their players and now have their teams playing for an ACC championship.

This article is also featured at All About Sports .