CLEMSON | Take yourself back five years to the 2015 recruiting rankings, and they might serve as Exhibit A for why such an endeavor can be overblown.

Southern Cal ranked No. 1, Florida State No. 3 and Tennessee No. 5. Our sources can confirm none of those teams sniffed the College Football Playoff over the next five seasons.

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There will always be teams and coaches that do less with more, and those teams are usually the ones who are looking for new coaches.

But on the other end of the spectrum are teams that do more with less. Or maybe the better way to put it is: More with fewer spectacular recruiting classes.

That's been the story at Clemson under Dabo Swinney, an overachieving coach who's made the Tigers an overachiever on the field relative to their recruiting rankings.