Paul Finebaum recently stirred up some controversy when he said he considers Kirby Smart of Georgia a better current coach than Clemson’s Dabo Swinney.

On Monday’s episode of “The Paul Finebaum Show” on the SEC Network, Finebaum revisited those comments. He didn’t change his opinion, but did add some clarification to his stance.

Finebaum explained that, while both are still elite coaches, he thinks Smart is better suited than Swinney for the current era of college football (via On3 Sports):

“A lot of people who have reacted to my comments need to understand the context. I can look at a record book as easily as you can and we can add it up and come to any conclusion we want. I just said Kirby Smart is where college football is right now. Dabo Swinney is yesterday’s news,” said Finebaum. “A lot of people insinuated that as me saying (Swinney) is dead. I’m just saying Kirby is better right now and that’s how I feel based on what I see. I analyze college football in the moment. I’m not a historian, I’m an analyst.”

Finebaum added that he’d have Swinney as the third-best current college football coach, which is hardly an insult:

“Don’t give me five years ago. (Dabo) is still here. I would say Dabo Swinney is the third best coach in college football. Is that an insult? No,” said Finebaum. “I’m just saying Kirby is better than he is. The coach closest to Nick Saban in college football is Kirby Smart.”

Smart obviously led the Bulldogs to the most recent national title. We’ll see if he can win a second championship to match Swinney this fall.