Dabo Swinney Makes His Perception On Transfer Portal Crystal Clear

On the third day of the ACC Football Kickoff event in Charlotte, North Carolina, Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney addressed his transfer portal use, or their lack thereof, throughout the offseason.

Swinney explained that the reasoning behind the Tigers' apparent lack of transfer portal use is due to the program not viewing the portal as a mandatory necessity given their high school recruitment and development of players.

“I’m not anti portal," Swinney said. "I’m pro the young men, talented young men, that I believe in on our team that believe in me, that believe in Clemson. If you look at the guys that have left Clemson, the great majority of them, they just want to go play and that’s the majority of guys that are in the portal. They’re guys that want to play.”

Swinney would continue by stating the program's consistency in recruiting as an additional reason for his stance.

"We’ve had 14 top 15 recruiting classes in a row, so we’re very consistent," he said. "We sign the great players. This year we think we’ve got one of the best classes in the country and that’ll probably prove out. It always shows up four years later when it really counts, but we love the kids on our team, we believe in him.”

Swinney insisted that his transfer portal usage is a result of his current situation at Clemson, making a bold proclamation regarding the transfer portal if his circumstances were different.

“If I took a job somewhere else today, half the team would leave, and I would be the greatest portal recruiter in mankind,” Swinney said while getting a chuckle out of the media assembled. “Because I can’t just go sign 50 freshmen, I gotta go get dudes and build my roster.”

Swinney proceeded to say that the transfer portal is a very useful tool for coaches, but is one of the top priorities for his vision for Clemson at the moment.

“I think it’s great, it’s a great tool for coaches, because you don’t have any time to build a program," he said. "In the old days, you could take a job you got four or five years and you better figure it out. Now you’ve got two, and if you don’t get it done in two years, then you’re dead in the water.. So I think it’s a great tool for the kids and for the coaches. But in Year 16 for us, we just haven’t been fully pushed into that.”

While the college football landscape continues to change in various ways, Swinney and the Clemson Tigers continue to do what they view is best for the program. As the program looks to return to its first appearance in the College Football Playoff since 2019, it will be a storyline to follow if a different hand is dealt in the future.

Clemson opens their 2024 campaign from Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium against the Georgia Bulldogs in the Aflac Kickoff game on Aug. 31 at noon (ET), which will air on ABC.

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