Dabo Swinney addresses solution to Clemson football's roster limit problem

With spring ball in the rearview mirror, Clemson is in a unique position. The Tigers are currently over the scholarship limit, which means Dabo Swinney might have some big decisions to make.

That could start with walk-ons who earned scholarships.

The Tigers currently have 88 scholarships, according to TigerNet’s David Hood, and that number will need to come down by August. Swinney told Hood that conversations have started about cutting down scholarships. Exit meetings are underway after spring practice, and he said it’s all about taking players’ temperatures following the spring. Swinney said he has about “40 more to do in the next week or so” and no player has said they’re leaving the program.

Without any departures, though, Clemson could be in an interesting spot with so many seniors returning.

“We didn’t anticipate seven seniors coming back,” Swinney said. “I told Tyler Davis today, ‘If you had told me this time last year that I would be meeting with you again, I would have said, sign me up for that.’ Obviously, Sheridan [Jones] and [Jalyn Phillips] and Ruke [Orhorhoro] and [Will] Putnam and [Xavier Thomas] and [Justin] Mascoll and those guys coming back put us over. We do a good job of managing our roster, but that put us over. Unfortunately, we always have a couple of walk-ons that deserve a scholarship sometimes you have one, and sometimes you have none and sometimes you have a couple. Last year we were able to put [Holden] Caspersen, the snapper on. He deserves it.

“Hunter Helms, and then Domonique Thomas. Those are three guys that came here as walk-ons, and all of those guys we felt earned scholarships. But in a situation like this, that is where you would have to start. Who knows, though, what will happen? We have until August. Somebody may leave, I don’t know. We’ve got a plan and we will be at 85 when we get to September.”

Swinney is a former walk-on himself as a wide receiver at Alabama and eventually earned a scholarship. So, he knows how that grind can go. That’s why he makes sure to let the walk-ons know there are no guarantees year-over-year, and this situation proves why.

“They all know. We tell them upfront. We can’t guarantee you this next year but hopefully, we will be able to keep you on,” Swinney said. “It’s always a year-to-year thing. But it’s different than when a guy signs with you out of high school. But even here, we have to have a pecking order. The last guy we would take off would be Hunter Helms. He is a very proven guy that is a leader for us, and that could play for us if we needed him to. He knows what to do. We just have to see how it works out. It is what it is. That is the life of a walk-on.”