Dabo Swinney doubles down on misperception of Clemson's transfer portal usage

No coach has become the face of resistance to the transfer portal like Dabo Swinney of the Clemson Tigers. Despite the perception that he’s completely against it, Swinney believes in using it in the right situations.

Swinney has explained his feelings on the portal before, arguing that the Tigers have found success being selective in the portal. Now at the ACC Spring Meetings, he’s made a point of doubling down on that usage.

“The sad part about that is we’ve signed five guys in five years,” Dabo Swinney said. “But, for some reason, nobody would celebrate Hunter Johnson. Poor guy. Nobody celebrates Paul Tyson, but that’s what we needed. It’s not the first time we’ve used the portal. We’ve signed five guys in five years, but for whatever reason, people get excited about things.”

At one point, the concern was that Dabo Swinney and Clemson had taken a step backward in the transfer portal era. Prior to the transfer portal rules changing in 2021 to allow for more freedom of movement, Swinney won two national championships and six straight ACC titles. Since then, they’ve only won two out of four ACC titles and even failed to reach 10 wins in 2023.

That slight step back in success led to concerns about Swinney’s roster building. From 2021 through 2024, he took three transfers total, including zero in 2024. However, making the College Football Playoff last season did show that there is success to be had with the Clemson model.

“Honestly, the only thing that put us in the portal, as I’ve said many times — we’re not against the portal. We’ll use it when we need it, and we have. But, this year, we had a defensive end that decommitted from us right at the last minute. So, there wasn’t a high school kid to get. I’m like, ‘Okay.’ And then we had another kid who transferred. So, we’re like, ‘Well, we’ve got to go find a d-end.’ We got Will Heldt. Our process was exactly the same. Perfect kid. The exact fit. They had fired his coach. So, it was the right timing,” Swinney said.

“We needed a linebacker. We went and got Jeremiah Alexander, who I’ve known for a long time. He’s from my rival high school in Alabama, Thompson, and it was the right fit for him. Then, we had two receivers leave. We had [Troy] Stellato, [who] went to Kentucky. We had Noble Johnson, who went to Arizona State. So, we need to go find another receiver from a depth standpoint. We got this kid, Tristan Smith, from Southeast Missouri.”

Clemson currently has the 37th-ranked transfer class in the 2025 cycle, according to the On3 College Football Team Transfer Portal Rankings. That’s with just seven players exiting the program and three entering it.

“So, timing of things, especially when the high school signing day is,” Swinney said. “But everybody’s stayed with us the last three years in this crazy, crazy time of college football. We lead the nation in graduate but we also are at the top of the nation in retention. Meaning fewest players leaving your program. That’s what most people don’t understand. When you have the highest graduation and the highest retention, well, if you take a bunch of portal guys, you got to run a bunch of people off. Our kids stay and they graduate, and it’s been a formula that’s worked for us… and they win.”

Dabo Swinney like likely going to stick with his approach to the transfer portal. It’s a tool to use in need but not lean on. For now, it’s worked for him, and with high expectations on Clemson in 2025, it looks like it will continue to work.