Dabo Swinney: ‘Nothing has changed’ with transfer portal strategy entering offseason

Clemson hasn’t won a national championship since the introduction of the transfer portal into college football. Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney has been hesitant to recruit as many players from the transfer portal as some other high-level programs.

Fans have pointed to Swinney’s reluctance toward the transfer portal as a reason for Clemson’s 5-5 record this season. However, Swinney doesn’t plan on changing his program’s approach to the transfer portal.

“For the portal, nothing has changed for us, as far as what our approach is,” Swinney said Tuesday. “What puts us in the portal is not getting the best high school kid that we want, or a kid decommits late and you can’t replace it, like what happened last year. So, we went and got a little help because we had a gap.

“Or, you have a freshman kid that you have to overpay because I’m not gonna overpay for a freshman. I’ll pay more for a guy that I know what we got, as opposed to a freshman that you don’t. We’re gonna pay these guys well, but there’s a threshold. … You have guys leave on your roster that you didn’t want to leave. That puts you in the portal. You have to fill that gap.”

This past offseason, Clemson added just three players via the NCAA Transfer Portal, while losing eight to it. In total, since the introduction of the transfer portal, Clemson has lost 42 players to it and used it to add five.

As Swinney mentioned, he’s tended to rely on recruiting high schoolers instead. However, Swinney’s strategy isn’t nearly as effective when his recruiting classes aren’t as strong as they once were.

In 2020, Clemson had the No. 3 recruiting class in the country, according to Rivals Industry Rankings. The following year? No. 5. This past offseason? No. 23.

As Clemson has continuously failed to reach its previous heights, elite high school talent has become less interested in signing with the school. Dabo Swinney knows Clemson will have to use the portal to fill several holes in its roster this offseason.

“I don’t have a number. We know we got a couple of spots that we’ve got to fill, and we’ve known that,” Swinney said. “We’ve led the nation in retention the last three years, in the craziest time in the history of football. So, I would imagine we’ll still be right there, near the top in the country, in retention.”