Clemson football: Dabo Swinney has brutally honest admission on transfer portal
By John Buhler
Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney doubles-down on how much he despises the transfer portal.
At 3-2 and absolutely out of the College Football Playoff picture, Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney remains steadfast in his criticism of the transfer portal and his reluctance to ever use it.
To date, Clemson has signed exactly zero players out of the transfer portal since it debuted on Oct. 15, 2018. While the Tigers have continually recruited top-10 class after top-10 class under Swinney, his holier-than-thou approach to the portal is coming back to haunt his team. Clemson may do things differently, but refraining from using the portal is a total competitive disadvantage.
“I’ve said this 100 times … if we need to use the portal, we’ll use it,” said Swinney. “There’s not been anybody from a grad transfer standpoint that could come here, that I felt like, and start. And so, we’d rather take the high school kid . . .We’re not 3-2 because we haven’t signed somebody from the transfer portal. Give me a break.”
Refusing to use the transfer portal is fine, but it makes it even more paramount to hit on as many signings out of high school as possible.
Clemson football: Dabo Swinney is not about to use the transfer portal now
There are parallels to Clemson not participating in the transfer portal and the NFL‘s Green Bay Packers not historically participating in free agency. They may like the guys they bring into their programs initially, but not being willing accept the fact that someone outside of it might be able to you win big is so archaic. Clemson could have used an offensive lineman or three this offseason.
Overall, a head coach cannot operate with this level of hubris and expect it to work out for him. Swinney’s contemporaries like Ryan Day, Lincoln Riley, Nick Saban and Kirby Smart are not above dipping into the portal to get a player they believe can help their team win. The transfer portal is part of the game now, so Swinney must adapt to college football free agency or Clemson will fade.
The reason Saban is still the best head coach approaching his 70s is he is always willing to adapt.
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