Most transfer portal players ‘aren’t good enough’ for Clemson, says Dabo Swinney

Even if it were true, why would he ever say this?

Dabo Swinney has been one of the premier coaches in college football for the last 10 years. He brought Clemson to the college football playoffs six years in a row, winning two national championships, and is still considered a top-3 coach in the country.

On the other hand, over the last three years, the production on the field hasn’t quite played out as Clemson fans had hoped. It certainly hasn’t upheld the standards set before NIL became legal in 2021. The three years before NIL (excluding 2020), the Tigers went 51-3. However, three years since, Clemson had a record of 30-10 with a steady decline into last season.

There is an obvious correlation between NIL and the regression of Clemson football. And yet, Swinney insists that transfer players aren’t good enough to play for Clemson. Ohio State, Alabama, Texas, and the other high-level programs find transfers good enough to play for them, but not for a 9-4 Clemson football team last year.

Not sure what would lead any head coach to say something like that, but the prospect of any transfer, even one deemed worth by Swinney, coming to Clemson has probably been lost.

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but stubborn ones can learn — they just refuse to do them. At 56 years old, Swinney is just above the average age of college head coaches, making him the latter.