Those who have followed Dabo Swinney for any amount of time know that the veteran Clemson coach has been reluctant — at best — to go after players in the NCAA transfer portal.
Swinney has been firm in sticking to his proverbial guns on the issue. He believes that the old-fashioned ways of recruiting players out of high school and developing them into bonafide college athletes is the proven way. “The right way,” as former Tigers linebacker Ben Boulware told The Athletic’s Grace Raynor for a lengthy profiled piece on Swinney and Clemson back in January.
But with the transfer portal set to become even more expansive and unpredictable when the NCAA approves of unlimited transfers with no loss in playing time (in other words, college sports’ equivalent of free agency), Swinney may soon have no choice but to accept the changes around him and to step up his recruiting efforts through the portal.
Until then, Swinney’s reluctance has earned him the rather unique label of “portal denier” in the words of The Athletic’s Max Olson, who recently wrote about “the five types of college football programs you meet in the transfer portal.”
Writing that Clemson remains the “outlier in the portal recruiting world,” Olson notes that the Tigers have extended offers to only a handful of transfers via the portal since 2021. That was the year the portal exploded after the NCAA voted to allow student-athletes to transfer once and become immediately eligible at the next program of their choosing.
While Olson admires Swinney for the way he runs his program, he also envisions a world in which Swinney embraces the portal.
“Imagine how many players would want to transfer to Clemson with its staff, infrastructure, trophies and NFL Draft picks. The Tigers would likely be doing well in this pool if they ever cared to jump in. They’ve dealt with attrition like everyone else, with 33 scholarship players transferring out since the end of the 2021 season. Still, Swinney is doing what he believes is best for his program culture.”
Olson adds that Clemson is the only Power 5 (soon-to-be four) program that has yet to sign a single transfer this off-season.
“Iowa has typically been very selective with transfers in recent years and only took one this offseason: five-star tackle Kadyn Proctor, who has already bailed to go back to Alabama. The list of programs on the low end of transfer commitments so far includes Michigan (two), Stanford (two), Northwestern (three) and Virginia Tech (four). Some schools have stricter transfer standards than others, though it’s notable new Northwestern coach David Braun has mostly stayed out of the portal despite the program losing 14 scholarship transfers since July. We’ll see whether the spring window changes the calculus for a few of these teams.”
And whether Clemson and Swinney can remain “portal deniers” for much longer.