Dabo Swinney has been reluctant to use this portal, that’s no secret.
However, his comments surrounding the ever-growing nature of the NCAA landscape that the portal has created on Tuesday show that has changed as we reported in last night’s Insider Report.
“There’s not a school in the country that’s not going to have to recruit the portal,” Swinney said Tuesday. “That’s what’s been created. There’s not a school, anywhere, everybody in Division I football is going to have to deal with the portal in some form or fashion because you’re gonna have gaps in your roster, somewhere. Again, you have until May 1 to say ‘I’m out’ and that’s the world we’ve created now. It’s just the way it is. I don’t like it, but that’s the way the world is. You just deal with it.”
Swinney has never said that Clemson won’t use the transfer portal, rather he’s indicated that the Tigers haven’t had to use it just yet. Of course, Clemson has lost four players to the transfer portal in-season: Lyn-J Dixon, Joseph Charleston, Michel Dukes and Paul Tchio, but that’s an unfortunate part of the roster attrition that’s taken over college football over the past couple of seasons.
“We’ll deal with it like everybody, but we won’t be as affected as a lot of these programs because it’s just who we are,” Swinney said. “It’ll still be different for us, but hopefully we won’t have to. We’re not gonna just do it, to do it. It’s gotta be strategic. It’s gotta be the right fit. It’s gotta be the same criteria.”
Swinney clearly didn’t dismiss the notion of using the transfer portal, rather all the stars will need to align for Clemson to bring in a player via the portal.
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