It seems like every week at Dabo Swinney’s press conference a reporter asks about the transfer portal. And the increase in injuries plaguing Clemson on both sides of the ball continues to bring up the topic.
But the Clemson head coach seemed fed up on Tuesday about the idea of bringing in another player and fired back at a national writer who questioned Swinney about transfers.
“Boy the weekly transfer portal question,” Swinney said. “Man is it like who has the short stick this week? I wouldn’t do anything differently. To do something differently means I wouldn’t have taken one of the kids we took.”
To date, the Tigers have stayed away from the transfer portal and focused their recruiting efforts on high school kids and replacing injured players with those on the roster.
After Will Shipley fell to a knee injury at North Carolina State earlier this season some questioned whether Clemson should turn to the portal for an experienced running back.
“Should I take a veteran over Shipley and Mafah because Shipley got hurt?,” Swinney asked. “I’m not, maybe you would if you were the head coach you can do whatever you want but I wouldn’t change anything.”
“Again, I’m not opposed to the transfer portal, I’m not, it’s not some anti-transfer portal deal,” Swinney said.
Swinney reiterated that he has not ruled out the portal as a future option if a player leaves the program in the spring or summer ahead of an upcoming season and Clemson needs to fill a void.
“Like I’ve said 100 times as I’ve answered the same question every single week, I have said this 100 times, if we need to use the portal, we will use it but I’m not going to do something just to do it,” Swinney said. “So I don’t know why everyone keeps asking me that.”
He highlighted the success his program in its infancy through recruiting high school kids rather than selling out for graduate transfers.
While Swinney is not against the transfer portal, he does think it hurts the chances of high schoolers to pursue opportunities at the college level.
He finished the rant with a joking invitation for more questions about the topic.
“Does anybody have any more dang questions about the portal?,” Swinney asked. “I can’t help guys get hurt.”
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