Swinney says Tigers are built different, don't have to use the portal right now

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney says they surveyed a very small pool of transfers and settled on one at this point.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Dec 22 07:00:05 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON – Dabo Swinney says there will come a time when Clemson has to use the transfer portal to fill gaps in the roster, but that time is not now.

Twenty-six high school players signed National Letters of Intent to play football at Clemson on National Signing Day Wednesday. Clemson also announced the addition of one scholarship transfer and one preferred walk-on.

The one scholarship transfer – quarterback Paul Tyson – represents Clemson’s action in the portal to date, and I asked Swinney about his feelings on the portal during his Wednesday press conference. Swinney he understands that some schools have to use the portal, but Clemson isn’t one of them.

“It depends on where you are. For some places, that's the only way you can build. Because maybe you're just getting that job and maybe you're having to flip an entire roster. That's not us,” Swinney said. “We've had 13 top 15 recruiting classes in a row. 12 ten-plus win seasons in a row, seven out of the last eight years, conference championships. I mean, we've been incredibly consistent.

“And there could be a gap. As I've said, last year we tried to get a couple of high-level OL. Both of them turned out pretty good. It's a very small pool. I don't care how many people are in the portal when what we're looking for is a very small pool. And so otherwise, it's not right for us. It has to be the right fit. And again, you have to have the right need there, but you're not going to just bring a guy in just to bring a guy in. So, we'll use it as needed when we need it. But right now, yeah, I wanted to get the guys we signed, that we wanted, and that's how we've always done it.”

Swinney then said that the Tigers have been actively looking for players, but they haven’t found a mutual fit.

“If we have a need somewhere along the way and we reach out sometimes there's interest. We've reached out to several people,” Swinney said, “We've reached out to kids this cycle. Some we've evaluated are not the right fit for us, some we're not the right fit for them, whatever. But it's a constant. It never stops. But as far as flipping our roster through the portal, that's just not where we are as a program.

“If I was somewhere else and I've taken over a program, you probably wouldn't have a choice because you might have a bunch of guys leave or whatever, and you got to be able to get older quicker, and that's not where we are. We love our roster, and we love the developmental process of where we are. But again, from time to time, you might have a spot that you have to address and just hasn't happened for us yet. It will, there's no doubt.”