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In today's era of college football, the transfer portal is something that teams have to utilize if they want to be successful. The current era requires adaptation, and one head coach that has been accused of the opposite is Dabo Swinney. The Clemson football team hasn't utilized the transfer portal as much as other programs, and they clearly aren't what they were before the portal became such a big part of the game.
Dabo Swinney recently sat down for an interview with On3, and he discussed his mindset on the portal. He utilizes it when he needs to, but he doesn't go overboard.
“We just do what's best for Clemson,” the two-time national champion said. “We've always done that, year in and year out, regardless of what that is. …You can't have the highest graduation rate in America, and you can't be top in the country in retention in this crazy free agent world, and go sign a million portal guys. So, you know, something's got to give somewhere.”
The Clemson football team has used the portal, they just don't typically pick up as many transfers as other big programs. Swinney seems pretty satisfied with how things are going, though.
“We're not against the portal. We've used the portal three out of the last four years,” Swinney continued. “We've used the portal. We've just signed what we need. The portal is a great tool. And again, everybody just likes to make up their own stories and narratives, and they like to get a bunch of clicks and all that, but, you know, in the meantime, we just keep winning.”
Has Clemson really kept winning though? Sure, they won the weakest power four conference last year, but they got bounced in the first round of the College Football Playoff. The only reason they made the playoff in the first place was because of the expansion and the new automatic qualifier rules. The Tigers used to make the playoff almost every year during the bulk of the four-year playoff era. Swinney led the program to two national championships. The Tigers stopped having that same success right around the time that the transfer portal became what it is.
Who knows if the lack of transfers is the biggest reason behind Clemson's recent decline, but there are a lot of people who think that it is. Dabo Swinney hasn't adapted like other coaches in college football, and he hasn't been as successful in recent years as he once was. The Tigers might continue to be good enough to win the ACC, but let's be honest: it's not that hard to win that conference.
