The Athletic: Clemson 'The Outlier' In Portal Recruiting

For better or worse, Clemson remains the team in college football that doesn’t dig deep in the transfer portal.

The Athletic’s Max Olson listed the five types of teams in portal recruiting. The Tigers were in the section called “portal denier.” Dabo Swinney sticks to what’s brought him two national titles and over a decade of 10-win seasons.

When asked last month, Swinney detailed the importance of evaluation with his staff. In a perfect world, Clemson does their due diligence in recruiting so it doesn’t have to worry about the chaos of the portal.

Still, Olson wonders what it would be like if Swinney opened the door for recruits who would love to join the program.

His dedication to the evaluation, retention and development of high school recruits has yielded two national championships. Sure, Clemson has extended offers to a small number of transfers in recent years, primarily plug-and-play offensive linemen, but backup QBs Hunter Johnson and Paul Tyson have been the program’s only transfer additions in the past three years.

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.

The Tigers remain the only Power 5 team in this cycle to land zero transfers this offseason, but it’s not like Clemson is out chasing for it. Things could change with upcoming NCAA portal changes, and it could lead to a shift in the system.

When the NCAA approves unlimited transfers and this becomes full-on free agency, it’ll be even tougher for programs to avoid portal recruiting altogether. Plenty of coaches have similar philosophies to Swinney when it comes to constructing their roster but have conceded they need transfers to improve and sustain.

The answer will always be “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and that’s held true for Clemson over the last decade and a half. If the Tigers fall out of relevance, there’s a discussion to be had but that feels far from possibility.