Dabo Swinney Says Tigers Considered Taking Portal Player at One Position - Swinney revealed the Tigers were considering adding a player from the portal going into the spring

As Clemson was attempting to wrap up its 2024 recruiting class, the Tigers went after a handful of transfer offensive linemen.

However, each elected to go elsewhere, and Dabo Swinney ultimately elected to give those spots to high school prospects.

In an appearance on ACC PM on Tuesday, the longtime head coach said that while the Tigers ended up being the only Power-4 school that didn’t add at least one transfer, that wasn’t necessarily the plan originally.

“Well, it wasn’t really necessarily an intentional thing,” Swinney said. “There were a couple guys we looked at. They gotta love you too. And honestly, every player is technically a transfer. We just signed a whole class of guys transferring from high school. So we like our guys. We like our starters.”

Swinney would then reveal a little of how the process works behind the scenes.

“We look at every position,” he said. “We say, ‘Hey, okay, Coach (Mike) Reed, you’re gonna get two corners. Do you want a transfer?’ ‘No sir, I like my guys. Here are the guys we’re recruiting.’ There’s a lot that goes into it.”

Swinney did say there was one position they were openly looking at heading into the spring, and that was center. Although, after what he saw from Ryan Linthicum and Harris Sewell, as well as Trent Howard, during spring practice, the staff decided to stick with what they currently have on the roster.

“Honestly there was really only one spot on our team that we felt like, because there was not necessarily a gap in age but just experience, and that was at center,” Swinney said. “And we looked at a couple guys but we really wanted to get through this spring. But man, we really love what Ryan Linthicum did. That kid has been there for three years. We really love what we saw out of him, and Harris Sewell , who ended up starting as a freshman for us last year. This kid has his whole career. Trent Howard , who’s a senior for us this year.

“When you evaluate what’s out there, you compare it to where you are, and we decided to stay the course. It’s not just a Coach Swinney thing. This is a collective group of people who are all aligned with our team. Love these guys.”

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