Clemson football: Dabo Swinney’s first transfer portal addition is so predictable
Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney has finally accepted a transfer addition and it’s incredibly on-brand for the anti-portal coach.
Dabo Swinney has been plenty willing to express his dissatisfaction with the transfer portal over the years.
To his credit, he’s walked the walk in addition to talking the talk.
He has never dipped into the transfer portal. Until now.
On Monday, quarterback Hunter Johnson revealed he’s transferring to join the Tigers for the 2022 season.
Hunter Johnson is returning as Dabo Swinney’s first transfer portal addition
It’s a fitting transfer considering Johnson started his career at Clemson. Leave it to Swinney to make his first official transfer portal addition a former player.
Of course Dabo Swinney's first ever transfer addition is a former Clemson player. It just makes too much sense. https://t.co/q0BOB3oy3H
— Chris Hummer (@chris_hummer) January 17, 2022
The “portal” in the sense of there being a database where players available via transfer are listed and organized has only existed for a few years in college football. So technically Johnson is Swinney’s first portal addition.
However, Swinney has brought in players from outside before. It just hasn’t happened very often.
Previous Clemson transfers include linebacker Kellen Jones from Oklahoma in 2012, quarterback David Olson from Stanford in 2014 and kicker Steven Sawicki from North Carolina A&T in 2017, according to Ben Portnoy of The State.
Sawicki was an FCS transfer, Olson was a grad transfer and Jones had to sit out a season before becoming eligible.
Undoubtedly, Johnson is the first transfer the Tigers have added since the “portal” came into being and 247Sports started tracking these things.
Maybe this is just the beginning of Swinney embracing the free agency element of college football. It’ll take more than a quarterback like Johnson, who will provide depth and experience but isn’t likely to command a starting role, to prove it.
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