Breaking down Dabo Swinney's recruiting approach, lack of transfer portal activity

Few things in college football have been scrutinized as heavily the last few years as Dabo Swinney‘s approach to the transfer portal at Clemson, with the Tigers utilizing it far less than the majority of their power conference peers.

And Swinney doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to change that any time soon.

The ACC Network’s David Hale joined On3’s Andy Staples to discuss Dabo Swinney’s portal strategy, providing some unique factoids to lead off the discussion.

“Four teams didn’t take a transfer,” Hale began. “Army, Navy, Air Force and Clemson. Which one of these is not like the others? Is Dabo the type of person who will die on some hills? Absolutely he is. And that’s part of the fascination. I think this is sort of true in a lot of things, sometimes your best strength is also your biggest weakness sometimes.

“And so much of what has gotten Dabo to where he is in his life is a steadfast determination to do things my way no matter how many people tell me that’s stupid and won’t work.”

It’s hard to argue with Swinney’s overall success. After all, the man has won a pair of national championships. The more relevant question seems to be if the game is passing Clemson by.

Swinney’s best work came before open season on transfers and the advent of NIL.

In an effort to preserve locker room culture, Dabo Swinney has been very particular about any new additions to the team via the transfer portal. And he certainly doesn’t want to set precedent of portal players getting paid more in NIL deals than players who have come up through the ranks at Clemson.

“Look, the fascinating thing is I don’t think he’s against the portal philosophically but his approach is we’re not going to take somebody unless they’re a really, really good player,” Hale said. “And we’re not going to pay portal guys, we’re going to pay our guys. But effectively it’s like saying I want to buy a car, it’s got to be a BMW or a Porsche and I’m not going to pay more than like $20 for it. Yeah, you’re going to struggle to find one on the market at those rates.”

For every argument against Dabo Swinney’s approach, there seems to be at least a palatable argument in favor of it. For one, Clemson has proven to be an excellent developmental program.

“Some of those guys who did nothing for three years or four years would finally get on the field and be a difference-maker,” Hale said. “I mean he turned Kevin Dodd from a guy who had done nothing into a second-round draft pick. And that is like the end result of you sticking that out and not having the attrition. And to his credit, they’ve lost a few guys in the portal, but a good bit less than everybody else too. You can talk about bringing guys in, but they’re not losing key cogs in their team.”

Still, there are some what ifs about what might have been if Clemson had taken a different approach. One example Staples threw out was a hypothetical where Clemson had landed stud receiver Keon Coleman instead of Florida State. Would the Tigers have won last year’s game?

Or what about when Cade Klubnik was struggling? Should the Tigers have stood pat this offseason?

“It’s far off enough that you can’t help but ask maybe a veteran quarterback as a backup in the room would be good,” Hale said.

There are other position groups where the need for help is even more obvious.

“Wide receiver is a position, offensive line is probably a position where you didn’t need a superstar but you needed somebody,” Hale said. “You needed a warm body with some experience who could at least help. That receiver room has been so young for so long. Each of the last three years the best receiver has been a true freshman. And then those guys have not really developed because of injuries or whatever.”

The fascination is likely to remain, because Dabo Swinney’s approach doesn’t seem all that likely to suddenly change. The uber-successful head coach hasn’t made it a habit of swinging on a dime.

Moreover, Swinney tends to call it like it is.

“Part of this is I think Dabo’s blunt honesty of saying like, ‘This is what we think your value is to us. If you think your value is more somewhere else I’m not going to adjust who I am to satisfy you,'” Hale said. “And frankly I think there’s a lot of coaches around the country who would love to be able to say that, they just don’t have (the cachet).”