Dabo Swinney rejects his 'anti portal' perception: 'We just haven't been fully pushed into that'

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has built up the reputation in college football landscape as a bonafide winner. Leading Clemson to two national championship wins and eight ACC titles during his tenure with the Tigers.

But lately he’s also gained the reputation of a head coach not willing to evolve with the changing times, sparingly using the transfer portal in what now seems to be an essential part of recruiting in sports.

At ACC Media Days on Thursday Sweeney addressed his transfer portal use, or lack thereof. Explaining why the Tigers have not needed to resort to the transfer portal given their high school recruitment and development of players.

“I’m not anti portal, I’m pro the young men, talented young men, that I believe in on our team that believe in me, that believe in Clemson,” Swinney said. “If you look at the guys that have left Clemson, the great majority of them, they just want to go play and that’s the majority of guys that are in the portal. They’re guys that want to play.”

“We’ve had 14 Top 15 recruiting classes in a row, so we’re very consistent. We sign the great players, this year we think we’ve got one of the best classes in the country and that’ll probably prove out. It’s always shows up four years later when it really counts, but we love the kids on our team, we believe in him.”

While other schools look in the transfer portal to replace key contributors, Clemson looks from within. With Swinney feeling like all the production he needs is already on his roster and that brining in more competition will only make matters worse.

“We lost [Jeremiah] Trotter to the NFL, and you know people say well you go get a porter linebacker. Well I got Wade Woodaz,” Swinney said. “I mean if I go get a portal linebacker now Wade’s gonna leave. That’s my guy.”

“They want me to go get this great running back, [Will] Shipley goes pro. I got [Phil] Mafa. You go get a guy with a portal, they don’t want to come back up Mafa. But from time to time you may have a guy, we just haven’t had that.”

Swinney insisted that his transfer portal usage is a product of his current situation at Clemson, making a bold proclamation regarding the transfer portal if his circumstances were different.

“If I took a job somewhere else today, half the team would leave. And I would be the greatest portal recruiter in man kind,” Swinney said getting a laugh out of the ACC Football Kickoff crew. “Because I can’t just go sign 50 freshmen, I gotta go get dudes and build my roster.”

“I think it’s great, it’s a great tool for coaches, because you don’t have any time to build a program. In the old days, you could take a job you got four or five years and you better figure it out. Now you’ve got two, and if you don’t get it done in two years, then you’re dead in the water .. So I think it’s a great tool for the kids and for the coaches. But in Year 16 for us, we just haven’t been fully pushed into that”

While college football continues to change in various ways, Swinney in the Tigers continue to stay the same and do things their way. And it will be fascinating to see if they do change regarding the transfer portal in the future if a different hand is dealt to their program in future offseasons. As they’ll look to return to the College Football Playoff since 2019 following five consecutive trips to the CFP.