Joel Klatt critical of Dabo Swinney for approach to NIL, transfer portal

Following Clemson‘s stunning 28-7 loss to Duke on the opening weekend of the college football season, the vivisection of what went wrong has begun and it’s not particularly kind to coach Dabo Swinney. And needless to say the transfer portal has been a topic of discussion.

FOX analyst Joel Klatt sees one glaring area where Clemson has refused to keep itself competitive.

“Dabo is unapologetically against NIL and transfer portal,” Klatt said. “Completely against it. Will not embrace it. He has been so public about this that it’s going to end up hurting him. Because the fanbase, if you’re a Clemson fan, you’re like, ‘Hold on, man. You can’t play Monopoly and decide on your own that you’re not going to buy any houses on the property you own because you don’t think it’s right while everybody else buys houses.’

“You’re going to lose. There’s no other way around that.”

Clemson’s approach to build from within based on high school recruiting classes and development is an approach that was tailor-made for the sport not too long ago. The transfer portal and NIL have thrown that on its head.

And Klatt believes programs that don’t adjust, like Swinney’s, are potentially in danger of being left behind.

“We’re seeing this in real time, but it’s happened with other issues that programs failed to adapt to throughout history,” Klatt said.

But that doesn’t mean it has to be a death sentence. In fact, programs that have embraced the changes in the sport over the years have often thrived.

Klatt provided several such examples.

“How about Gary Patterson at TCU? Do you remember when he was all defense, no offense for a number of years?” Klatt said. “Won a Rose Bowl, did all this good stuff, then all the sudden it became painfully clear to him I better have a spread offense, particularly in this conference. What did he do, he went out and hired Sonny Cumbie and Doug Meacham and he got Trevone Boykin at quarterback and all the sudden they were a win away from the College Football Playoff.

“Same thing with Bob Stoops. Bob Stoops looked at his personnel, particularly his coaching staff, and he said, ‘You know what? We’re not recruiting at the right level and we’re not putting our players in position like I know we need to.’ He went out, he hired Lincoln Riley, a number of new staff member and what happened? They took off and their run continued. He adapted.

“Nick Saban adapted. This is the most famous one. Now he never really took a dip, but let’s face it, it started to become much harder for Nick Saban and Alabama to win with the style of football that he wanted to win with when he first started winning championships. And then he started facing guys like Cam Newton and Johnny Manziel and Deshuan Watson and he was like, ‘OK, nope, not gonna do this. This is too difficult. Let’s change.’ All the sudden Lane Kiffin‘s the coordinator and they changed their style of offense and obviously the rest is history, competing for national championships all the like. Those are examples of programs adapting, head coaches adapting and evolving really to the benefit of the program.”

When programs don’t adapt, they can often be left behind. Klatt pointed to a few examples from the facilities arms race era, which began some 15 to 20 year ago.

He noted USC and Miami as examples of two programs that didn’t invest and were subsequently left behind, whereas an Oregon, for example, double down on facilities investments and has become much more relevant as a result.

Will Swinney’s Clemson be the next cautionary tale, only this time with NIL and the transfer portal?

If Week 1’s early returns are any indication, sound management of the transfer portal might just be a serious key to success.

“Two biggest wins of Week 1: Florida State, Keon Coleman, he was out there,” Klatt said. “They did it through transfers. They had one of the best transfer classes in the country. They got the best player off three, four, five different teams to come to Florida State. Colorado. Sixty-eight new scholarship players, basically remade a roster through the transfer portal. Two biggest wins of Week 1.

“Meanwhile the team and coach that refused to play in that game, refused to put houses on Park Place, got beat 28-7. You see, the sport has changed. We no longer build rosters in college football through a three-year cycle of talent acquisition and development. That’s gone. That’s gone. That’s when you can rely on your culture. Now this is much more like the NFL. This is much more like a GM putting together a new roster every year.”