Dabo Swinney continues defending antiquated approach to talent acquisition, capping Clemson's ceiling

Every six months or so, Dabo Swinney gives a State of the Union on Clemson’s recruiting methods. 

While it’s not always the same speech, the explanation for the Tigers’ exclusivity in how the program approaches talent acquisition remains universal. 

Last October, Swinney compared other schools tossing out early offers to blind marriage proposals, explaining that Clemson would never participate in such a process. In his final press conference before Clemson’s spring game Saturday, he reiterated that stance, saying, “We just know what we’re looking for.”

“We’re not all things to all people. I think we’ve offered 55 or 56 kids so far in this class of ’25. Our hit rate is really high. If we offer a kid, there’s a good chance we might get him. I’ve just always wanted our offer to mean something. I’ve never really wanted to water our brand down and offer kids that — they’re not even interested. That’s part of it. But I just think evaluation is key, retention is key, development is key. You win with people. That’s how we’ve won here. We’ve won with consistency and we’ve won with those areas: Evaluation, retention, development.”

He later added, “We just always wanted to be slow and right, not fast and wrong. We’ve made some mistakes in the past like anybody, you’re never going to bat 1.000, but the thing is, we know the fit here.”

On the surface, Swinney’s latest comments aren’t overly illuminating. Ever since Swinney has been in charge, the Tigers have long taken a unique approach to roster building. 

And for a while, it worked. 

Swinney turned a middling program into a powerhouse, winning two national championships and dominating the ACC. He was consistently signing Top-10 recruiting classes and landing elite quarterbacks and wide receivers.

The Tigers became the model program for loyalty, too — both with players and coaches — as there was very little turnover on the roster or staff. 

“There’s a lot of things that go into our process,” Swinney said. 

“Because again, this has not been a catch-and-release place. It’s not been our mode of operation around here. To each his own, I just feel like when a kid comes here, it’s our responsibility to graduate him.”

It’s a very admirable sentiment. It’s also why Clemson isn’t an annual national championship contender anymore. 

On Clemson’s gradual decline from as an elite program

The college football landscape has changed — specifically with the transfer portal and NIL — yet Swinney’s continued insistence on refusing to deviate from a very binary approach has kneecapped Clemson’s ceiling as a program. 

They don’t offer 10th graders. They refuse to recruit grad transfers, and overall, appear allergic to the transfer portal in general. Swinney, who has made it clear that Clemson will never be a “pay for play” program, either, reiterating this week that “our NIL is for retention, not recruiting.”

“That’s been our approach. There’s some kids that are making a decision just on that, and that is fine, to each his own. You don’t judge people for what they think they want to do. But then there’s kids over here that, that’s important, but here’s what they’re really making their decision on. That’s the kids that come to Clemson.”

Recruiting — to landing prep prospects or transfers — is never black and white, yet Swinney continues to operate like the original Andy Griffith Show is the only channel on TV. 

“Honestly, it’s made my life easier,” he said this week. 

“It’s made it a simpler process for us. We don’t waste any time in recruiting. It’s pretty clear-cut and up-front — who really aligns with who we are, and who’s looking for something different.”

Georgia, Alabama and Ohio State — the three programs that landed the Top-3 classes in the 2024 cycle — use the majority of their NIL collective funds for retention and not recruiting, too, but there’s a delicate balance there as well. 

They also operate in the grey, and that’s why they are championship contenders on a yearly basis. 

Clemson hasn’t signed a Top 10 recruiting class since 2021. They’ve signed one transfer player in four years — former Clemson quarterback Hunter Johnson, who returned to the program to basically be a player-coach. For all the talk about how Swinney feels like he has a responsibility to graduate Clemson’s signees, 31 players have transferred out of the program in the last four seasons — many of whom went on to be major contributors at other Power Conference schools. 

When you refuse to backfill the roster with supplementary pieces from the portal (especially struggling units like OL, WR), then your depth (and talent advantage) vanishes and your team regresses. 

On a related note: The Tigers haven’t made the College Football Playoff in the last three seasons. 

The program’s OL recruiting has been particularly problematic in recent years, which credit to Swinney for at least going out and hiring Matt Luke this offseason. The former Georgia OL coach has paid immediate dividends on the trail by landing two Top-300 commits.

Swinney’s style clearly still resonates with some top prospects. The early returns for the Tigers’ 2025 class are strong, but his entire philosophical approach — from NIL to the portal — is unequivocally placing a cap on Clemson’s capability moving forward. 

When you don’t have magicians at quarterback like Deshaun Watson or Trevor Lawrence, who are capable of Houdini acts, then suddenly operating with one arm tied behind your back doesn’t work out so well. 

Clemson is still a great program in college football. But the Tigers are no longer elite, so for as loud as Swinney wants to holler about buying stock in the Tigers, the team’s gradual decline will only continue so long as he stubbornly sticks to an outdated approach.