College sports have gone through incredible change over the past few years. One of the biggest changes to that world, especially in football, is the transfer portal. Players, by the bundle, transfer across the country with great acceleration. Star players have made moves as well. It’s essentially become pseudo-free agency, and for the players, it’s for the best.
Coaches have been learning how to handle it. One coach that’s been almost outspoken about the portal, NIL, and otherwise, has been Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney.
Clemson has rarely used the portal or leaned into NIL while a plethora of programs have gone all the way in. So, why is that? Why has Clemson not gotten involved with the portal?
Swinney summed it up in his eyes, making a bold statement on it.
“There’s three types of players in the portal. I mean, it’s really pretty simple: Most of the guys aren’t good enough to play for us,” Swinney said on SiriusXM Radio.
"Most of the guys in the portal aren't good enough to play for us." @ClemsonFB HC Dabo Swinney explains to @RoddyJones20 the three types of players in the transfer portal and why none of them landed in Death Valley. #ALLIN
Hear the full interview: https://t.co/0qgyAQVk3y pic.twitter.com/9HFwUY4BfX
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) May 16, 2024
“That’s just the reality of it. We have guys that are backups at Clemson that go in the portal that want an opportunity. And most of them are graduates, by the way. But we have guys that are backups and they want a chance to go play. And I’ve got no problem with that,” Swinney explained. “Rarely do we have a starter who leave Clemson.”
Dabo explained that because of that, they have no reason to reach into the portal.
“We’d rather take a good high school player, as long as we can get him, and which we do, and we develop them,” he said. He explained that others go into the portal if they already know what’s there, and the other guy will go in there to “see what they can get.” Swinney admitted that “we’re never going to win hat war.”
They’re interesting comments by Swinney, but while the quote is initially attention-grabbing, the rationale is, at least, buttoned up nicely.
[College Sports on SiriusXM]
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022