Clemson coach Dabo Swinney is totally right.
Most of the more than 3,200 players in the transfer portal are not good enough to play for his program, as Swinney recently said.
And there are many ways of building a roster. Some choose to go almost exclusively to the transfer portal, others simply dip into the portal for key pieces while another very small percentage of coaches choose not to use it much at all.
Swinney falls into the last category, and has drawn plenty of criticism for it.
But you know what else Swinney does? He keeps Clemson in the College Football Playoff conversation.
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Let’s not fool ourselves: Winning the transfer portal rankings or getting some flash players who are looking for a restart might seem nice, but Clemson absolutely does not need to go there to win big.
From 2016 until present day, three programs have won more than one national championship: Clemson, Georgia and Alabama.
Kirby Smart is now seen as a recruiting savant and college football god. Nick Saban was the best college football coach of all time.
And then there’s Swinney, who is forced to defend his coaching philosophies to Tyler from Spartanburg on his weekly call-in show and get critically asked about his transfer portal position incessantly at the ACC spring meetings.
It got so frustrating during a disappointing 9-4 season that Swinney said some Clemson fans have a “terrible mindset” – and he was right. So do some regional and national media when it comes to Clemson and how Swinney runs the program, a system that has unquestionable success even if he is missing the transfer pieces that may – or may not – help in the long run.
Just because everybody is jumping off the transfer portal bridge doesn’t mean Clemson has to as well.
Since 2015, the Tigers have won 86.5 percent of their games. Georgia has won fewer during that stretch at 85.4. Only Alabama is higher at 90.5, but if the comparison to Swinney is Saban, that’s incredibly unfair.
Swinney has had one losing season (2010) at Clemson, 12 straight double-digit win campaigns, two nine-win years and an undefeated season. Prior to Swinney taking over, the Tigers had seven double-digit winning seasons in program history dating back to 1902.
So what if he had some ick comments recently when he said Clemson just signed a whole class of transfers … from high school. The poor guy is looking for any explanation people will understand as to why he’s not dipping into the portal for just anybody.
There are some land mines to circumvent. Losing defensive backs Andrew Mukuba and a young talent such as Toriano Pride Jr. to the portal does not help but not everything is going to be perfect.
Quarterback Cade Klubnik, a former five-star, has to play better this season and the offense should hum more. Yes, perhaps more playmakers at receiver wouldn’t hurt, maybe some better offensive line play. But who has the perfect roster? We all know offensive coordinator Garrett Riley is aching to open up the offense more and score points.
In almost every measure, Clemson still has one of the best programs in the country.
A coach who’s still young and has already won multiple national titles and has an irrefutable track record of winning. An impressive and growing crop of NFL players who can always be utilized in recruiting. A first- and second-round NFL Draft pick following a disappointing 9-4 season (in which two losses came in overtime and another was by one score).
What the Tigers have is an unmatched culture that players such as Klubnik, five-star Peter Woods and many others gravitate toward.
In Clemson’s two-deep for this season, there are no expected transfers. That should be considered a good thing since team chemistry and talent is still super high. The Tigers should be favored in every game except the opener against Georgia (the Florida State matchup should be a push).
Swinney knows how to build a roster. He knows how to win. He has a proven track record of both. Clemson fans should not lose sight of the forest for the transfer portal.
He doesn’t deserve grief and criticism. He deserves streets named after him.
