Swinney says Tigers have looked in the portal, but haven't found the right fit

Dabo Swinney says the transfer portal recruiting just didn't work out.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Dec 20 15:31:03 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Dabo Swinney and the Clemson football staff have made offers to players in the transfer portal and kicked the proverbial tires on a few others, but right now, he is happy taking the high school players who committed Wednesday.

During Wednesday’s early signing period press conference, Swinney mentioned a few times that they would have taken a portal player in a few situations - if Barrett Carter had not come back or if certain high school targets hadn’t committed for example – and I asked him his thoughts on how the Tigers are using the portal.

He said the Tigers have made offers to players in the portal.

“I think it was four. I think it was four guys that we went after in the offensive line. Actually, a couple of other guys that we made phone calls to, but it just wasn't an interest, and a couple of other guys that just weren't right fit for us. Again, it's not a lot of guys,” Swinney said. “You still have to be good enough. You still have to be the right fit. You still have to be an academic fit. Nobody talks about that. You got to be able to be eligible. So it waters it down.”

Swinney said that, as of right now, the Tigers don’t need to be major players in the transfer portal.

“It's just where we are as a program. We haven't gotten into the situation yet where we've had big, massive gaps in our roster,” Swinney said. “So I'm glad we have Tyler Brown for a few more years instead of just one. I'm glad we have Antonio Williams for a couple more years. I'm glad we got Cole Turner for maybe four more years. You get this year back (for him).

“We've won. I know we only had eight wins this year, but there's only two other teams that have had 13 eight-plus win seasons in a row. That's Georgia and Alabama. I think that's just how we've done it. We've been consistent with graduation, and we've been consistent with winning because of how we recruit. Again, we evaluate everything every year. We get a situation where we think -- and if you bring somebody in, you have got to let somebody go. That's the way it works. I love the guys here.”