ESPN’s Trevor Matich joined the ACC PM show on the ACC Network Thursday afternoon.  Matich addressed the narrative by some about Swinney’s reluctance to adjust to the new landscape of college football with the transfer portal and NIL.

“That is a tough one isn’t it because there has been a lot of criticism coming down on coach Swinney because of all of that,” he said.  “I can tell you I think Dabo Swinney is one of the greatest coaches of his generation.  I think he is phenomenal.”

“What I think happened was a sea change that happened all at once.  All at once and I think it caught him a little bit by surprise.  If you go back before that when he was first hired to be the head coach at Clemson had not had a contribution to the athletic department of a million dollars.  Not a single one.  And coach Swinney was able to get multiple donations of a million dollars plus and that was a big change.  That is one of the reasons that their facilities basically surpassed almost everybody for a long time and they are still counted among some of the best in college football,” said Matich.

Some of the things that have attracted many of the best prospects in the nation to Tigertown are taking now not enough for some.

“But the NIL and the transfer portal thing is an instant thing.  And a lot of the players that normally would come to Clemson because of the development as future NFL players, because of the family atmosphere and it is an amazing family atmosphere that takes a back seat to cash doesn’t it,” said Matich.

The NFL veteran wondered if Clemson will struggle to compete with some others in the new world of NIL.

“I have to wonder and I don’t know this.  But because Clemson is in such a beautiful small town environment I have to wonder how far up field they need to go to really get a lot of NIL dollars focused in on that program.  Maybe it is there and it is easy and they are doing it.  Maybe it is more difficult.  A lot of the programs they are competing with are in environments where there are a whole lot of people and a whole lot of business and it makes it a lot easier to get those contributions.  So these are things that I think Clemson is going to need to iron out because for all of the greatness for coach Swinney and the way he has built up a national championship program cash is what is going to matter to recruits going forward more than anything else,” said Matich.