This past offseason, Clemson signed three players from the NCAA transfer portal – former Alabama edge rusher Jeremiah Alexander, former Purdue defensive end Will Heldt and former Southeast Missouri State wide receiver Tristan Smith.

Dabo Swinney isn’t sure exactly how many players Clemson will add via the transfer portal in the 2026 cycle. But Clemson’s head coach knows it will be a bigger transfer portal class this offseason than last.

“You don’t have any choice,” Swinney said during his signing day press conference on Wednesday, when discussing the transfer portal.

Swinney says “nothing has changed” as far as Clemson’s transfer portal strategy going into this offseason, though the Tigers will have to take more portal players this year due to various circumstances.

“Nothing has changed with us as far as what puts us in the portal,” Swinney said. “What puts us in the portal is we can’t get the top high school kid that we want, or we get a decommit. Some of these kids will decommit two weeks before signing day. If you get a decommit, it’s hard to replace that with the high school kid this late. It’s really hard. So you’ve got a gap, so you’ve got to go fill that, and that’s just part of it. So, that’s the first thing that puts you in the portal.

“Or you have somebody who leaves that you didn’t want to leave. Well, that puts you in the portal. Because again, you’ve got to fill your number, and there’s nowhere to go get a high school kid in January, in December. So, you fill that. Or maybe you sign some guys that maybe somebody got hurt, or maybe there’s somebody on your roster that hasn’t quite developed the way you want for whatever reason… You’ve gotta fill that. So, we’ll have all those situations. We’ve had a few decommits, so you’ve gotta go replace that.”

As things stand now, Swinney doesn’t know the specific number of portal players that Clemson will pursue.

“I don’t really know,” he said. “I know what our needs are, but I don’t know if we’re gonna sign two guys or we sign seven guys. I have no idea, because our roster is not settled.”

Swinney noted that the Tigers have juniors with NFL Draft decisions to make, as well as players who will enter the portal.

“We’ve got guys that have to make decisions,” he said. “We’ve got a couple guys that are gonna, for sure, I already know, gonna go in the portal. And that’s great. It’s a great opportunity for them. And then we’ll have maybe a couple more that haven’t made up their mind, and we might have a junior or two that are gonna go pro, or stay. So, those things are all really fluid until they become reality.”

The NCAA has moved college football’s transfer portal season from December to January and shifted to a single transfer window.

Players will have a 15-day stretch from Jan. 2 through Jan. 16 to formally enter their names in the portal.

“The good news is the portal has been moved,” Swinney said. “I still think it needs to be changed, but it’s in a better spot so we can focus on this part of it, and then you can kind of see how your roster shakes out and you fill the gaps that you have.”