Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney says not much has changed as far as the Tigers’ transfer portal approach and how his program utilizes the portal.

“Yeah, really nothing’s different than it’s ever been,” Swinney said during Thursday’s Gator Bowl coaches press conference. “We evaluate the portal, just like we evaluate anything else. We got a huge staff that is on top of that stuff, and if we feel like that there’s a need, then we’ll try to fill that need. Just like we’ve signed a couple kids the last couple years that fit a need for us.”

Swinney noted there’s been some other portal players that the Tigers have gone after in the past but weren’t able to land.

“We’ve tried in a couple other spots the last couple years on guys that we felt like kind of would not just be guys coming in here, but really fit the bill, if you will,” Swinney said, “and we didn’t get them.”

While Swinney said “nothing’s really changed” with regard to the Tigers and the portal, he did mention one primary difference this year — that there’s one specific position the Tigers are focusing on addressing following recruiting misses.

“So, nothing’s really changed for us with the exception of this year, we’ve got one position in particular where we’d like to find a couple of guys that maybe have multiple years of eligibility. And really, that’s only because we missed out on some of the top high school kids that we were after,” Swinney said.

“So, that’s probably the main thing that’s different, so we’ll see how it all plays out. But again, it’s a two-way street – you can like people all you want, but they’ve got to like you, too.”

Swinney added the Tigers “don’t have a lot of spots open” on their roster and he guarantees “when it’s all said and done, we’ll fill our roster out.”

“We really like the guys that are returning, and we think we’ve got a great recruiting class that’s coming in,” he said. “But there’s potentially a couple spots that we probably need to fill, and again, we’ll see how it goes.”

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