AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — Though some in college football are concerned with all the lawsuits and craziness surrounding the game. Clemson is not one of them.
“I would say, on a scale of one to ten, we are probably a three. You manage things as they come,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said in an interview with The Clemson Insider from the ACC’s Spring Meetings at the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island.
Some outside of Clemson, even some Clemson fans, might not agree with Swinney. They feel with the program’s lack of using the transfer portal and not using NIL as a driving force in high school recruiting, that Clemson should be concerned.
And though Clemson is the only Power 4 school this year not to sign a player from the transfer portal, the program lost just two players to the portal during the spring-time period and six in the winter-time slot.
“There are a lot of people that are having to run kids off to create room because they have over-signed and things like that and we haven’t done that,” Swinney said. “No one talks about how we had the highest graduation rate in college football and the highest that has been reported in the last twenty years.
“So, there are a lot of good things going on. We are still very much purpose driven at Clemson in this world of transaction, if you will. We are still a very transformation program, and our kids love that and feel that. They have lots of success and do lots of great things.”
Heading into the summer, Clemson has 84 scholarship athletes on the football roster.
“Not everybody wants to be patient, or whatever it is, and fit or whatever. The opportunity has kind of been created where we kind of made it very easy to move on,” Swinney said. “You see a lot of movement in college football.
“With that context, to just have two guys leave (after the spring), and rarely do we have a guy leave without a degree. I think it is remarkable, and I think it is a testament to the people that we have there, our culture, how we go about things. Our process on the front end and how we handle the day-to-day at Clemson.”
Though Clemson has won 30 games in the last three years, and is not necessarily in a bad spot comparatively, Swinney feels the program is close to being back to where it was than most realize.
“We like where our team is. This has been a developing group for the last couple of years with some guys, but they have hung in there,” Swinney said. “They see their opportunity. They believe in Clemson. They believe in who we are.”
A limited number of signed footballs from Clemson’s 2022 class are still available. Get yours while supplies last! Visit Clemson Variety & Frame or purchase online!
