CLEMSON – Dabo Swinney’s transfer portal philosophy has been heavily scrutinized over the years.

The two-time national title-winning head coach has long maintained that if he felt he had a gap in his roster, he’d have no issues addressing those in the portal. However, until now, the Tigers had only taken a couple of backup quarterbacks out of the portal, neither making an impact on the field of play.

This offseason has been different. Swinney added three transfers to his roster. Clemson beat out Texas A&M and LSU for former Purdue DE Will Heldt, one of the top ends in the portal. The Tigers also added former 5-star Jeremiah Alexander to its linebacker room and WR Tristan Smith to its receiver room.

Swinney also added a huge piece to his coaching staff, luring defensive coordinator Tom Allen away from Penn State and his views on the portal are almost identical to Swinney’s.

“We were similar at Penn State,” Allen told Jim Coyle on ISB Radio. “You don’t lose a lot of players and there’s no need to go into the portal to replace them. You really want to build your roster from the high school ranks. You kind of say you want to build it through the draft and not by free agency. That’s kind of the mindset of both Penn State and Clemson. I think that’s important, but at the same time, for a variety of reasons – an injury, a guy chooses to leave who’s been there a few years – it’s hard to bring in a high school player to replace that older guy. I think that will continue to be the case here.”

Like Swinney, Allen preaches development and that is part of what attracted him to Clemson.

“It’s kind of a philosophical thing,” Allen added. “Some teams go pure portal, and once you go that route, it’s kind of hard to get out of that cycle. At the same time, it’s about player development here. We want to do a great job of that and don’t expect to have a high number of spots.”

“The 105 (new roster limit) will be a new world we’re dealing with, with roster management and how that looks, and the revenue share piece that’s coming into frame here in the fall. There’s a lot of exciting changes in college football and the portal is one of those. It can be positive or negative based on how people view it but I do think there is some good things about it.”

Year after year, Swinney has excelled when it comes to player retention. Clemson typically has far fewer players transfer out than most programs across the country. The Tigers had just five scholarship players transfer out following the 2024 season.

With that kind of retention, the focus can be placed on recruiting the high school ranks, and that is the way Allen prefers it.

“You’re trying to find the best fit for your culture, player-wise, and the more players you keep and can develop those the better off it is in the program. And we’re going to do a great job of that here at Clemson.”