Over the past several years, Clemson fans, and college football fans in general, have watched as college football became more professionalized, and no school has been immune.

While it’s not a full-blown professional model, there are a lot of similarities. With the advent of NIL, the transfer portal, and now revenue sharing, many schools are doing things that NFL teams have always done when it comes to putting together a roster.

That includes cutting players, an idea Clemson’s Dabo Swinney maintains he will never embrace.

“No. As long as a kid does what he is supposed to do here, he is going to have an opportunity to graduate from Clemson,” the head coach said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “That is just the way it is. It is always going to be that way as long as I am the head coach.”

Swinney has always viewed his relationship with his players kind of like a marriage. Once they’ve signed, Swinney is committed to seeing that player through to graduation. From the walk-ons to the highly-touted recruits. Even if they never see the field.

“If a kid comes to Clemson, he is a good kid and he is not a good enough player; that is on us,” Swinney added. “Long as he goes to class, he is a great effort guy, he is a good citizen, it’s till graduation do we part.”

During Swinney’s tenure, the football program at Clemson routinely produces one of the highest graduation rates in the country. The program is always ranked among the nation’s best in Academic Progress Rate.

And that kind of success, Swinney really takes pride in, and the head coach has no plans to change in that regard.

“We have led the nation in graduation the last three years, too,” Swinney said. “And for a long time, we have been Top 10 academically. 14 years. That is the number one thing in this program is graduation.”

Photo by Bart Boatwright