AMELIA ISLAND, FL ‒ We begin with the obvious oddity: in five years of the transfer portal, Clemson has signed five players.
Lane Kiffin signs five in one afternoon.
So it should come as no surprise that when asked about his recent wave of portal signings – three in one offseason! – Clemson coach Dabo Swinney stayed true to a process that has delivered seven College Football Playoff appearances in the last 10 seasons.
“This is how we go about our business,” Swinney said, while attending the ACC spring meetings. “We’re just being who we are, and not apologizing for anything.”
But make no mistake, Clemson finally jumped into the transfer portal this offseason. Even if it was in the shallows.
When you go from signing two backup quarterbacks (neither was expected to play) early in the evolution of the portal, to declaring your locker room is your transfer portal, to signing three players this offseason after a first-round loss in the College Football Playoff, that’s no coincidence.
Or maybe it’s just Clemson adjusting in a changing world it has no control over.
Blue chip defensive end recruit Bryce Davis flipped his commitment to Duke last August, and backup defensive lineman A.J. Hoffler left for ACC rival Georgia Tech after the season. Then there’s wideout Noble Johnson, who left for Arizona State.
BEST OF BEST: Our ranking of college football’s top 25 coaches
All three were expected to contribute this season, and all three left significant questions. So Swinney signed his first non-quarterback (edge Will Heldt of Purdue), and the best Championship Subdivision wide receiver in the portal (Southeast Missouri State’s Tristan Smith).
He also added Alabama linebacker Jeremiah Alexander, who Clemson recruited hard in 2022, as a top backup.
So just to recap (and before everyone gets sideways about Clemson’s new change in philosophy): Swinney signed a backup linebacker, a No.3 or 4 receiver, and a starter on the edge in Heldt, who was one of the best defensive players in the Big Ten by the end of 2024.
That, everyone, was Clemson’s big splash in the portal. Its change of philosophy.
“We haven’t changed anything,” Swinney said. “We’re still doing the same thing we’ve always done. Just following our purpose.”
That’s what’s so unique about the portal moves that really weren’t. They were tactical, and they were purposeful.
They were fits.
The danger in the portal era is in one-year mercenary signings, players who have a year of eligibility remaining or who know they’re leaving for the NFL after the transfer year, and aren’t invested in the team’s philosophy or chemistry. They’re interested in money, and moving on.
The fallout, if you’re not careful, erodes what coaches and players take years to build. There’s a locker room dynamic that already is tenuous, with most players essentially on one-year deals.
When mercenary signings arrive with big paydays, bad individual fits can soil a team-first locker room and generate a potentially combustible situation — and season. An ecosystem of young egos that already is fragile in the era of transfer portal and free player movement can flip with one player.
“They are really committed guys,” Swinney said of the three transfers. “They love Clemson, love their teammates and are easy to coach.”
Don’t tell Swinney he has changed his ways, don’t tell him he has finally submitted to chaotic roster and team building in the portal era. That he has embraced the portal and all its flaws because there’s no alternative.
He’s still the same driven and foundational secure wall he was as a walk-on wide receiver at Alabama in the early 1990s. Doesn’t mean he can’t or won’t change, it just means he believes in a philosophy that has led to double-digit win seasons in 14 of the last 15 years — the only outlier a nine-win season in 2023.
So yeah, he knows what he’s doing, thank you.
Like he knew he had to fire defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin, who coached with Swinney in some capacity over the last 13 years and most recently running the defense for the last three seasons.
But when the defense couldn’t get off the field, and left the Clemson offense with little wiggle room in big games, change had to happen. So Swinney hired Tom Allen away from Penn State to run his defense.
Allen, of course, fits. He not only is one of the most respected teachers in the game, his unique family-driven personality was the nucleus of his LEO (Love Each Other) mantra at Indiana and the foundation of one of the best Hoosiers teams in decades in 2020.
He fits Clemson because Swinney isn’t bringing someone into his world that doesn’t, or may not. Just like the three players he signed from the transfer portal.
They fit with a team that returns 16 starters, and a hot quarterback (Cade Klubnik), and a roster that felt what it was like to play in the CFP for the first time since 2020. Swinney says he isn’t changing, but he sure isn’t going to roll into a season with roster deficits from a process he can’t control.
Especially with a team with so much potential.
“We’re lifelong learners,” Swinney said. “If you show me somebody who’s great at anything, I’ll show you a lifelong learner.”
Why would anyone apologize for that?
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.