ESPN personality says Dabo Swinney 'weathered the storm' in portal era to make Clemson a contender

Dabo Swinney is looking to make it another CFP dynasty run after going 2015-20 with Playoff appearances previously.

Brandon Rink · Assoc. Editor / Staff Writer · Monday, May 12 2025

Dabo Swinney had no shortage of critics as the seasons pressed on with the advent of the transfer portal and his Clemson football program not using it like the rest.

Without an impact addition until the December 2024 portal window, Clemson still made a return to the top of the ACC and therefore clinched its first College Football Playoff bid since the 2020 season.

ESPN college football host Matt Barrie says he admires how Swinney has gone about things in this era of the sport, and he believes the Tigers are one of the top teams in the nation.

The Tigers' 2024 season success may have turned the tide in that national media thinking, as evidenced by multiple No. 1 or at least Top 5 preseason rankings this spring.

“Why? Because he stuck to his philosophy – I am not gonna go build through free agency. What I’m gonna do is I’m gonna find guys that fit my culture, I’m going to develop them and I’m gonna use the money I do have at Clemson to keep them around and reward the guys that have worked their butts off to be a Clemson football player," Barrie said recently on the Gramlich and Mac Lain podcast. "And everyone rips him, they’re like, ‘Good luck with that.’ OK, well, he just won an ACC Championship a year ago and played in the College Football Playoff by doing it his way. He did it his way. And so, what’s wrong with that? And so now what people are saying, they're like, 'Hmmm.'

"He’s got everybody returning, he’s got a veteran quarterback, and he’s added some talent via the portal. Maybe Dabo had it right all along – that finding guys that fit the Clemson way are better than finding guys that are just highly ranked to be on a roster."

Barrie joins the crowd this offseason tabbing the Tigers as a contender in 2025, invoking the names of some recent Clemson QB greats for what Cade Klubnik could become.

"I would put Clemson up there among the top 3-5 teams in the country," he said. "This is the year that they’ve been waiting for, for a couple of reasons. Cade Klubnik came out, he was the No. 1-ranked dual-threat quarterback in the country. He was the popular guy when DJ (Uiagalelei) was struggling, came in, gave them a little burst, but then he kind of started slow. Now he’s there, he’s been there, he gets it. This is the team that gets Clemson back into the conversation that we had when they had Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson.

"They were the team to beat coming in, and I love that Dabo didn't change philosophy -- he altered it a little bit by adding a couple portal guys. I find his story absolutely brilliant, because in a day and age where college football peer pressure is a thing, he was like, 'This is who I am, and it will work,' and he weathered the storm, and look, it's working."