Kirby Smart is envious, in a way, of Swinney's portal platform

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Georgia head coach Kirby Smart is envious of the way Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney handles the transfer portal.

Swinney and Clemson made news during the spring when the Tigers joined Army, Navy and Air Force as the four Bowl Subdivision programs not to land a transfer in the 2024 cycle. Swinney said the players tried to add depth at a few spots but it didn’t work out.

"Well, it wasn't really necessarily like an intentional thing," Swinney said. "There were a couple guys we looked at. They gotta love you, too. And honestly, every player is technically a transfer. We just signed a whole class of guys transferring from high school, so we like our guys. We like our starters. I’m just for the guys that we have.”

Smart – the Tigers and Bulldogs kick off the season Saturday at Noon - was asked on Monday if the lack of transfers makes Clemson an easier team to evaluate.

"Yeah, I think that's much ado about nothing," Smart said. "You have who you have. Right? So in the spring, you have, I'm going to guess, 90-95 percent of your roster. You might pick up some after that. I think everybody makes a big deal about that."

In the ACC, a transfer-bolstered Florida State won the conference title last season while Miami, Louisville, California, North Carolina State and Syracuse all have top-25 transfer classes for this fall. However, Swinney has noted he feels like he doesn’t HAVE to use the portal.

“If I took a job somewhere else, I’d be the greatest portal recruiter ever because half of my roster would be gone, and I’d have to put it together,” Swinney said. “But if you study our team, our retention is as good anybody in the country. Guys graduate, they stay, and we recruit.”

In the ACC specifically, schools added an average of 14.8 transfers, with 2.2 of those being four-star talents. Over the past few seasons, Clemson has added backup quarterbacks Hunter Johnson (from Northwestern in 2022) and Paul Tyson (from Arizona State in 2023).

Smart signed the country's No. 1 recruiting class in 2024, but 21 players left his program via the portal.

"I'm like Dabo. If I could keep my entire roster my roster, I'd be all for keeping my roster my roster," Smart said. "I believe in the kids we sign, I believe in the kids we recruit. I want to grow them to get better. It's not realistic to think you're going to keep all your players right now. What is realistic is you need to be operating with as much depth as possible, and it's made it tougher to do that."

However, Swinney's decision not to use the portal has not resulted in Clemson's roster lacking talent. For the third year in a row, the Tigers are No. 5 in the 247Sports Team Talent Composite.

"But as far as evaluating the opposing team, whether they have kids or don't have kids, one thing you know is they're going to know their system because they've been in it," Smart said. "They're not new to it. They're ingrained in it. They know their culture, they know who they are, they know how they play, they know what their standard is. That, to me, is you can be envious of that. The fact that they have the guys that have been in their program and are still in their program."

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