Opposing coach defends Swinney's use of the transfer portal

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Dave Clawson is past the point of caring what others think about his use of the transfer portal, and he thinks Dabo Swinney doesn’t have to use it the way other schools do.

The Tigers and Demon Deacons renew acquaintances this weekend when No. 10 Clemson (4-1 overall, 3-0 ACC) travels to Winston-Salem to take on Wake Forest (2-3, 1-1). Clemson is attempting to win its 16th consecutive game against Wake Forest to take sole possession of the longest winning streak in series history (passing its 15 from 1977-91). Clemson’s current 15-game winning streak against Wake Forest is the Tigers’ longest active winning streak against an ACC foe.

Clawson was asked this week about Swinney’s non-use of the portal.

"I mean the one thing, first of all, I respect Dabo a lot, and I like Dabo. My 11 years in the league, his 17, I mean our wives have gotten to know each other. There's a trip that we do, and he believes in what he believes, and the level that they recruit at with high school players is a really high level,” Clawson said. “They're still signing national classes. And if you look at Clemson, they don't lose a lot of players in the portal, so they don't have as many needs as other schools do that are losing 30 kids.

“I think at one point, I think us and Clemson lost the two fewest amount of teams in the portal. I don't know if that's still accurate or not, but if you look at the top 15 or 20 teams in the country that lost the fewest amount of players, us in Clemson are always up there. So because of the level that they recruited at in high school and the fact that they have very little attrition, they don't lose 30 and 40 players like some of these schools that are signing 30 and 40 transfers.”

Clawson said people don’t like to hear the truth about the portal.

“And again, people don't like it when I talk about this, but I'm past the point of caring,” he said. "When you go to the portal to fix problems, it is super expensive, and I'm sure Clemson has the money to do it, but then the problem becomes when you bring a guy from the outside, and you have to pay him two, three and four times more than you're playing the players on your own team, what does that do to the locker room? And there are a lot of teams in the country that, yes, they're signing high level players, but when those guys get a lot of money and don't work out, don't think that that doesn't cause issues in the locker room and create more turnover for your football team the next year.

“And so I think he believes in the guys he's recruited, I think he believes in his coaches. And to me there's part of this is keeping your locker room together.”

Signing players can cause issues in the locker room, Clawson added, saying, “If you just go out and whatever, sign a guy for a million dollars or if you need a corner and you go sign a corner for $750,000 and the other player who's a really good player and your other starting corner, who's an ACC player, if you're not giving him that same amount, what do you think happens to him?

"Then there's the impact of doing that. And this isn't the NFL, right? And everyone forever just got a scholarship. So all these imbalances in NIL, it impacts your locker room. And so I think he's very consistent, and I think he's put a lot of thought into it. I don't think it's, I reject the portal is part of why they win. And I think part of why we win is our locker room and the culture and what we've developed, and there's a tipping point when you go into the portal and start spending a lot of money on players that didn't come up in your program. And unless your collective is so big that you're able to take care of the better players in your program at the same level, it's going to create more problems, and it's going to provide answers.”

According to Clawson, Swinney does it the right way.

"You look at the players he has. I mean, they're good players, and they're playing at a high level, and I mean, I think he's won a few national championships, and I'm sure his fan base expects that to happen every year,” he said. “The guy's been there 17 years and won 174 games, so he's doing something right, and he's outlasted a lot of people who have had opinions that he's not. So again, I consider him a friend. I like him, I respect him, and I think he does a great job, and I think what he does works for Clemson."

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