Patience Pays Off For Swinney
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It's been interesting to hear sports media takes on Coach Dabo Swinney's recent usage of the transfer portal and his outside coaching hires.
Most seem to think Swinney has had a change of strategy or is finally adapting to the current state of college football. They may be right.
But I have a different take, and it's based on how I feel Dabo has built and run the football program at Clemson from day one.
When the NCAA transfer rules changed a few years back, allowing student-athletes to play at their new school the first season of their transfer, we saw student-athletes take advantage immediately.
We also saw coaches begin to do the same. As each season passed, there was an uptick in transfer portal activity, especially on the coaching side of things. It seems as if many of the decisions made by other head coaches at other programs have been reactive rather than proactive.
This past season, only four programs did not take an undergraduate player from the transfer portal: Clemson, Army, Navy, and Air Force. The glaring outlier is Swinney’s program, which is the only school not affiliated with an active branch of the military.
Even ESPN created a graphic to reflect Dabo's alleged resistance to portal recruiting—and they would show that thing as many chances as they could. You all know the one I'm talking about; may it rest in peace.
In press conferences leading up to the opening game each season, Coach Swinney was asked ad nauseam about his lack of transfer players being added to the roster.
Although his answer has always been the same, stating he liked the players he recruited out of high school, and when the need arose, he would have no issue filling in roster gaps with portal players.
He also made it clear he had no interest in having @Clemsonfb participate in bidding wars to secure the commitment of high-profile players who were seeking a change in the environment.
Despite his consistent reply and his commitment to act accordingly, he was called "stubborn", "set in his ways", "unable to adapt", and "behind the times".
I don't believe he was any of those things. Instead, I believe he was observant—in the same way he had been as an assistant coach at Alabama and at Clemson—before he was hired as head coach.
When Dabo was hired as head football coach at Clemson University, he consulted a large blue notebook filled with all of the observations he had made and ideas he had come up with during his time as an assistant coach.
From this notebook, he created a blueprint that he would use to construct a college football program unlike any other in the country. Not only has his program elevated the culture within, it has produced nine ACC Championship titles, seven appearances in the CFP playoffs, two National Championship titles, and a staggering 99% graduation rate amongst its student-athletes.
From what I've heard, Dabo still takes notes. I would imagine that during this tumultuous and fluid time in the college football world, many observations have been noted in that large notebook of his.
I would also imagine he's been biding his time, watching and waiting, brainstorming, and creating a plan for how he would use the portal to best benefit Clemson and the culture he established.
I don’t know for sure, but my hunch is that these ideas would include a profile for the coaches he would need to employ to seamlessly integrate transfer students into the carefully curated, strong culture that Clemson football has made its identity.
To the outside world, taking the time to observe, create, and develop a way to do things the right way looked like stubbornness and an inability to adapt.
However, those conclusions about Dabo's portal behavior and lack of outside hires ignore his methodology and his undying commitment to the values of his football program. It’s the microwave mentality in a slow-cooker model.
Dabo Swinney has been intentional from day one at Clemson. He has been committed to putting his staff and players' needs first. His program is built on the importance of relationships: His relationship with his AD, his coaches, the student-athletes, their parents, and the students he recruits out of high school.
It only makes sense that a man who observes, thinks outside the box, develops a unique program, and serves the people he comes into contact with would not rush headlong into the tempest formed from the unstructured and reckless decisions that have led us to this point in the sport we all love over the past five years.
Thanks to rulings from the Supreme Court and the NCAA unable to provide reasonable guardrails for college athletics, Swinney put them in place for his own program.
It also makes sense that coaches like Tom Allen, Chris Rumph, Garrett Riley, and Matt Luke would be brought on board when either the time was right, or circumstances necessitated a change in their respective coaching positions.
Sure, it's very possible the conclusions I've come to may give him too much credit. I'm aware of the amount of speculation involved in this entire article.
But until the man himself denies any of this, it's what I'll choose to believe.
