Clemson coach Dabo Swinney explains why Tigers took no players from the transfer portal

Clemson joined Army, Navy and Air Force as the four Bowl Subdivision programs to not land a transfer in the 2024 cycle.

The problem is the three service academies don't take transfer. The Tigers can.

Coach Dabo Swinney attempted to add an offensive lineman during the winter cycle, pursuing four of them, but all chose different schools. Clemson lost 10 players in the winter cycle, including starting wide receiver Beaux Collins and defensive back Andrew Mukuba, and two underclassmen in the spring.

In an appearance Wednesday on ACC PM on the ACC Network, Swinney was asked about being among those four schools.

"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. ...

"We had 127 players go through spring, and 125 are still on our roster post-portal."

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The Tigers' incoming freshman class ranks 11th in the country, according to 247Sports, and features two five-star recruits and 11 four-star players. They have leaned into their freshmen being impact players, like TJ Parker, Peter Woods and Khalil Barnes last season.

Swinney cited the graduation success rate for Clemson, pointing out the Tigers have the highest in all of college football in the last 20 years.

Still, Clemson failed to reach double-digit wins for the first time since 2010 last season and missed the College Football Playoff for the third straight year.

A potential need it could have addressed via the portal was offensive line since there is no starter for the center position yet and how the divided unit performed in its spring game in April. Both teams' running backs rushed for a combined 74 yards on 34 attempts, and the offensive lines allowed nine sacks. To avoid injuries to the quarterbacks, Swinney gave them non-contact status and quickly whistled a sack whenever a defender got within arms' length of the quarterbacks.

The Tigers open their 2024 season against Georgia on Aug. 31 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.