With Derion Kendrick moving on, will Clemson go to the portal for a cornerback?
Clemson has had two cornerbacks enter the transfer portal since the 2020 season ended — most notably Rock Hill native Derion Kendrick — and Dabo Swinney could go to the portal this offseason to bring in some help for the secondary.
Swinney has been against taking transfers since taking over the Tigers’ program in 2008, choosing instead to build Clemson’s depth by developing high school recruits.
However, the college football landscape is changing, and Swinney is willing to adapt.
It is widely expected that legislation will be passed this offseason which will allow college football players to transfer one time without sitting out a year. Once it does, the Tigers could take advantage of the new rule.
“We’ll see what happens after spring. We’ve never really been in this world that we’re in now,” Swinney said. “We don’t have our head in the sand... There’s a lot of things that you have to consider, but that is a position and something we’ll talk about later on that you may consider.”
Clemson has a set number of how many scholarship players it wants at each position, and with Kendrick and LeAnthony Williams no longer with the program as of this winter, the Tigers are down at cornerback.
In an ideal situation, Clemson would have seven or eight scholarship corners on its roster, according to Swinney. The Tigers currently have six: Andrew Booth Jr., Mario Goodrich, Sheridan Jones, Malcolm Greene, Fred Davis and Nate Wiggins.
“We’re down at corner from an overall numbers... but the six that we have are elite players,” Swinney said. “They’re not all elite at Clemson yet. But they’re elite, talented guys that we think have the ability to really develop into great players.”
That complicates the decision for the Tigers.
Kendrick was a first-team All-ACC selection last season and is an NFL talent. If the Tigers are going to bring in someone to replace him, it will have to be a similar caliber player.
“We’re not gonna jump in the portal and bring a backup in here,” Swinney said. “We’ll give those reps to the other guys. It’d have to be an elite, multi-year starter, all-conference type of guy that can come in here and help us.”
Otherwise, the Tigers will stick with who they have.
Even without Kendrick there is still plenty of talent returning. Booth was named second-team All-ACC last year, while Jones started eight games and Goodrich started four. Greene added three starts, and Davis appeared in 11 games.
“We had a lot of young guys play last year. I mean we lost three starters from the secondary (in 2019). Some guys kinda took their lumps a little bit. Had some injuries. Guys got their noses bloodied. But guys get better,” Swinney said. “I’ve been around a lot of guys that weren’t maybe great as a freshman or great as a sophomore and they were all conference, all American as seniors.”
