What Dabo Swinney said about Clemson football’s activity for spring transfer window
Clemson football was the most active it has been under Dabo Swinney during the winter transfer portal window.
Will that continue into the spring transfer window, which runs from April 16-24? That remains to be seen, according to Swinney.
“We don’t need anyone right now. We feel good where we are. But that is me sitting here today. Ask me next week. Who knows?” Swinney said after Saturday’s Orange and White Spring game. “Those are things you have to respond to. If everybody stays, we feel good about our roster. We got a lot of work to do but we are ready to go to battle with the guys we got.”
Swinney pointed out he is going to have to trim the roster anyway even if no one leaves. The NCAA is instituting a football roster cap of 105 players in conjunction with direct payments to players through the landmark House vs. NCAA court settlement. A hearing on the matter is set for Monday. Teams will have until the first game to trim their rosters.
Within that 105-player limit, conferences set scholarship counts. The ACC hasn’t announced one, but the Southeastern Conference is moving forward with a 85-player football scholarship count plus 20 walk-ons. The Tigers had 51 walk-on players on the 2024 roster.
Plus, Clemson has been good at not losing players to the transfer portal. Clemson only lost five players during the winter transfer portal window and lost just two last spring.
“Who knows? We will see. We have been really good about retention and I would expect that to stay the same,” Swinney said. “But maybe there are guys who move on. But I don’t have any idea. I don’t lose any sleep over it. Whatever happens, we will respond to it.”
Swinney has been criticized by national media for his lack of use of the transfer portal over the last few years. But he pointed out Saturday that he was also criticized for sticking with QB Cade Klubnik, who came under fire after his sophomore season. But the Texas native and ACC Championship Game MVP responded with a big year, throwing for 3,649 yards and accounting for 43 touchdowns. Vegas Insider has Klubnik with the fourth-best odds to win the Heisman trophy.
“As long as we are getting guys that we think will come in, buy in and develop, that is the route we go. If you get a gap in your roster or have kids leave post-spring, there is no high school kid to go get, we will use the portal,” Swinney said. “We signed five guys in five years, that is probably the fewest of anybody. But they all fit our needs and have been exactly what we needed.”
Clemson was the only non-service academy that didn’t sign a transfer for the 2024 season, and signed two total transfers (both third-string quarterbacks who never started a game) since the portal was created in 2018.
Portal players shine
After last season ended, Clemson signed three transfers in the winter window — WR Tristan Smith (Southeast Missouri State), LB Jeremiah Alexander (Alabama) and DE Will Heldt (Purdue).
Both Smith and Alexander shined in the spring game. The 6-foot-5 Smith had five catches for 137 yards, including a 72-yard touchdown grab in the second half. Alexander had a game-high seven tackles, including four solo.
Swinney said Saturday they hadn’t planned on adding a linebacker until possibly the spring but couldn’t pass up on someone like Alexander, a former five-star prospect.
“We needed a guy like Tristan that was long and had some confidence, had some production. But a guy that isn’t going to come in here and just show up and be the guy. We got guys like that. We need him to go earn it, compete and make the group better. That is what he has done,” Swinney said. “Jeremiah, we were not going to take a linebacker. We probably were going to take one in May. But when he came available we were like, ‘Let’s go get that guy. He is a perfect fit for us.’”
One position of interest for Clemson, from a portal aspect, is punter. Longtime starter Aidan Swanson graduated last year, and the only other true scholarship punter on the roster (Jack Smith) has just five career punts.
Outside of Smith, scholarship kicker/kickoff specialist Robert Gunn III is working at punter and Clemson has Will McCune, a walk-on who previously played at FCS Charleston Southern.
During the spring game, Smith punted twice for 77 yards (38.5 average, long of 39) and McCune punted once. Swinney said postgame the team’s punting battle had been “competitive.”
“More work to be done there,” he said. “We like our guys.”
This story was originally published April 6, 2025 at 8:00 AM.
