Dabo previews Clemson football’s 2026 transfer portal strategy, roster plan
There’s no way around it: Clemson football needs a major talent infusion in 2026.
The Tigers were a preseason top five team and viewed as a national championship contender heading into the 2025 season. But their lack of depth and skill at various positions — including but not limited to safety — has tangibly hurt them.
Coach Dabo Swinney and defensive coordinator Tom Allen have even publicly acknowledged at various points this season their personnel hasn’t been up to par.
Some of those issues certainly fall on coaching. But a lot falls on the players Clemson is trotting out onto the field, too. And, given how much proven talent Clemson is already losing from this year’s roster to the NFL Draft (as many as four first-round picks), it makes Swinney’s 2026 roster construction that much more important.
Swinney went deep on the team’s offseason roster management plan during his weekly Tuesday news conference ahead of Saturday’s home finale vs. Furman.
Here’s what he said Clemson will do — and won’t do — to fill out next year’s roster.
How many players will Clemson take in transfer portal?
Clemson’s hesitancy to use the portal under Swinney has been well-documented. The Tigers bucked that trend last year, though, when they signed three transfers.
Defensive end Will Heldt, wide receiver Tristan Smith and linebacker Jeremiah Alexander have all started games and been impactful for the Tigers in 2025, a good sign that that Clemson knows what it’s doing in the portal.
So, the big question: How many portal guys will they take for 2026?
Swinney’s not ready to put a specific number on it.
“We’ve got a few spots. … We’ve gotta just see how it all shakes out,” he said. “There’s no number. We know right now, if everything stays the same, we’ll need a couple.”
Swinney said Clemson’s portal philosophy hasn’t changed, and his team will only look to the portal in specific instances: When they “don’t get what we need” out of the high school recruiting pool, when a recruit decommits, or when they have an unexpected transfer or departure.
Clemson (5-5) will clinch bowl eligibility if it beats FCS Furman at home on Saturday. That would extend the Tigers’ season roughly another month and have 2026 roster construction starting in earnest after their bowl game.
The NCAA’s new portal window runs Jan. 2-12, 2026.
“We’re gonna know what we need,” Swinney said. “Because, again, we know what we’re fielding high school-wise, and then you know who’s leaving on your roster, whatever your retention situation there is, who goes pro and all of that.”
Retaining best players: Not as clear cut as it was last year
For years, retention was a given at Clemson. Will that be the case this season?
Despite a disappointing season on paper, the Tigers still boast tons of promising underclassmen. Wide receivers Bryant Wesco Jr. and T.J. Moore and linebacker Sammy Brown were key parts of Clemson’s 2024 ACC title team and are positioned as three-and-done players. Others, like freshman offensive lineman Brayden Jacobs and running back Gideon Davidson, have shown enormous potential.
Holding onto players of that caliber hasn’t been a problem for Clemson in the past. And they’ll be in position to do so monetarily, with roughly $15 million in revenue-sharing money (and a number of high earners on this year’s team going pro).
But could a bad year at Clemson prompt foundational pieces of the roster to look elsewhere? Could the Tigers suffer some out-of-the-blue departures who are frustrated with their playing time, or want a better shot at winning a national title, or take a high offer elsewhere? It happens just about everywhere else.
“I don’t know,” Swinney said. “You never know. … Those are all real-time things as they come about. But we’ve got a great group of guys that I think love Clemson and came here for the right reasons. You just react to whatever comes your way.”
Swinney added that Clemson football has a strong retention rate because it communicates with its players daily about how they’re feeling, where their head is at and their future at the school.
“That’s not just something we do just once a year,” Swinney said.
Could Dabo trim roster by cutting players? No way, he says
Swinney often talks about how Clemson has limited “spots” for transfers.
One big reason for that is the retention Swinney mentioned — and his willingness to keep players on his football roster for years, even if they’re not exactly contributing.
At many colleges, coaching staffs will find ways to trim their roster. That could mean encouraging — and often helping — a second- or third-string player transfer to a lower level of competition so they have an opportunity to play. It could also mean cutting players outright. But Swinney said he will never do that at Clemson.
“If a kid comes to Clemson, he’s a good kid and he’s not a good enough player, that’s on us,” Swinney said. “As long as he goes to class, he’s a great-effort guy and he’s a good citizen, it’s ’til graduation do us part. That’s just the way it is.”
Swinney, however, did not rule out veteran players or graduates leaving Clemson in search of more playing time elsewhere and said his staff was ready to help them find a soft landing spot at another school.
That could fix one of Clemson’s root problems: The Tigers have elite retention, but some of the players they’re retaining year after year aren’t elite.
In a lot of programs, scholarship players who don’t make a dent in the depth chart after a couple seasons are asked to leave. Clemson will never be that way as long as Swinney’s the coach, he said. But he indicated he’s expecting some of that player-driven attrition after the 2025 season ends.
“We’ll probably have some guys move on, guys that just want to go play that haven’t really had as much opportunity to play,” Swinney said. “That’s all part of it.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2025 at 2:27 PM.
