Clemson football HC Dabo Swinney gets brutally honest on taking zero transfers in 2024

The 2024-25 Clemson football roster is earning high praise from head coach Dabo Swinney. The Tigers brought on zero players from the college football transfer portal in preparation for the season. Yet, Swinney provided eye-opening insight into the lack of transfers amid the team’s spring preparations.

Dabo Swinney joined an ACC PM broadcast to give his thoughts on Clemson’s zero-transfers move.

“Well, it wasn’t necessarily an intentional thing. There’s a couple guys we looked at…they have to love you too,” Swinney said via ACC PM, per Chapel Fowler. “Honestly, every player is technically a transfer. We just signed a whole class of guys transferring from high school.”

Swinney is not too concerned with not having any transfers join Clemson’s football roster. He has confidence in the stout talent the team already possesses.

“We like our guys. We like our starters…There’s a lot that goes into but we had 127 players go through spring and 125 of them are still on our roster post-portal,” Swinney explained.

“By the way, we don’t have many guys leave without a degree. We just had the highest graduation success rate in all of college football, and the highest I think in the Power 5 in the last 20 years. So to me, that’s good.” Swinney added.

The culture Dabo Swinney is promoting is admirable. However, fans want to see the team make changes to get back to the level they once were at.

Since 2009, Swinney has led the Tigers to four national championship appearances with two title wins. Yet, Clemson had not advanced to the title game since 2020 when the team was led by Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Swinney’s squad has maintained positive records but looks to take a big jump during the 2024-25 season.

Clemson football is ready to ascend once again 

The Tigers finished the 2023-24 season with a 9-4 record, which placed them sixth in the ACC standings. Clemson had several standout contributors, and like Swinney said, many of them will return in the Fall. The team’s offense will led by rising junior quarterback Cade Klubnik.

Klubnik had a career year in 2023. He threw for 2,844 yards and 19 touchdowns. His numbers were not the most eye-popping, but his improvement from his freshman year is promising. Coach Swinney passionately defended Klubnik during the 2023-24 regular season when the Tigers went through some offensive woes.

“He’s had a bunch of good plays. He’s had a few tough plays along the way. He’s growing,” Swinney said, via Barkley Truax of on3.com. “I think this kid is going to be amazing. It’s disappointing. Again, when we attack these kids, these people that sit behind these microphones — they get off by attacking people. And we’ve just made that acceptable in our world, it’s sad, man. Just sad.”

Despite the criticism, Swinney believes in Klubnik’s long-term potential.

“This kid works his butt off. He’s not perfect. He’s growing. I think he’s gonna be a superstar, I really do. He ain’t right now. But he’s a hell of a competitor. He gonna get better and better and better. I’ll go to battle with that dude any day of the week.”

It will be interesting to see how Klubnik and the rest of his teammates fare going into the 2024-25 season.