Though Dabo Swinney has lost some talented players to the transfer portal such as former quarterback Kelly Bryant, running back Tavien Feaster and linebacker Shaq Smith, he has yet to use it himself.

When asked if he would use the transfer portal if he was in a sticky situation like he was four years ago when he recruited Isaiah Simmons and K’Von Wallace in the late stages of the recruiting process, Clemson’s head coach admitted he probably would not.

“To me, I mean, like I say, we haven’t recruited a transfer portal (player). There is not anything wrong with that, it just hasn’t been what we needed to do,” Swinney said. “I hope we don’t have to do that. I think at that time those guys were seniors (in high school).”

Even in situations where Clemson loses so many players from one area to the draft or graduation, like it did after the 2015 season when three of its four starters in the secondary—Mackensie Alexander, Jayron Kearse and T.J. Green—left school a year early to enter the NFL draft, Swinney prefers to recruit the high school players.

“Do a good job of evaluating and developing. That’s just my mindset. That’s my philosophy,” he said. “There may come a day where maybe we have some guys leave that you didn’t know. All of a sudden you get some guys injured, something like that. Maybe it’s later in the process, maybe spring or summer, something like that, where you might have a specific need. I don’t know. I’ll figure that out as I go. It’s not really where we are right now.”

Instead, Clemson is a program that continues to produce top 10 recruiting classes year in and year out and it rather continue to bring in its own players and develop those players, instead of pulling from the transfer portal.