Dabo Swinney has been beating this drum for years now.

Clemson’s head coach is, and has been, decidedly in favor of moving up the early signing period for high school prospects.

“If you go back about seven years, before we ever even had an early signing period, I was beating that horse,” Swinney said.

As for when exactly Swinney would like the early signing period date moved up to, he says it doesn’t matter to him.

“I just want them to move it up anywhere — I mean, whether it’s first of December, middle of November, August 1,” he said. “I could care less.”

All that matters to Swinney is moving up the early signing period so it’s earlier than when the transfer portal opens, that way high school prospects wouldn’t be as negatively affected by their scholarships getting taken away and given to targets in the portal.

“I’m for anything earlier than the portal, because I think it really hurts the high school kids. I really do,” Swinney said. “So, I think it gives the high school, an opportunity for those kids to be signed before the portal opens. I think that’s a positive.”

Swinney said there was “a lot of talk” at the coaches convention about potentially moving up the early signing period.

“We had a lot of conversation about that at the coaches convention, and I actually spoke on that some in our private meetings there,” he said.

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