CLEMSON — Will Heldt started the spring game. Tristan Smith made the biggest play of the day and Jeremiah Alexander laid the lumber on Keith Adams, Jr.

Overall, it’s safe to say last week’s Orange & White Spring Game was a success for Clemson’s three transfer players.

“They all fit our needs, and they have all been exactly what we needed,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said.

The Tigers did need all three, as they seem to be the final pieces for a team that has the potential to make a title run. Swinney says whether the program uses the transfer portal or not, it will always be based on need and how the players fit in the program.

“As long as we get guys that we think will come in, buy in and develop, that is always the route we go,” he said. “But if you get a gap in your roster or you have kids leave post-spring or like what happened last year, you lose a kid and there is no high school kid to get of the caliber that we need, we will use the portal.”

Of course, Clemson went into the portal and pulled out Purdue star Will Heldt, as well as former Alabama linebacker Jeremiah Alexander. Smith was relatively unknown, as he transferred to Clemson from Southeast Missouri State.

Last year, he caught 76 passes for 934 yards and six TDs. At 6-foot-5, 205 pounds, he is the missing puzzle to a wide receiver room that is loaded with talent.

He led all the receivers last Saturday with five catches for 137 yards, including a 70-yard catch-and-run down the near sideline that electrified the 35,000 fans in attendance.

“Again, we need a guy just like Tristan. Long, has some confidence, a guy that had some production, but a guy that is also not coming in here thinking he is going to show up and be the guy,” Swinney said. “We got guys here. We need him to come in here and go earn it, prove it and compete and really make the group better. That is what he has done.”

Alexander has done the same at middle linebacker. He was the co-leader in tackles with seven in the spring game and finished the spring as well as anyone of the defensive side of the ball.

“We did not want to take a linebacker. We probably were going to take one in May, that’s what our thought process was, get through the spring,” Swinney said. “But when he became available, ‘Let’s see if we can get that guy.’

“He is a perfect fit for us. Tristan is a perfect fit.”

Heldt is also a perfect fit. Though other teams brought in way more players from the portal than Clemson, it is hard to find three players better than what Clemson brought in.

“Our process isn’t any different,” Swinney said. “When we lost an end (last year), there was no one of that caliber to get. I said, ‘Let’s look at all the ends.’ I thought Will Heldt was the best one and we got him.

“It just shows that our process works regardless. Whether we are recruiting high school kids or the portal kids, we are trying to get the right guys that really align with who we are, how we go about our business here, what are expectations are, what are core values are, and also fit the role that we need them to.”