by The year is 2018. Led by future first-round NFL Draft pick Trevor Lawrence and a handful of superstars, the Clemson Tigers annihilate Alabama 44-16 in the CFP National Championship game to cap off a perfect 15-0 season. Head coach Dabo Swinney is glamorized, even considered one of the best coaches in the country, and the future of Clemson football has never been brighter.
Jump ahead six years later. Clemson is coming off a 9-4 campaign — its worst single season since 2010 — and ranked dead last in the transfer portal rankings after not signing a single player in the offseason. Tiger fans are chomping at the bit and the pressure to return to their national championship ways is exasperating.
It’s simple: Dabo’s failure to adapt to the new age of college football is the reason why Clemson, once a perennial national title contender on an annual basis, is clearly in a decline.
High school recruiting is still not an weakness as the Tigers finished with the 11th-best recruiting class in the country after hauling in 11 four-stars and a pair of five-stars. However, that still does not make up for their inability to make an effort in the portal.
Clemson also saw two standout players, wide receiver Beaux Collins and safety Andrew Mukuba, walk out the door this offseason, but, again, no attempt to plug those holes in the depth chart were made in the portal.
As many of you know, Swinney is an “old-school” coach that sticks to his traditional ways and revamps his roster strictly through high school recruiting. That will not and does not fly in the evolved state of college football today. Perhaps this is the reason why guys like Saban threw in the towel and did not want to put up with the chaotic landscape of the portal and NIL, and, truthfully, I understand it.
Clemson Tiger football is filled with uncertainty. For those of you that think Dabo could be out in a season or two, you are not totally wrong. So it’s time to do away with all of the crying about how the portal is “baloney” and to look the opposite way when it’s time to pick up elite talent in the offseason. Some things are inevitable in college sports, and Dabo needs to finally come to terms with that.