Clemson football: Tigers must embrace college football evolution to compete

Clemson football has yet to take advantage of the new NCAA transfer rule of immediate eligibility and teams like UGA and Alabama are racking up some of the best talent available.

We know, there is a load of Clemson football fans that hate the idea of hitting the transfer portal for players to fill voids on a roster. As talented as this Tigers roster is, there are still some holes that could be filled with proven players from other schools.

There are a lot of misconceptions about players in the transfer portal as well. Fans assume that they are terrible teammates, un-coachable or terrible students when in reality, they simply need a change of scenery. This is no different than any of us looking for a new full-time job with a better office culture and benefits.

The recruiting season is a whirlwind for most guys and when you take into account that they are 17 years old when it starts, it should seem reasonable that things they wanted at 17 are not what they want when they are 20.

Clemson football should embrace transfers not shun them

Many coaches across the country make a lot of promised to these young men during that process and a lot of times, those promises cannot be met. They could also want to play for a specific coach – head coach, coordinator, or position coach, and maybe that coach leaves or gets fired.

The entire point being there are lots of reasons why players want to transfer and that should not preclude a program like Clemson football from jumping feet first into the new wave of college football recruiting and being able to find immediate needs from proven players like Alabama and UGA are doing.

IF we are being honest, a member of the 2021 Clemson football recruiting class attended three different high schools all within 25 miles of each other looking for a better opportunity – if Dabo was still willing to take a chance on him, then there is no reason not to take advantage of the evolution we are seeing in college football at the moment.

If this decade is truly going to be the best decade in Clemson football history, they have to evolve like every other elite program and start actually recruiting proven players that can make an immediate impact.