Clemson Football: Overreaction Week 2: Dabo Swinney will never change stance on the transfer portal

Clemson Football is coming off a large margin of victory over FCS Charleston Southern, but that doesn’t mean the memory of the program’s loss to the Duke Blue Devils in Durham has been forgotten.

While some fans focus on the efficiency of the second half against CSU, others are focused on the continued goofs and miscues of the offense in the first half.

Opinions regarding head coach Dabo Swinney have similarly been between two magnetic poles. One side continues to support his philosophy on how to run a program and agrees the problems are solvable. Others have used the deficiencies of the first two games of the 2023 season as proof that his program’s policies on the transfer portal are a failure, and it has cost the Tigers the lofty status they held in college football from 2015-20.

Swinney is not a perfect person. It is fair to be critical of some things. I have commented before that I think Swinney was masterful at how he articulated his thoughts and how he presented himself and his program to the public from the time he was hired until somewhere around 2019.

Since then, Swinney has not been nearly as successful presenting himself or his opinions in the best light possible. It may be that he isn’t as concerned with always being popular. It might be that he is a little older now and isn’t as in touch with widespread sentiment.

I can buy the latter for sure, and I have photographic evidence. I once had the opportunity to take a picture with Swinney at a booster function. This was the summer of 2010, following Clemson’s first Atlantic Division championship.

Look at those babies. This picture pops up on a screensaver slide show from time to time and it smacks me just how long ago that was. It seems like yesterday sometimes. I’m not nearly in tune with popular society as I used to be. We all change as we gain more experience.

I say all this to make this point: Things have changed quite a bit in the last decade, going on a decade and a half now. Is Swinney the same man he was when he got the head coaching job at Clemson? Of course not. He is older, more experienced, and in all fairness, has two national championship rings that I’m sure reinforce for him that he should be confident in his perspectives.

I understand to some that his comments on the transfer portal make him sound tone-deaf. Maybe he is a bit tone-deaf, but I’m not completely convinced of that.

While I think Swinney hasn’t been quite as masterful about how he presents himself and the program since 2019, I do think he still prioritizes the presentation of stability and consistency.

My opinion is that even if Swinney is thinking about making a change, he isn’t likely to let you and me know he is thinking about making a change.

Take the change at the offensive coordinator position as an example. He didn’t give anyone publicly a clue that he was even considering making a change. He publicly defended the performance of his staff and gave everyone the impression that no changes were imminent, whether that made fans happy or not.

Dabo Swinney doesn’t always discuss what he is thinking or planning for Clemson Football publicly

When he did decide to fire Brandon Streeter, it was a moment that none of us saw coming. That’s what Swinney wanted.

To outsiders, it might have seemed like Swinney had been tone-deaf to the situation surrounding the play-calling woes of the 2022 offense. In reality, Swinney was aware and decided on a course of action. He just didn’t give you or me the head up.

It might seem like Swinney’s opinions on the portal are tone-deaf. Maybe they are. Maybe he is privately thinking something different. Maybe he wants to see more of how this season goes before he makes any final decisions. Maybe these early-season blunders will go away.

Humble pie doesn’t taste good, but it is good for you. Maybe Swinney has a hard time smiling and sounding genuine when he is forcing down a bitter bite of that humble pie, and he comes across as grumpy and defiant. I hold to one opinion: when Swinney is convinced a change needs to be made, he will make it. It might not be the change you want or expect, and you might not see it coming, but it will happen.