The Game Has Changed as Clemson Enters the Portal

Defensive end Blake Heldt entered the transfer portal after his season with Purdue ended. It was not a surprising move. When a team like Purdue completes a disastrous season, full scale changes are normal. There is coaching changes and players head for the portal en masse. Heldt quickly settled on a new school and like hundreds of other collegiate football players, he announced his decision. There was nothing unusual about the process, but the destination was a bit of a surprise. Heldt was transferring to Clemson.

Shortly after Heldt’s commitment, wide receiver Tristan Smith also committed to the Tigers, departing Southeast Missouri State. Neither player would be considered a prime recruit or a must-have transfer, but with their selection of Clemson, they signaled that perhaps college football’s most stubborn man, the Tigers’ Head Coach Dabo Swinney, was about to change his stripes. Swinney has frustrated fans over his previous steadfast refusal to bring transfers onto the Clemson roster. Any previous transfers had been graduate quarterbacks brought into to provide Swinney and Offensive Coordinator Garrett Riley depth, not to change the course of the program.

Neither Heldt nor Smith will likely be the catalyst for another ACC title. When they join their teammates on the field for spring practice, they will offer tangible proof that Swinney could be receptive to, dare we think it, keeping up with the Joneses, Days, Smarts, and every other FBS coach. Should those two become significant contributors to Clemson’s success, Swinney may have no choice but to accept the reality of the way college programs are operated these days.

It is not like Swinney’s approach has been a failure. He has two national championships, nine ACC conference title, and 10 ACC Atlantic division titles on his resume. He has been named the Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year three times. However, college football is a ruthless, “what have you done for me lately,” industry. For fans of a program like Clemson, being a contender for a national title is their entitlement. When a coach does not avail himself of all possible tools to victory, the fanbase can get surly in a hurry.

Make no mistake, Swinney still relies almost exclusively on recruiting high school players to assemble the majority of his squad. That approach has also been lacking recently. In the past, Clemson traditionally has brought in top five ranked classes featuring multiple five-star recruits. Pundits and fans were surprised when last year’s class ranked 14th according to ESPN. Clemson Nation was outright aghast at the ranking of 34th for the 2025 class. The highest ranked recruit from the 2025 class was DT Amare Adams from Lale City, SC, who was the 58th among ESPN’s Top 300 recruits.

Clemson’s upset victory against newcomer SMU in the ACC title game, and the berth they earned in the College Football Playoff, have masked the recent shortcomings of the team in general. They began the season with an uncompetitive loss to Georgia. They needed a last minute miracle 50-yard touchdown dash from quarterback Cade Klubnik to defeat Pitt. Clemson closed out the regular season with a loss to in-state rival South Carolina. Had Miami not stumbled to a loss at Syracuse, the Tigers would not have advanced to Charlotte’s championship bout and would have found themselves in a lower tier bowl game. The outrage from fans, boosters, and alumni, would have been deafening.

All these factors conspired to make Swinney take a hard look at the future. He is fortunate that the ACC is not loaded with perennial juggernauts. He has a little room for error. The jungle standings used by major conferences these days are his friend. He only needs to be in the top two to qualify for the conference championship game. He has the talent and the coaching smarts to get to the top of the conference. If he wishes to consistently win the championship and make deep runs towards a national title, he needs equal talent levels as other blue blood programs, and he needs to bring it on board using the same techniques as everybody else, no matter how personally distasteful.

Doubtlessly, supporters of Clemson football were disappointed in the Tigers’ CFP loss to Texas in round one. They fought gamely. The result, however, again displayed the disparity of talent Swinney now enters contests against top ranked opponents. The baby steps shown in the recent transfer portal window are encouraging. The hope is that Swinney quickly learns to run with his new tool. Purity is a noble goal, but perfection is the enemy of good. Striving for the former makes achieving the latter difficult. Another portal opens in the spring of 2025. If Swinney can reconcile himself to the benefits of the portal and begin to aggressively exploit it, Clemson will again be considered among college football’s elite. Clemson has access to everything they need to be a power in the ACC and nationally, as long as Swinney implements them all.

Now, how about that NIL, Coach?