Swinney updates Clemson's look into the transfer portal, academics

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Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney touched on a few key points during Wednesday’s Prowl and Growl in Greenwood, and one big takeaway is that he doesn’t expect to add a player from the transfer portal this summer.

Swinney met with the media before the event, and he said he received a report Wednesday morning regarding the program’s academic standing.

“From an academic standpoint, I'm really proud of our guys. It was an amazing semester. Our 3.0 record coming into this spring was 63 players with a 3.0 (GPA) or better,” Swinney said. “We had 80 players make a 3.0 or better, which is an all-time record. So, I expect us to shatter the GPA record when I get that final calculation. And that was 80 out of 109 that went through spring. So academically, I'm really proud of what the guys did.”

Swinney then said that the Tigers are one of just four teams in the Power Five that hasn’t lost a player to the transfer portal since February.

“And then secondly, we had 109 players go through spring and 109 exit meetings, and 109 guys still on the team. So, I think out of the Power 65, there were only four teams that did not lose a player after February 1,” Swinney said. “We're one of those which shows you where college football is. Sixty-one schools lost players during the spring and after the spring. I love our team. I think that shows the maturity, the commitment, the leadership, the chemistry, the psyche of our team as far as how they feel about their coaches and just Clemson in general. So it was a really good semester from that standpoint. We got a lot done in spring ball. We got a lot done, obviously, academically.”

Swinney had mentioned earlier this year that the Tigers would look into the transfer portal for an offensive lineman, and while the coaches extended a few offers, nothing came of it. Instead, the coaches will work on making sure the 14 offensive linemen on campus are ready to go.

“We had two guys that we felt like fit everything we were looking for and offered two guys and didn't get them,” Swinney said. "But there's really not anybody out there that really would help us at this point in what we need. So, we don't want to just take a guy to take a guy and really help anybody. But the good news is we feel really confident about 14 guys that we have and the depth that we're going to have and we think we've hit them. We have five freshmen that we are really excited about and Tristan Leigh and Ryan Linthicum, and Dietrich Pennington, who we think could have been a starter for us last year. Getting him back, he looks great.

“And then those two freshmen, Blake (Miller) and Collin (Sadler), coming in in January. I mean, they're rare guys. It's not often that you sign guys like that in the offensive line that are physically and mentally prepared and strength-wise are ready. We love that group. We've got five sophomores, one true sophomore in Marcus Tate and four redshirt sophomores guys in that third year that we feel have all made that step that we needed to see this spring. You have three juniors and (Will) Putnam and (Walker) Parks and Mason (Trotter) and you have one senior.

"So, we like our group. We didn't really need another young guy. If we were going to get a guy that was going to be a really veteran older guy that had a lot of experience. You had some guys (in the portal) that hadn't played anywhere. That's really not what we're looking for.”

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