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National Champion [7191]
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The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having.
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Oct 22, 2025, 12:31 PM
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Everything needs to work together in order to have success in today's CFB world.
If you aren't attracting the best talent and aren't developing 3*-4*s to be better than competition, then you need to resort to the portal to augment what you have and raise the average talent on the team until you have a team that can win at a high level.
When you're winning at a high level, donors like it and are willing to fork over the NIL $ to attract 5* talent.
Once you get the 5* talent, you need to develop it until you are considerably batter than other teams - then keep the proper balance between recruiting and portal so the team consistently stands above competition.
Our problem is that we haven't developed the talent we have to be better than competition. The only answer is to pull from the portal and create competition at every position until we have an aggressively hungry team.
When some players think they don't have to work for their job - and get paid well no matter what, they just don't work so hard any more...... and that's about where we are for now.
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Orange Beast [6545]
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Re: The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having.
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Oct 22, 2025, 12:40 PM
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I think you just simply have to go All-In on both, be over the roster limit and cut the bottom guys or encourage to transfer out. The being to nice to everyone as a coach isn't going to cut it in this new era of college football. If you need 17 commits, take 20. If we need 2 or 3 transfers, take 6 or 7. It needs to be project overload and see who's worthy of making the team and who isn't.
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National Champion [7191]
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Re: The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having.
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Oct 22, 2025, 12:50 PM
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It's certainly a reasonable way to operate - I believe that many SEC teams have been doing that for a long time.
Dabo will never do that, though. He's too wrapped up in the family aspect of Clemson football with PAW Journey and everything that goes with it. To change that would be to take a bulldozer to everything Dabo stands for and negate the pitches to recruits and their families. I don't think he'll ever be willing to go down that road and throw his principles away.
I think his idealism is a good thing, but I think it needs to be modified to include the portal as a way of improving the team.
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Rival Killer [3080]
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Re: The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having.
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Oct 22, 2025, 1:49 PM
[ in reply to Re: The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having. ] |
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The hard truth now is very few of the top players care about a college degree.
Upperclassmen have an advantage over underclassmen. Invest more in player acquisition of experienced upperclassmen and less on player development. Let the lesser programs do the development work and reap the rewards of their efforts, like the Dodgers, Yankees, and Red Sox do.
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Solid Orange [1312]
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Re: The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having.
Oct 22, 2025, 1:53 PM
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argument not worth having, then you write 6 paragraphs about it.
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National Champion [7191]
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Re: The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having.
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Oct 22, 2025, 2:00 PM
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The 6 paragraphs were/are about why the methods can work together to provide success - not why one is better than the other or is a singular answer.
Thinking's hard.
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Solid Orange [1312]
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Re: The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having.
Oct 22, 2025, 4:01 PM
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Thinking is hard. Apparently so is writing your thoughts in a few sentences. On a message board no less.
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Solid Orange [1312]
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Re: The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having.
Oct 22, 2025, 1:56 PM
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Dabo hasn't forgotten how to recruit, develop talent and create culture.
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National Champion [7191]
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Re: The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having.
Oct 22, 2025, 2:19 PM
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No, he hasn't forgotten how to do those things you detail, but his methods are not producing the competitive results in today's CFB environment as they did in the past - before NIL and the transfer portal.
As an example, the culture is still good, but has been altered by NIL - which is affecting recruiting - and failures in recruiting are affecting results on the field.
He still knows how to develop talent, but is not getting the same level of talent that he was before NIL and the portal, which limits the ceiling of results for the average player and in total, affects team results in a negative way. There is also some level of NIL that I believe is interfering with development - perhaps a self-satisfaction of players that can diminish the desire to work. This could be in areas of Strength & Conditioning and/or the desire to succeed - not sure it's a problem, but certainly possible.
And - he still knows how to recruit, but lack of success due to slippage in culture and talent development, leading to declining results in team success is causing recruits to give less interest to Clemson - particuarly if we can't offer the same things that other teams do - namely NIL and immediate playing time for the best talent.
I think Dabo will figure it out and fix it, but it's going to be a hard pill for him to swallow. It probably will take some time for him to accept the cause of the problems and swallow enough pride to make the needed changes.
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Solid Orange [1312]
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Re: The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having.
Oct 22, 2025, 4:03 PM
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In your original post you said talent isn't being developed. Then your follow up post you said it is. You haven't thought this through like you think you have. As you said, thinking is hard.
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National Champion [7191]
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Re: The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having.
Oct 22, 2025, 5:04 PM
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He still knows how to develop talent, but if talent is of a lesser quality initially, it will not usually be developed to the same final level as better talent.
As I said, thinking is hard, but I guess for some reading is even harder...  ">
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National Champion [7898]
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National Champion [7956]
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Re: The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having.
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Oct 22, 2025, 2:01 PM
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Good point. I have never seen our defense play so poorly in 15 years as it has this year. They seem disorganized and discombobulated to me. Think they should have Kept the Venables defense scheme. Big mistake once again on Dabo. He seems over his head these days.
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Clemson Icon [25970]
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I agree. This may be the situation with Woods for example.
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Oct 22, 2025, 4:04 PM
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Did he forget to be talented, or is he not putting in the effort he needs to?
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National Champion [7191]
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Re: I agree. This may be the situation with Woods for example.
Oct 22, 2025, 5:11 PM
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I really don't know, but whatever the problem is, it's serious.
When NIL first started I wondered if the locker room would become a problem and some lesser paid players would resent those that were paid more. This could now be the big issue.
I consider that as the possible reason because Cade gets paid a lot of money, yet he's not getting the job done. All of the team's trouble is not because of him, but enough that he may not have the respect of other players on the team. He also seems (to me) to have an arrogant air of superiority - might be wrong on that, but if the players sense that he thinks he's better than them while not doing what he's paid a lot of money for doing, that could be a very serious problem and just may be at the root of what we're seeing.
Whatever it is, it ain't pretty.
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Starter [273]
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Re: The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having.
Oct 23, 2025, 9:04 AM
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You have made the case for the argument in the first place. Having the original discussion that some would say turned into an argument is how we arrived collectively at the destination you have layed out in your points. I think you mean that the argument has been over for some time and only a dense few still question the way to win in this environment we have today.
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Freshman [10]
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Re: The argument over recruiting vs the portal is not worth having.
Oct 23, 2025, 10:39 AM
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I think you’re right I’d hate to wait another 3+ years for all our freshmen to develop just for them to fall flat on their faces again. If they even develop that is, it seems like a few of our players over the past 5 years have regressed the longer they’ve been here.
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