The transfer portal is bigger than ever. Time for Clemson football to jump in?
Fentrell Cypress II led the ACC in pass breakups and didn’t allow a touchdown pass across 358 coverage snaps during his junior season at Virginia.
Naturally, that sent plenty of prominent Power Five programs scrambling in the star cornerback’s direction once he formally entered the NCAA transfer portal Monday.
Among the schools courting him: UCLA, Southern Cal, Ohio State, LSU, Auburn and Texas A&M. And … Clemson?
247Sports, citing a source, reported Tuesday that the Tigers had indeed reached out to Cypress, with cornerbacks coach Mike Reed hopping on the phone for an extended call with the standout defender who arrived at Virginia by way of Rock Hill’s Northwestern High School. TigerIllustrated.com confirmed the report.
Cypress, who has one remaining year of eligibility, hasn’t publicly announced a scholarship offer from the Tigers or set up a visit. But Clemson’s early push for the star cornerback is notable — especially for a program that, under coach Dabo Swinney, has been reluctant to pursue transfers of Cypress’ caliber in the past.
That logic clearly worked during Clemson’s run of six consecutive ACC championships, six consecutive College Football Playoff appearances and two national titles from 2015 to 2020.
But with the Tigers missing a second consecutive CFP this fall and portal usage by other schools at an all-time high, here’s the looming question: Can Clemson maintain its status as one of college football’s blue bloods without adjusting its portal stance a la Alabama, Ohio State and Southern Cal?
Clemson has engaged minimally with transfers under Swinney, preferring to recruit and develop high school talent even as the more restrictive rules surrounding the process have dissolved.
But, Swinney hinted, the Tigers may need to alter that stance in 2022 — more out of necessity than anything else.
“Who knows?” Swinney said ahead of the ACC championship game. “We’ll see what happens. We’re no different than anyone else. I think anyone is susceptible to transition. But as I sit here right now, I don’t know. We’ll see.”
Last year, amid various offensive line departures, Clemson offered two linemen in the transfer portal (O’Cyrus Torrence of Louisiana and Olusegun Oluwatimi of Virginia) but landed neither of them and ended up sticking with the group it had to notable success. That commitment to your own locker room, Swinney said, is crucial.
“We love our (2023) signing class,” Swinney said. “We think we’ve addressed our needs based on what we know right now. But, again, who knows what’s coming down the pipe? Nobody knows that. ... It’s a real-time world every single day where we are right now in college football”
Clemson players in the portal
It was a prescient warning. Within 48 hours of Clemson blowing out North Carolina to secure its seventh ACC championship over the last eight seasons, nine players were in the transfer portal. That was the third most by any Power Five school in the country on Monday.
One-time starting quarterback DJ Uiagalelei wasn’t a huge surprise after he lost his job once and for all to Cade Klubnik, his talented freshman backup, last weekend. Other entrants had played little to no snaps in 2022. Still, it was a notable loss of depth at key positions.
Backup linebacker LaVonta Bentley, running back Kobe Pace, defensive end Kevin Swint, wide receiver E.J. Williams, cornerback Fred Davis II and former walk-on quarterback Billy Wiles joined Uiagalelei in the portal Monday, per reports and social media announcements.
Two other players, backup linebacker Sergio Allen and wide receiver Dacari Collins, had left the team in September but couldn’t formally enter the portal until Monday under a new NCAA rule limiting fall athletes to two transfer portal “windows” — Dec. 5-Jan. 18 (45 days) and May 1-15.
As first-time transfers, all nine players will have immediate eligibility at their next school, per NCAA guidance last spring — a far cry from previous rules with which non-graduate transfers had to sit out a full season outside of special circumstances.
Now, players hoping for a better fit or more playing time simply request that their compliance department enter their name in the transfer portal, and it’s done in 48 hours — if not much sooner. Once players are in the online database, which NCAA debuted in October 2018 to simplify a process becoming more and more popular in the sport, they’re free to be contacted by any interested programs.
Eleven Clemson players entered the transfer portal last season, but only six of those 11 players ended up at Power Five schools for 2022. Missouri safety Joseph Charleston (52 tackles) and Miami wide receiver Frank Ladson Jr. (298 receiving yards) made the biggest impact.
In other words, the sky’s not falling in Upstate South Carolina. Transfer portal departures are a way of life for every college football program, especially those competing at the sport’s highest level. (A record 600 FBS players entered the transfer portal Monday, per On3 Sports.)
Still, the fact Clemson has lost 20 players to the portal over the last two seasons while bringing in just two — walk-on linebacker Jesiah Carlton from Wingate and sixth-year senior quarterback Hunter Johnson, a former Clemson player, from Northwestern — raises some depth concerns.
Where Clemson needs help
Across the defensive line, for example, sophomore defensive tackle Bryan Bresee and junior defensive end Myles Murphy are both listed as top-10 draft prospects by Pro Football Focus; super senior defensive end K.J. Henry is out of eligibility; Swint is in the portal; and defensive tackles Tyler Davis and Ruke Orhorhoro and defensive ends Justin Mascoll and Xavier Thomas (all graduates with remaining eligibility) are undecided on returning.
That’s two confirmed departures and six more players in limbo. And, even with some solid returners and six incoming freshmen defensive linemen (three of them top-100 recruits), that’s a lot of experience and talent potentially off the table. Especially at defensive end: If Murphy, Mascoll and Thomas all leave, Clemson’s top returner is Greg Williams (19 games, zero sacks).
A number of offensive positions could use reinforcements, too. Clemson’s current 2023 quarterback room is one of talent but major inexperience: Klubnik as a sophomore starter and five-star 2023 QB recruit Christopher Vizzina and former walk-on Hunter Helms as backups.
With Pace out of the picture, Clemson still has two-star running backs — Will Shipley and Phil Mafah — but minimal experience behind them. Backups Domonique Thomas (a former walk-on) and Keith Adams Jr. touched the ball a combined 10 times this season. Clemson still hasn’t signed a running back in the class of 2023, though the Tigers are actively pursuing a few targets.
And, of course, wide receiver remains a topic of conversation. Clemson got elite production from freshman slot receiver Antonio Williams and steady contributions from sophomore Beaux Collins (when he was healthy) in 2022, but the rest of the room lacked star power.
Freshmen Adam Randall and Cole Turner are exciting prospects, but are those two plus Collins and Williams a feasible top four for a 2023 College Football Playoff contender?
No team hits a home run on every transfer. Sometimes portal players are simply depth pieces; sometimes they’re nonfactors. But sometimes they’re exactly what a program needs.
See: Former Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler and former James Madison wide receiver Antwane Wells Jr., who hooked up nine times for 131 yards, two touchdowns and a game-ending first down two weeks to give South Carolina its first win over Clemson in nine years and boot the Tigers out of CFP contention.
There’s still plenty to sort out over the next month and change with the Dec. 21-23 early signing period and Dec. 30 Orange Bowl on deck — not to mention numerous players’ decisions on whether to return to Clemson or move on to pursue a professional career.
Clemson’s early contact with Cypress, though, indicates the Tigers may be willing to play the transfer game a bit more than usual in 2022 — at positions of need and beyond.
This story was originally published December 8, 2022 at 12:49 PM with the headline "The transfer portal is bigger than ever. Time for Clemson football to jump in?."
