Swinney: 'No Hard Feelings' Toward Bowman Following Transfer

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was caught off guard by Demarkcus Bowman's decision to transfer from the Tigers this week.

Of course, a lot of things have caught Swinney by surprise in 2020, he reminded everyone after Saturday's 41-23 victory over Virginia. But he has "no hard feelings" toward the highly-regarded freshman running back for entering the NCAA transfer portal and leaving Clemson reportedly for Florida for family reasons just two games into his young career.

"Very, very disappointed. He's a good kid," Swinney said. "Just said he wanted to be closer to home so just wish him well. We didn't have him long, just a couple of months, but certainly appreciate the opportunity that we had to work with him a little bit. Hopefully, he'll get in a good situation and become the player that I know he can be."

Swinney said he tried to talk Bowman, one of the top prospects in the Tigers' stellar 2020 recruiting class, out of leaving Clemson but it was something the young player wanted to do. Swinney added that the transfer portal era is "the world we're living in" in college football, and that's it's going to get easier in the future for players to "pack up and go."

Bowman, who had 32 rushing yards on nine carries in two games, announced Wednesday via social media that he was moving on and by Saturday afternoon, he apparently had found a home with the Gators, who are a couple of hours away from his Lakeland, Fla., home.

Clemson offensive coordinator/running backs coach Tony Elliott said he was also shocked by the decision but echoed Swinney's sentiments.

"He did things the right way," Elliott said. "I have no issues with that and it's just an unfortunate situation where a lot of things kind of compound at once, especially with the issues with his grandparents, and he wanted to be closer to home. You can't fault a young man for that. Just appreciative of him and his parents and Lakeland High School for allowing us to recruit him and we'll do it all over again."

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