Despite Dead Period Clemson Never Wavered On No Official Visit Policy During Spring, Summer
Dabo Swinney has a longstanding policy of not allowing official visits during the spring and summer.
With Clemson's 2022 recruiting class off to a very slow start due to the NCAA mandated dead period that lasted close to 15 months, many wondered whether Swinney would waive that rule and host high school recruits during the summer months.
At Clemson's Media Day recently, the Tigers' longtime head coach said that was something he never even considered.
"No, there was no thought to that," Swinney said. "We just, again, there's nothing wrong with that it's just our philosophy here. My philosophy, and what I believe in."
The Clemson coaching staff have always used the spring and summer months to host potential prospects on unofficial visits. Swinney prefers kids making the effort to get to campus on their own when the circumstances allow for it and to date, the Tigers' head coach thinks it's a process that has produced results that speak for themselves.
"I've just always believed in doing (officials) in the fall," Swinney said."That's just what I believe. It doesn't mean I'm right, this is just what we believe here. It's what we do and we've done okay with our process. We just believe in what we believe. We have our process like everybody has a process in the way they do things and to each his own on how you wanna do it."
Swinney said that in most cases if a high school prospect isn't willing to come for an unofficial visit, he's likely not one who has any intention of fully committing himself to the program.
"Kids that are really interested, they'll come see you," Swinney said. "And if they can't come on their own, they're probably not going to come for four years."
At the same time, Swinney is also aware of the fact that not everyone can afford to make the trip to Clemson on their own dime. In those cases, the coaching staff preaches patience. Either way, it's a process that Swinney said has been effective and one he has no intention of changing.
"They can be patient, we'll bring them in when we get to that time," Swinney said. "I mean we've done that, we've had guys like that. We do official visits, you know, but we just have a time for that. Some people do spring practice in February, some people do it in April and May. To each his own in how you want to go about your business and run the program, but this is what we do."
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