Not long ago, the Irish struggled to land elite recruits. Fast-forward to now, the story is different. Rivals released its final five-star list for the 2026 cycle, and Marcus Freeman’s program placed five players on it. It’s the most impressive recruiting haul since the internet became mainstream. Plus, they are ensuring roster stability, too. Sure, players have entered the portal over the last two seasons, but how many of those exits were core, top-line starters that the Irish were desperate to keep? That is no accident; that is Marcus Freeman’s doing. And it’s now becoming a blueprint, insiders think that other programs envision it to be.

Over the course of five years, Marcus Freeman did what many teams envy: he built a roster that wants to stay. John Pate at the Josh Pate College Football Show laid it out plainly. “Notre Dame is what Dabo Swinney dreamt Clemson could be..Notre Dame’s vast majority leans on high school recruiting. They do some in the portal, but you can clearly tell that most of their investment energy and financial resources go into high school recruiting. 

They’re reaping the benefit of it right now. They don’t have a ton of guys leave. They staff very well. There is a very, very solid, identifiable culture about Notre Dame. You don’t have to talk too long when someone asks, “Hey, who are they? What are they about?” You know what Notre Dame football’s about. That’s what Dabo tried to do at Clemson. They’ve just had much more mixed results at Clemson than they have at Notre Dame.” 

That clarity matters, and right now it is something that Clemson is looking for again. Because there was a time when Clemson was the gold standard for exactly this approach. They once used to depend more heavily on high school prospects than portal recruitment. In fact, the Tigers were barely active in the portal, adding only six since 2018, which helped them claim two national championships in 2016 and 2018 and nine ACC conference championships.

However, in the last two seasons, the Tigers were forced to hit the portal to make up for the increased decommits and outgoing transfers. In the previous recruiting cycle, they had seven decommitments, with six of those coming after the summer. They lost four of the top 100 prospects, which made their roster sting much worse.

Top recruits spoke against the program, too. Jordan Young had bluntly mentioned, “The recruiting class wasn’t that good at Clemson. I was the only DB at the time. I didn’t see a bright future with that.”

In this class, there were four decommitments, but just one of those players ranked in the top 100, and two ranked outside of the top 250. Additionally, they had thirteen outgoing transfers. While Swinney signed 23 high school prospects for the 2026 class, they still ranked 23rd in the composite ranking. The less-than-stellar high school class and lack of depth forced them to hit the portal to add ten players in search of balance on the roster.

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While Clemson looks to bounce back stronger for the 2026 season, Dabo Swinney received a career ultimatum from a veteran journalist.

Dabo Swinney’s future at Clemson in risk

The Athletic’s Ralph Russo, on his early prediction for the 2026 season, predicted that Swinney and Clemson will be parting ways after the 2026 season comes to an end, after another poor season. Swinney is in a 10-year contract with the Tigers that pays him $115 million and goes through 2032.

“Next season will be Dabo Swinney’s last as Clemson coach,” Russo wrote. “He and the school agree to part ways after another mediocre season.”

It would be weird to see anyone other than Swinney take on Clemson’s coaching role, after all he did for the program in nearly two decades. He’s been in the head coaching role since 2008 and has led the Tigers to a 187-53 record throughout his tenure, including two national championships and multiple conference championships. He’s still an elite coach, yet things didn’t align perfectly with continued changes with the transfer portal and NIL.

While the roster was the most affected in recent years, Swinney’s winning philosophy and continuity fell apart. Though the 2026 roster looks to lack blue-chip talents and star recruits, at the end of the day, Swinney has to find a way to get back on the winning track.