"Let's not pretend there's rules": Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson on the transfer portal
Less than a month ago, North Carolina head coach Mack Brown took umbrage with the current state of the NCAA Football transfer portal. Brown likened it to “tampering.”
“What I hate the most is people tampering and buying people off your team,” Brown said on his radio show Nov. 28.
Now, Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson is echoing Brown’s concerns, just three days out from his team’s final game of the season — the Gasparilla Bowl against Missouri.
“What's going on behind the scenes right now in college football, nobody's stopping it,” Clawson said Tuesday. “There's no punishment for doing that. So it's just going to continue and continue. And if this is the way it's going to be, that's fine, but let's not pretend there's rules. Just eliminate the rules and say this is all legal. If you're trying to follow the rules, you're at a significant disadvantage.”
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Problems regarding the transfer portal especially resonated with Clawson in light of Brown’s recent comments regarding his quarterback. Drake Maye reportedly turned down “a whole lot of money” to remain in Chapel Hill, despite never entering his name into the portal.
Clawson now faces a similar situation with his quarterback, Sam Hartman. Hartman, who can pass Tajh Boyd as the ACC’s leading touchdown passer with one score on Friday, told the media before the team’s Senior Night game against Syracuse that this would be his final season with Wake Forest.
But, Hartman has not yet entered his name in the transfer portal. It’s not clear if he ever will. He has also yet to enter his name in the NFL Draft.
“I don't know 100% what Sam is going to do,” Clawson said. “Very similar to…Drake Maye, those things are going on with Sam too. There are people right now that are actively, through third parties, trying to recruit him. [Sam’s] been made aware that, if he goes in the portal, there are going to be some very lucrative NIL opportunities for him. And it's from very specific schools.”
Previously, the assumption had been that Hartman would make a move for the NFL. Now, that is far more unclear, especially with money to be made remaining in college football.
“Whatever decisions Sam makes, we support him,” Clawson said in an early December press conference. “When the bowl game is over, if there's some incredible offer for him to go to another school and get life-changing money, how can we fault him for that?”
The plan now is for Hartman to play in the Gasparilla Bowl on Friday. The noise surrounding the transfer portal and his quarterback have no part in Clawson’s decision making on that topic.
Further, after the team’s final regular-season game against Duke, Hartman made his intentions clear to play in the bowl game. For Clawson, there are no hard feelings regarding Hartman’s decisions after Friday.
“If Sam decides that's what he wants to do [enter the transfer portal], I wish him all the best,” he said. “This guy has done everything right for five years at Wake Forest.”
The so-called tampering is not only happening to Hartman, or the players who have entered the portal already for Wake Forest, either.
According to Clawson, “There's other guys on our team — that aren't in the portal — that other people are reaching out to through third parties.”
That considered, only one starting player on the Deacs’ offense, running back Christian Turner, will not play against Missouri because of the portal. And even he wanted to play. That proved to be another disappointing part of the process for Clawson.
READ: Wake Forest Football Transfer Portal Tracker
“Christian Turner wanted to play in this football game,” Clawson said. “He had been practicing with us up until four days ago, and then another school that's been recruiting him basically said ‘if you don't visit this weekend, we're not gonna have a spot for you.’ And again, that's just where the calendar right now is broken.”
Despite his problems with the current portal situation, Clawson is proud to have his players with him in Tampa, even the ones who are set to depart. It’s an aspect of working at Wake Forest that he loves.
“We have phenomenal young men at Wake Forest,” Clawson said. “The greatest joy of my job at Wake Forest is the young man that I get to work with and coach with every day. The fact that we have so few guys opting out is just another example of why these guys are awesome. And if they have an opportunity to do something different, and it's gonna be good for their future and their families, we don't hold that against them.”
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Essex is the lead football writer and a managing editor for Deacons Daily. Essex served as the Sports Editor for the Old Gold & Black for two years, in addition to roles as a beat and feature writer.