Dabo Swinney's NIL comments on National Signing Day go viral

The Clemson football coach offered a unique perspective on how to build a college football program in the NIL era

NIL has been, is, and will be a major issue in the world of college football and can't help but directly impact the way schools build their rosters going forward.

Coaches have been forced to adapt and change the way they recruit and lure talent to their programs, in addition to the advent of the college football transfer portal.

That's an adaptation that Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is still trying to make. While his critics have decried his reluctance to fully embrace the changes, Swinney himself argues that he's taken to NIL since Day 1, but in a different way.

"We built this program on NIL," Swinney said in the midst of Early Signing Day. "We really did. We built this program in God's name, image, and likeness."

Yep, Dabo said that #NIL pic.twitter.com/rbWlImYcZU

— zach ragan (@zachTNT) December 21, 2022

That may not be the way his competitors are building their programs, but it does reflect the beliefs that Swinney have made public since the beginning.

Clemson sits at No. 12 in the 2023 football recruiting rankings according to the 247Sports Composite and has signed one five-star recruit, defensive lineman Peter Woods.

Swinney picked up other high-profile defensive prospects, including linemen Vic Burley, the No. 5 player nationally at his position, and Tommarion Parker, the No. 11 ranked lineman prospect, in addition to four-star quarterback Christopher Vizzina, a 6-4, 207 pound recruit out of Birmingham.

---

More college football from SI: Top 25 Rankings | Schedule | All Teams

Follow College Football HQ: Bookmark | Rankings | Facebook