CLEMSON — Dabo Swinney has left no doubt this offseason about his openness to using the transfer portal.
After additions at receiver and edge rusher, Clemson has reeled in Alabama transfer Jeremiah Alexander.
The 6-foot-2, 232-pound Alexander was a five-star prospect coming out of Thompson High in Alabama where he was teammates with current Clemson defender Peter Woods. Alexander considered Clemson among his finalists in 2021 but inevitably chose Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide.
He didn’t play much over three seasons, though. The redshirt sophomore finished with five tackles in 2024 under first-year coach Kalen DeBoer.
Now, Alexander gets a fresh start with a program he nearly joined out of high school, alongside a former teammate in Woods.
Swinney now has a trifecta of transfers this offseason, including Purdue edge rusher Will Heldt and Southeast Missouri State receiver Tristan Smith. It immediately follows a 2024 offseason where the Tigers were the only non-military academy in college football to not add a transfer.
Since the advent of the portal in 2018, Clemson’s only scholarship transfer additions were backup quarterbacks Hunter Johnson and Paul Tyson in back-to-back seasons. Swinney has now topped that total in one offseason.
