CLEMSON, S.C. — With the transfer portal and drama surrounding it spinning out of control in recent weeks in college football, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney offered a wry smile Wednesday.
“We’re just sitting back and watching, watching it all around us,” Swinney told ESPN. “It’s a crazy time, although I’m not sure a lot of people in our sport should be surprised. I’m just glad we’re not a part of it.”
Swinney, entering his 17th full season at Clemson, has been outspoken about the transfer portal and his reluctance to use it except as a means for filling gaps on his roster and not “trying to outbid people” for high school players and paying them large sums of money before they prove themselves in college.
“It’s not just these last few weeks, but the last few years, and there certainly has been no rules, and whatever rules there were — if you tried to enforce them — then they would get changed, and you’d wait six months, and they would change again,” Swinney said. “So, yeah, there has been a ton of chaos, and it’s like I told our staff. We’re entering a really chaotic time.
“But the more chaos out there, the better it is for us because we’re built for it.”
Just in the past two weeks, quarterbacks Nico Iamaleava and Joey Aguilar swapped places — Iamaleava to UCLA and Aguilar to Tennessee — after Iamaleava skipped practice before the Vols’ spring game and then entered the portal after wanting his NIL deal increased. Aguilar was with UCLA all spring but left after Iamaleava joined the Bruins. Aguilar had just transferred to UCLA from Appalachian State a few months earlier.
In addition, Iamaleava’s younger brother, Madden, left Arkansas last week and plans to transfer to UCLA, leading Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek to make a statement that he would support the Hogs’ collective in recouping NIL money from any athlete violating an agreement moving forward.
“It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t make things simpler in college football and that we have to go through times like this,” Swinney said. “That’s one of the ironies of life, that you have to go through a lot of bad before eventually people say, ‘You know what? We probably shouldn’t do that.'”
The Tigers did bring in three transfers this year during the winter portal, but only two other scholarship players since the advent of the portal in 2018. Swinney said the Tigers have lost only two players to the portal whom he genuinely wanted to keep: safety Andrew Mukuba to Texas and defensive end A.J. Hoffler to Georgia Tech.
Cade Klubnik, entering his third season as the Tigers’ starting quarterback, said the lack of a revolving door among players has made for a stronger locker room and set the tone for what should be Clemson’s deepest and most talented team since the 2015-19 stretch when the Tigers either won the national championship or played in the national championship game all but one season.
“We’re going to have 99.8 percent of our team from January ’till next January. We’re not losing a bunch of guys. We’re not getting a bunch of guys,” said Klubnik, who passed for 3,639 yards and accounted for 43 touchdowns last season. “You see these teams out there that are losing 10 or 15 guys after spring and then bringing in 20 guys. We had player-led meetings today, and it was the same guys in the room as last January. It’s not like you’re trying to get to know a lot of strangers.”
Swinney’s comments in 2014 about not paying players outright went viral. He remains adamantly opposed to professionalizing the sport and taking the scholastic component out of the equation. He said he does believe the House settlement revenue sharing model will help bring some stability in how to best compensate players and create some uniformity.
“I’m not going to overpay a high school kid who’s never played a down of college football, not going to do it,” Swinney said. “Let them get here, perform and earn it. There’s a big difference.”
Clemson was ranked No. 7 in ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25 in January and returns most of the key pieces from its ACC championship team a year ago. The Tigers lost 38-24 to Texas in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
When Clemson dipped to 9-4 in 2023, the only time in the past 14 years the Tigers haven’t won at least 10 games, Swinney heard the narrative that the rest of college football was passing the Tigers by because of his refusal to change with the times in the NIL/transfer portal world.
“We’ve been to the playoff seven of the last 10 years and won eight of the last 10 ACC championships,” Swinney said. “That’s the narrative. I don’t care about other people’s narratives. The only narrative I care about is staying with our purpose of graduating our players and what the facts are, winning games, and that’s not going to change regardless of what happens around us.”
Of the 395 seniors who finished their career at Clemson under Swinney, 389 earned their degrees.
“And we’re still working on those other six,” he said.
Klubnik said there’s no talk in Clemson’s locker room of who’s making what kind of money or anything NIL-related.
“If there is, the leaders on this team shut it down real fast,” he said.
Over and above the returning experience and talent on Clemson’s team, Klubnik said what he’s most excited about is how “hungry” the Tigers are after losing to rival South Carolina in the regular-season finale a year ago and then ending their season in the first round of the playoff.
“Most of us are veterans that went through that 2023 season, and we’ve kind of been through the fire together, kind of hit rock-bottom and just continued to climb,” Klubnik said. “We’ve got to go do it. I don’t really care about the preseason rankings and all that. None of it matters. We haven’t done anything yet. We’ve got to put our head down and go to work every day. That’s really what we’re chasing.”
Swinney isn’t into comparisons and how this team might stack to some of his others entering the 2025 season, but what stands out to him is how strong Clemson is up the middle on defense. He said the depth on the offensive line has “never been better.”
Clemson fans are eager to see five-star freshman running back Gideon Davidson, whom Swinney called “as talented a back as we’ve brought in here,” but added there was plenty of competition. Swinney pointed to Adam Randall, whose transition from receiver to running back should pay big dividends.
“This team has a chance, and they’ve responded,” Swinney said. “It’s a good group, a group that likes to work. Now, let’s take it to the field.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes champion Sovereignty rallied after losing position heading into the final turn to win the $500,000 Jim Dandy by a length at Saratoga on Saturday.
Ridden by Junior Alvarado, Sovereignty ran nine furlongs in 1:49.52 and paid $3 to win as the 1-2 favorite against four rivals, the smallest field of his career.
Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said Sovereignty would be pointed toward the $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 23 at the upstate New York track.
Approaching the turn, there were a few tense moments as it appeared Sovereignty was retreating when losing position to the advancing Baeza and deep closers Sandman and Hill Road, leaving Sovereignty in last for a few strides.
Alvarado said he never had a doubt that Sovereignty would come up with his expected run.
“It was everybody else moving and at that time I was just like, ‘Alright let me now kind of start picking it up,'” Alvarado said. “I had 100% confidence. I knew what I had underneath me.”
Baeza, third to Sovereignty in both the Derby and Belmont, finished second. Hill Road was another 9¼ lengths back in third. Mo Plex was fourth and Sandman fifth.
INDIANAPOLIS — Chase Briscoe became the first driver to win poles at NASCAR’s first three crown jewel races in one season Saturday, taking the Brickyard 400 pole with a fast lap of 183.165 mph.
His late run bumped Bubba Wallace out of the top starting spot.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has won nine career poles, five coming this season including those at the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and now the only race held in Briscoe’s home state. He’ll have a chance to complete a crown jewel sweep at the Southern 500 in late August.
Briscoe has the most pole wins this season, his latest coming on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.5-mile oval. It also came on the same weekend his sister was married in Indiana. Briscoe has never won the Brickyard.
Wallace starts next to Briscoe on the front row after posting a lap of 183.117 mph. Those two also led a pack of five Toyotas to the front of the field — marking the first time the engine manufacturer has swept the top five spots.
Qualifying was held after a brief, rescheduled practice session. Friday’s practice was rained out.
Briscoe’s teammate, Ty Gibbs, has the early edge in the championship round of NASCAR’s first In-Season Challenge. He qualified fifth at 182.445. Ty Dillon starts 26th. The winner will be crowned champion and walk away with $1 million.
Last week’s race winner Denny Hamlin faces a major hurdle in winning his first Brickyard title. He crashed hard during qualifying and will start from the back of the field, 39th, as he tries to become the fifth driver to complete a career sweep of the Cup’s crown jewel races. The 44-year-old Hamlin signed a two-year contract extension with JGR on Friday.
There’s plenty of history in the rivalry between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. It’s about 116 miles from Citi Field to Citizens Bank Park. The two teams been competing for the NL East since 1969. Star players from Tug McGraw to Jerry Koosman to Lenny Dykstra to Pedro Martinez to Zack Wheeler have played for both franchises. Mets fans loathe the Phanatic, and Phillies fans laugh derisively at Mr. Met.
Despite this longevity, the two teams have rarely battled for a division title in the same season. The only years they finished No. 1 and 2 or were battling for a division lead late in the season:
1986: Mets finished 21.5 games ahead
2001: Both finished within six games of the Braves
2006: Mets finished 12 games ahead
2007: Phillies finished one game ahead
2008: Phillies finished three games ahead
2024: Phillies finished six games ahead of Mets and Braves
So it’s a rare treat to see the Mets and Phillies battling for the NL East lead in as New York faces the San Francisco Giants on “Sunday Night Baseball” this week. This season has also been a bit of bumpy ride for both teams, so there is pressure on both front offices to make trade deadline additions in hopes of winning the World Series that has eluded both franchises in recent years despite high payrolls and star-laden rosters. Let’s dig into what both teams need to do before Thursday.
The perfect trade deadline for the Mets
1. Bullpen help
The Mets already acquired hard-throwing lefty Gregory Soto from the Orioles, but David Stearns will likely look for another reliever, given that the Mets’ bullpen has struggled since the beginning of June with a 5.02 ERA. In my grade of the trade, I pointed out the importance for the Mets to add left-handed relief. Think of potential playoff opponents and all the key left-handed batters: Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper on the Phillies; Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy on the Dodgers; Kyle Tucker, Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong on the Cubs.
Soto has held lefties to a .138 average this season, and it does help that the Mets have two lefty starters in David Peterson and Sean Manaea. They also just activated Brooks Raley after he had been out since early 2024. If he is back to his 2022-23 form, when he had a 2.74 ERA and held lefties to a .209 average, maybe the Mets will feel good enough about their southpaw relief.
They could still use another dependable righty reliever. Mets starters were hot early on, but they weren’t going deep into games, and outside of Peterson, the lack of longer outings is a big reason the bullpen ERA has skyrocketed. Carlos Mendoza has overworked his setup guys, including Huascar Brazoban and Reed Garrett. Brazoban has never been much of a strike thrower anyway, and Garrett similarly faded in the second half last season. Adding a high-leverage righty to set up Edwin Diaz makes sense. Candidates there include David Bednar of the Pirates, Ryan Helsley of the Cardinals, Griffin Jax or Jhoan Duran of the Twins, or maybe a longer shot such as Emmanuel Clase or Cade Smith of the Guardians.
Mark Vientos was a huge key to last season’s playoff appearance and trip to the NLCS, hitting .266/.322/.516 with 27 home runs after beginning the season in Triple-A. He hasn’t been able to replicate that performance, though, hitting .224/.279/.354. That has led to a revolving door at third base, with Vientos, Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio starting games there in July. Overall, Mets third basemen ranked 24th in the majors in OPS entering Friday.
Lack of production at third is one reason the Mets’ offense has been mediocre rather than very good — they’re averaging 4.38 runs per game, just below the NL average of 4.43. They could use another premium bat, given the lack of production they’ve received from center field and catcher (not to mention Francisco Lindor‘s slump since the middle of June). Maybe Francisco Alvarez‘s short stint back in Triple-A will get his bat going now that he’s back in the majors, but going after Suarez to hit behind Juan Soto and Pete Alonso would lengthen the lineup.
Tyrone Taylor is a plus defender in center and has made several incredible catches, but he’s hitting .209/.264/.306 for a lowly OPS+ of 65. Old friend Bader is having a nice season with the Twins, hitting .251/.330/.435. Maybe that’s a little over his head, given that he had a .657 OPS with the Mets last season, but he would still be an offensive upgrade over Taylor without losing anything on defense — and he wouldn’t cost a top-tier prospect. The Mets could still mix in Jeff McNeil against the really tough righties, but adding Suarez and Bader would give this lineup more of a championship feel.
The perfect deadline for the Phillies
1. Acquire Jhoan Duran
Like the Mets, the Phillies already made a move here, signing free agent David Robertson, who had a 3.00 ERA and 99 strikeouts in 72 innings last season with the Rangers. On paper, he should help, but he’s also 40 and will need a few games in the minors to get ready. Even with Robertson, the Phillies could use some more help here. They’ll eventually get Jose Alvarado back from his 60-game PED suspension, but Alvarado is ineligible for the postseason. At least the Mets have an elite closer in Edwin Diaz. Jordan Romano leads the Phillies with eight saves and has a 6.69 ERA. Matt Strahm is solid, but more useful as a lefty setup guy than a closer (think of all those left-handed batters we listed for the Mets, then sub out Juan Soto and Brandon Nimmo for Harper and Schwarber).
And the Phillies’ bullpen has consistently come up short in big games. Think back to last year’s NLDS, when Jeff Hoffman lost twice to the Mets. Or 2023, when Craig Kimbrel lost two games in the NLCS against the Diamondbacks. Or the 2022 World Series, when Yordan Alvarez hit the huge home run off Alvarado in the clinching Game 6.
So, yes, a shutdown closer is a must. Maybe that’s Bednar, maybe Clase if he’s available (although he struggled in last year’s postseason), maybe Helsley. But the guy Dave Dombrowski should go all-in to get: Duran. The window for the Phillies is slowly closing as the core players get older. Duran is under control through 2027, so he’s a fit for now and the immediate future. The trade cost might be painful, but with his 100 mph fastball and splitter, he has the elite stuff you need in October.
The Phillies have received below-average production from both left field (mostly Max Kepler) and center field (Brandon Marsh/Johan Rojas platoon). The center-field market is pretty thin except for Bader or maybe a gamble on Luis Robert Jr. I’d pass on Robert, stick with the Marsh/Rojas platoon and upgrade left field with O’Hearn, who is hitting .281/.375/.452 for the Orioles. He isn’t the perfect fit since, like Kepler, he hits left-handed and struggles against lefties, but he’s a patient hitter with a much better OBP, and he’s passable in the outfield.
Here’s the bottom line: The Phillies have to admit that some of their long-term position players aren’t getting the job done — such as second baseman Bryson Stott, who has a 77 OPS+. Third baseman Alec Bohm has been better but also has a below-average OPS.
That makes Castro a nice fit. He’s not a star, but he’s an above-average hitter, a switch-hitter who plays all over the field for the Twins, having started games at five different positions. He could play second or third or start in left field against a lefty. Philadelphia could even start him in center instead of Rojas, although that would be a defensive hit. Bottom line: Castro would give the Phillies a lot more versatility — or a significant offensive upgrade over Stott if they start him every day at second.
Note as well: Stott has hit .188 in 33 career postseason games. Bohm has hit .214 with two home runs in 34 postseason games. The Phillies need a different offensive look for October.