THE WEST ZONE message board | SHOP NOW: DEALS on CLEMSON apparel

Clemson's football staff rightly bases its recruiting pitch on the notion that Clemson is just different.

That's because Clemson is different. The concoction of joyousness and innovation, the personal touch and the emphasis on the person more than the football-playing commodity, has made Dabo Swinney's program distinct.

But this is not an oasis. This is not a place that's totally immune to some of the issues confronting college football today.

The transfer portal by itself probably doesn't qualify as such an "issue" defined solely as a problem. But it's reasonable to say the new avenue by which football players can leave for greener grass elsewhere is problematic.

Yesterday's news that Shaq Smith has entered the transfer portal is a bit of a head-scratcher. Reality is often more nuanced than what we see on the surface, and admittedly we're taking a surface-level view here. There could be extenuating circumstances in Smith's case, such as wanting to be closer to home in Maryland for whatever reason.