By Heath Bradley.

By Heath Bradley

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney reviews the Auburn game one final time, while also previewing Saturday’s game versus Ball State at Clemson Memorial Stadium.

Opening Statement

“It’s good to be back in the Valley. We’re excited about opening up at home and kicking off our home schedule against Ball State. This is a team that I think did some good things last year but is much more improved last year. They beat Ohio, who just went in and beat Penn State. Offensively, in particular, they’re fast. They’ve got speed guys that can run and they play fast in terms of tempo. They snapped the ball 96 times last week. They know what they’re doing. Their quarterback has a very accurate arm. He can make a lot of throws. I’m very impressed with his ability to lead the team. They’ve got a running back that can play for anybody. When he gets downhill, he very rarely does not finish forward. We’ll have our hands full with him. They have a couple of really good tight ends they mix in there. The receivers all know what they are doing. I’m impressed with what I’ve seen with them offensively. Defensively, they have five or six of their starters back. The main key for us is knowing what they’re doing up front. They move around and disguise what they’re doing. It’s a good home opener for us coming off a big win the other night. As I said the other night, the big challenge for us is to take care of Clemson. We have to control the things we need to control. I like how the guys showed up yesterday ready to get back to work.”

On the play of the defense against Auburn:

“We did some really, really good things. But we had some really critical mistakes. There are just some things that we have to clean up. It was a very difficult opener to prepare for. I thought the staff did an excellent job making adjustments. Down the stretch, we did our best. We held them to 19 points. That’s my number one statistic: scoring defense. Somebody can go up and down the field, but did they score touchdowns?”

On playing a major Division 1-A opponent in the opener

“I think you probably find out more about your team when you play an opponent like that. I found out a lot about some guys than I knew before the other night. There’s only so much you can learn in practice. There was a lot of energy, a lot of media coverage. How does a young guy respond to all of that?”

On getting team ready to play Ball State after Auburn.

“It shouldn’t be difficult. If it’s difficult, then we’re not going to be a championship team. It shouldn’t be difficult to get ready for one out of 12 games. You spend 97 percent of the year preparing for three percent. We tell them all the time that every team is a nameless, faceless opponent. None of that other stuff matters. When you step on the field, we play to a standard. There’s a formula for success that we go through. That’s all that we should be focused on and nothing else.”

On the play of the offensive line

“I said before the season that I don’t think we’re going to know who we are for three or four weeks. Then, we’ll have a really good gauge of our identity with certain guys. Hopefully, over the next few weeks, we’ll have guys making some improvements through experience. David Beasley would be one. He won the right to start based on three scrimmages, but he hadn’t played. He certainly hadn’t played when the game was on the line. He was as good on play 92 as he was early. Josh Watson is another guy. He had a little bit of experience last year as a freshman, but not a lot. To see him take that next step was encouraging. Charone Peake had some nice plays. He had a huge catch to set up that fourth-and-one for us.”

On this team and how it handled adversity

“Adversity is going to happen. I’ve been trying to coach a perfect game my whole life, and it hasn’t happened yet. There are always things to correct and teach. Coming in here Sunday, I was sick watching it because there were things we could have done. Again, we overcame it. There was never any doubt. The guys felt like they had good matchups, they were confident. It’s a sign of good leadership from those guys. It’s a sign of growth. Guys that had never been in that rodeo before got to experience it.”

On play of Tajh Boyd in key situations

“There were several. If I had to pinpont one, it would be the third down late in the game when he ran around and got the first down. I was really pleased with him in that regard. We probably had 10 completions that weren’t even pass plays. They were run calls that had built-in options. The touchdown pass to Nuk was a run call all the way. He did a good job with his protections. He did a good job in the running game. It was good to see him being very disciplined.”

On the health of Gifford Timothy

“To be honest with you, medically, I’m sure it would be best for him to sit out for a couple of weeks. I would say he would play. I don’t think it’s really up in the air. We’ll have to see how he does tomorrow and Wednesday.”

On playing more offensive linemen this week

“We’re just young. Kalon is the only guy that I really felt like could have gotten in there a little more. Going in, our plan was to play Kalon a little bit more. We just got into such a rhythm. Beasley was playing well and responding well. Dalton liked what he saw and was playing well. There’s no doubt there are some other guys we’d like to see.”

On the addition of the pistol in the Clemson offense

“That’s been a great addition for us. Andre is a great downhill runner. We’ll still do some offset stuff. The pistol really allows you to get downhill quicker.”

On playing in Death Valley

“It’s awesome. It never gets old. It’s a privilege that I don’t take for granted to lead the team here at Clemson, but in particular, here at home. It’s an unbelievable opportunity every time you get to do it. Hopefully our fans will come excited to see the Tigers play.”

On the communication of the defense versus Auburn

“No, I thought we communicated pretty well. We just misaligned a few times. They weren’t a fast tempo team. We’ll be challenged this week. These guys are wide open. They’ll snap the ball. Ball State will do a lot of checking. This will be a big week for our scout team. The good thing for our defense is that they just spent a month practicing against our offense. I thought it was one of the differences in the game the other night. The big thing for us offensively is that we only had one three-and-out. Last year, when we didn’t have a three-and-out, we scored 62 percent of the time.”

On the play of the return teams

“Punt return was fine. You see this shield punt all the time. We actually did that. It’s the first time we’ve done that. The reason we went to the shield is that we couldn’t hardly get a return. It’s almost impossible to send two guys deep when you’re facing a shield. We worked with it all spring. You probably won’t see a ton of returns as long as the opportunities to punt are adequate. I thought we made a bad decision with Martavis. Getting the ball on the 25 is a pretty good spot. It’s much better than the 15.”

On determining whether to kick it short or deep

“It depends on who you’re playing. I hope people kick it to Sammy. I hope they kick it to Martavis. I want us to return it because I think we have a chance to get it to the 30 or the 35. I don’t think we’ll see a whole lot of that though. Now, once you know it’s kicked and you take those drops, they are on you. I think you’re going to see so many touchbacks that all of a sudden, you have to coach your guys to drop like every kick is going to be returned.”

On the new helmet rule and how it changes the game

“That hasn’t changed. Maybe now that they know you have to go out, you’ll see a little more of that. It’s definitely different. You just didn’t really ever think about it in the past. We’re going to start trying to keep our guys warm just to have a guy ready.