By Will Vandervort.
By Will Vandervort
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — The Clemson Tigers are the defending Atlantic Coast Conference Champions, and that’s exactly how their head coach wants them to respond when they play at Boston College Saturday at Alumni Stadium.
“The big thing is, I want to see our team respond like a champion,” Dabo Swinney said. “I want to see us respond kind of the opposite way in which we did coming off the Auburn game. That was an emotional win to kick the season off in a great environment, and there were a lot of people who thought we might have a letdown the next week.
“But we really came out and took care of business. We started fast in beating Ball State and took care of business against Furman. This week is kind of the opposite of that in that we are coming off a very difficult loss and I want to see us respond and go up and play like I know we are capable of.”
In keeping with the theme of his head coach, Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd called a “players only meeting” at the beginning of the week to make sure everyone, including the younger players were on the same page. Boyd later said he called the meeting so his teammates understood not all was lost in losing to Florida State last week and all of their goals were still on the table.
Swinney echoed his quarterback’s feelings and was glad to see Boyd step up and be the leader the 17th-ranked Tigers need him to be.
“That’s what you want to see,” Swinney said. “That’s thing I was kind of anxious to see. How will these guys respond? We do have a lot of guys that are in that role for the first time and I was anxious to see how they might handle this and I really like that look in their eye.
“They weren’t happy (with losing). They were disappointed.”
Swinney made his players watch what he called a “Here is what happened” video on Monday. He hopes it helped show them what they did wrong, but importantly he hopes they are able to get it corrected before Saturday’s game in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
“Here are the facts and let’s all make sure we understand what we did wrong and let’s go improve. Let’s get better,” Swinney said he told his players. “We are the same team that had a really good team on the road down 14 (points). We didn’t finish it. But those guys are still here and we know we are capable of being a good football team.
“That was one game and it was a tough loss, but we have a long way to go.”
The Tigers (3-1, 0-1) will have to do it without the services of All-American wide receiver Sammy Watkins, who will miss the game due to an abdominal virus that kept him out of Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s practice. On Thursday, team doctors decided it was best that Watkins stay home and rest this weekend. He did not make the trip to Boston College.
But Clemson should not have too much reason to fret over Watkins’ absence. The Tigers have already won two games without Watkins this season due to his suspension from an arrest back in May.
With that, it comes back to the Tigers’ main thought of the week, “don’t let the FSU game beat you twice.”
“That’s not going to go away,” Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris said. “Do I feel like we have to sit and have a major focus on getting our guys ready for Boston College? Absolutely not, our guys are going to be ready to play.
“The season is not over with. Every goal we have set for this football team and for this offense are still obtainable, every one of them. There is still a lot of football left to be played. You learn to put this one behind you. You have to learn from it and grow from it and you have to be able to go to the next one and perform. You can’t let one lose cost you another one.”