Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney held his weekly Sunday teleconference where he discussed the victory over Boston College, the latest on injuries and much more.
Opening Statement
It was a good trip back. Just to get a big win for our team. I am really proud of our guys for bouncing back. We had some adversity throughout the game. I really thought last night and confirmed it today on the film that we grew up on defense in the second half. We still gave up too many chunk plays and just making some critical mistakes and really doing a poor job with our eyes in particular.
Overall we improved and we found a way to win. It was just a great job by the whole team in getting it done. There were some big plays on both sides. And again we had to overcome some adversity on both sides.
I thought we were able to play a lot of guys which I thought was important, especially with a young team. Trying to develop a lot of guys and get them as much experience as we can as we go throughout this season.
Players of the Game
Offense – Nuk Hopkins
Defense – DeShawn Williams
Special Teams – Andre Ellington
Injury Update
Injury wise it looks like we are in pretty good shape. D.J. Howard is probably the questionable as we sit here today with his shoulder. Everybody else looks like they should be good to go.
Question – Any update on Sammy?
Dabo – It will probably be tomorrow. I know Danny Poole actually took him today, was taking him this afternoon to get some more blood work. The initial blood work that they did looks good. But they were taking him today to do a different type of blood work today.
Danny Poole was personally taking him today so hopefully I will find out a little more tonight but I won’t have any type of update until tomorrow.
Question – How was Dalton Freeman?
Dabo – It is more his thumb. It will probably be a little sore tomorrow and Tuesday but probably by Wednesday he will be ready to go. He was able to finish the game. He played with it sore for a good part of the game so he will be okay.
Question – Did Garry Peters earn some more playing time?
Dabo – Oh yeah. We will start Gary this week. I think that he earned it. We were just too inconsistent on the back end and he went in and did some good things so we will give him the opportunity to be the starter. He has to practice well but we will give him the opportunity to be No. 1 going into tomorrow’s practice.
I was really proud of how he responded and competed.
Question – How about Bradley Pinion on kickoffs?
Dabo – Well neither one of them are very consistent right now. It has just kind of been a frustrating thing. If the ball is going to get returned we would rather have Spencer in there because he is going to make the tackle if nothing else. We are probably going to look at Ammon as well this week.
It has really not been something we have been very concerned about. Both of those guys have been great all through camp and the early part of the season. But for whatever reason last night and last week they have been very inconsistent with hitting the ball like we are capable of hitting the ball. We have to get that fixed and resolved.
We are also going to take a look at Ammon closely this week in practice. He has a big leg as well but we really have just been having him focus on field goals.
Question – Where is the one place Nuk is better this year?
Dabo – Last night was I thought his most complete game. That is probably the biggest thing. He is just a more complete player. He is a more technical route runner, which is huge. He wasn’t very polished when he came here. He was just a great athlete and he has really developed technically.
From route running to setting things up. He is a much more physical player. He has picked up probably 20 plus pounds since he came to Clemson. That has really helped him tremendously.
He plays a lot of plays. He had eleven catches but he played probably 65 snaps. So there are a lot of things you can do throughout the game to impact the game other than catch the ball.
That is where he has grown the most and that has helped him become a better player and that is why he was our player of the game last night.