By Heath Bradley.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney held his weekly press conference on Tuesday where he previewed the Tiger’s final ACC game against NC State.

Opening Statement

“It’ll be a really tough challenge this week. This is a very talented team, a very dangerous team. This is a team that’s as capable as anybody. Defensively, for us, it starts with their quarterback. He can make any throw. He’s a gutsy player. Obviously, he’s a fifth-year senior guy that’s got a lot of experience in their system. He’s got 22 touchdowns, just behind Tajh. Underwood has got ten touchdowns. Their offensive line is huge. They’ve got a lot of size and some veteran guys on their interior. They love to involve those guys, especially on crossing routes… We’ll have to try to disrupt their rhythm. This is a team that’s capable of doing a lot of things. Defensively, they’re probably as good as anybody we’ve played from an athletic standpoint. They lead the ACC in sacks. They’ve done a lot of good things this year. That was an area that I thought we lost last year in this game. Amerson is as good a player as you’ll see in the country. We’ll have our hands full with those guys. Our receivers are going to have to play really well. We’ll have to protect our quarterback. That’s really a key for us. Consistently, as a group, that’s what we want to see. There’s a lot of movement, a lot of pressure from Coach Archer and Tenuta. They do a phenomenal job. Again, it starts with the guys up front. They’re a really, really strong group. Our focus is on Clemson, just like it’s been all year. We’re just trying to have a great Tuesday practice and have a great Wednesday. I know we’re coming to the end of the season here. I know we don’t have a whole lot of time left, but there’s still a lot on the table for these guys. To be able to be a division champion in three out of the last four years is a great accomplishment for these guys. This football team has continued to improve all year long.”

On N.C. State moving the ball around:

“They’re going to do what they do. N.C. State is one of those teams that doesn’t change from week to week. They believe in what they do. Now, when they played Wake Forest, they got in the I. But that’s probably just because of the nature of their 3-4. They probably figured they had some matchups. They want to put the ball in this quarterback’s hands, and I don’t blame them. He’s a really good player. He’s the distributor. As you said, he’s done a great job. They’re going to throw the ball to the tight ends, the backs. He knows where his outlets are. Everybody has to have great eyes, great alignments. It’s not like you’re going to fool him a lot. I don’t know, they probably have had 14, 15, 16 guys touching the ball.” 

On his team’s recent turnovers:

“The one was just an exchange issue. We haven’t had a lot of that. Tajh had great ball security, but fundamentally, we don’t want him turning his back. That’s where most fumbles happen—from behind. It’s usually not the guy in front of you. When you do that, you kind of expose yourself, especially down there at the goal line. Up at Duke, we didn’t get any. That’s when it’s a problem. We’re much better than where we were at this time last year. That turnover margin is huge. Not that we’re not going to have one, but we’ve got to create turnovers.”

On D.J. Howard:

“He’s going to be alright. He practiced yesterday. Hot Rod was probably a little more limited yesterday than anybody. He looked pretty good, but he did the least. The plan today is to have him in green and have him practice.”

On Martavis Bryant:

“It’s a combination of things. He missed a little time that kind of set him back. But it’s basically just trust. That’s really it with Martavis. It’s not just talent. There’s a whole lot more than that. That’s where he has struggled—with his consistency, his commitment, his focus. That’s what’s bad about a guy like Sammy Watkins. All of a sudden, that’s the expectation. Guys get better. It’s like Shuey. How about he’s a guy that’s worked his butt off and has gotten better as a junior? That’s why it’s called development. Some guys you have to just teach a little more, you have to discipline a little more. Andre Branch was here Saturday. He was one of them. He wasn’t very good as a freshman, as a redshirt freshman, or as a sophomore. He’s a great kid, a really fine young man. He just gets distracted, like a lot of young people do. I think football has probably always come easily to him. I’m proud of him because he has responded well. It’s not just an accident that he’s playing better in games.”

On Special Teams:

“Pretty solid. We’ve been not as good in the return game as we’d like. Field goals have been outstanding. That’s the one area that we should be better and that we could improve.”

On Team Becoming Complacent:

“No. We’re about to be done here. We’ve got nine, ten, 11 days left. We don’t have a lot of time. I think if they were going to get complacent, they already would have. Last year’s team, with 42 freshmen, they learned how to win. This team, through all of that process they went through last year, has learned how to be consistent. We prepare for every opponent. But we really have just tried to keep the focus on Clemson because we feel like we have pretty good players here. Our guys have bought into that. We haven’t gotten caught up in external things. It really doesn’t matter. Anybody can beat us. We respect every opponent. I really expected that we were going to have to make some progress from where we were when we started to where we wanted to be at the end. We’ve done some good things in all phases, and that’s been the key for us. We’re just focused on what we have to do to win. When you do that, you have attention to details. When you have great effort with technique, you get good execution. That’s the formula. Then when the game is over, the season starts tomorrow. Next week is the biggest game of the year. People say that’s coachspeak or whatever, but if you don’t have that mentality, you’re going to get your butt beat. We get them for 17 hours of the week. Well, the world has them 24×7—y’all can do the math—168 minus 17. That’s a lot of hours. We get way too much credit as coaches. Our leadership on this team, and not just the seniors, but the leadership that’s developed among the junior class, among the sophomore class.”

On NC State’s Struggle Versus Virginia:

“They just didn’t look like they were quite ready, for whatever reason. I have no idea. I got to see some of that live. They just had a ton of energy and came right out, bam bam bam, and got a couple of quick scores. It got to the point where it was over pretty early. We’ve all been to that point. I’ve been there. We kind of fizzled through that first quarter. We were not executing at all on offense. I think it was like 3-0 right there just starting the second quarter. Then all of a sudden, with like 2:50 left in the half, it’s 24-3 just like that. We did a really poor job. I didn’t have them ready to play. It’s as simple as that.”

On Team’s Focus This Year Versus Last:

“We’re fundamentally so much better than we were. We’re light years away, and we’ve still got a lot of improving to do. We’ve got quality depth. We had a season-low two mental errors in this last game. We had two mental errors. That’s outstanding. We probably had two mental errors before lunch, individually. The understanding of what we’re doing has kind of freed them up, if you will.”

On Tajh Boyd:

“He’s always thrown the ball well. He was born with a golden arm. You can thank God for that. In the last two year, with how he’s coached here in this system and how we…he has a much better understanding of his delivery. He can throw the football. He’s improved his accuracy, and that’s just a product on the great coaching that he’s had. He’s just been a fun guy to watch develop. His raw ability to throw it, he’s always had that. He’s not just throwing the deep ball. He’s throwing it to a spot, he’s back shouldering the ball. What are we doing on whatever play it is? Mechanically, he’s tremendous.”

On Chad Morris:

“Unusual? No. He’s just a really great coach. There’s not a day that goes by that Chad doesn’t work on it. This time of year, I try to trim practice a little bit, but it’s still important that we stay focused on the fundamentals.”

On Offensive Line Prior To 2012:

“I was pretty worried, concerned about our offensive line. We’ve recruited well, and I like our guys. You had a guy who had played D-tackle all his life, and now he’s moving to offensive lne. But Giff and Beasley, Norton and Kalon and Shaq and all those other guys—Battle—you’re talking about a long way to go coming into the season. They just went and competed their butts off in camp and won by a knockout. Man, when we came out of that Auburn game, we were like, ‘Okay, boys, we’ve got something to work with.’ I think Kalon has improved. All of those guys have improved. Battle continues to come on. I think, even though you maybe haven’t seen them a lot on the field, they are improving. It’s going to be fun this spring. This has been a really good year from an offensive line standpoint. We haven’t always been together like a union. It’s been three out of five or two out of five.”

On Keeping Focus A Week Away From South Carolina Game:

“Again, we don’t talk about it. I’m sure that they get that kind of stuff. That goes back to the foundation on which you build your program. They’re not going to cancel the season at 9-1. Then the stories change. Then it’s all different. You can’t lose your focus. That’s the challenge. That’s been the challenge all year. Then we go down and we have a really disappointing loss in Tallahassee. Well, we played very well. These guys have responded all year to the task at hand.”

On Who Is More Important QB or WR:

“It’s certainly both, there’s no question. But it’s the offensive line that makes both the quarterback and the receivers, to be honest with you. I think that quarterback is the most important position in the game of football. Some people may argue with that. He must be a pretty good player. Tajh Boyd is a great player. You look around at the great teams out there, and most of them have a great quarterback. You can’t just line the village idiot up out there. That’s what we have at that position.”

“He (Tajh) knows the game. He understands our system, and he understands how to apply it to what he sees defensively. He’s worked really hard to learn the game, to study, to grow. That’s just a product of his knowledge, his experience.”

“Montana and Rice, how good were they? They were awesome. That’s just the nature of having a relationship where they’re working together all the time. They could look at each other, and I think we’ve got that. There are a lot of things in the football game that we don’t even call. That just takes time. That takes chemistry, a lot of summer work, and spending a lot of time together.”

On David Amerson:

“He’s outstanding. I think he’s second in the league in interceptions. Last year was just a freak show. He is a very, very talented football player. You know, we recruited him. You just don’t see many guys that can cover like he can cover. A lot of times, DBs don’t have the body control of a wideout. I thought he dominated us. It’s going to be a big challenge for us.”