Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, Dalton Freeman and Malliciah Goodman held a press conference Friday to preview the Chick-Fil-A Bowl.

THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, Malliciah
Goodman and Dalton Freeman. Coach, we’ll start with you, if you could give us an opening statement
and talk about your Bowl week experience so far at the Chick-Fil-A Bowl and how your preparations
have been going.
COACH SWINNEY: Good to be with you all. First of all, it’s been a real blessing to be part
of the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. This is my third Chick-fil-A experience this year, having had the opportunity to
be in the golf tournament that, the challenge, the golf challenge that I hack up every year, but what a
great experience that is.   And then obviously we opened up here against Auburn, and now we’re back. So it’s been
a great year for us, just experiencing all that the Chick-fil-A folks have to offer. Just the whole
organization. Everything to do with Chick-fil-A is first class, and we greatly appreciate the
opportunity to be here and represent Clemson. As far as our Bowl preparation, it’s been
really good. I think that’s another thing that makes this Bowl really unique, in that it’s very seldom that
you get to practice where you’re actually going to play the game. Most of the time you don’t even
really get to — when you go to get to see the stadium you have to stay on the outside because
they have it painted and all that stuff and nobody can touch anything.
But to actually go and practice each day in the Georgia Dome, I think it’s great. I think it’s
brought a lot of energy to our practice and helps these guys kind of visualize what they want to do
on game day.

So that part of it has been really good. Our players have done an outstanding job. We’ve
got a couple of our great leaders here. This team’s had tremendous leadership. We don’t have a lot of
seniors. We’ve got 11 of them. But they’re all impactful people that have done some great and
wonderful things here at Clemson. But it starts with having good leadership. And these guys have
been tremendous leaders for our program. So I’m appreciative of how they’ve carried
that here to the Bowl site. We’ve had no issues. Everybody’s been where they’re supposed to be,
on time and all that. Looking forward to another good practice here in just a short bit. And then tomorrow we’ll
wrap it up with kind of like a Thursday-type practice for us. And then we have our walk-through and
then play the game.
So, again, really appreciate the opportunity to be here and look forward to a great match with
an excellent team in LSU.

Q. Dalton, talk about what’s been your favorite event of Bowl week so far and maybe
what event are you looking forward to the most for the rest of the week?
DALTON FREEMAN: First off, we have to remind ourselves we’re not in the BCS game. We
were very blessed last year to play in the BCS game. But everything that Chick-fil-A has done for
us has been first class. And just probably the best Bowl game I’ve ever been associated with.
We’ve had a lot of good experiences thus far. Last night was probably the icing on the cake.
We got to race go-carts and play video games and eat. And I’m really looking forward to tonight. We
get to do a Brazilian steakhouse and we actually have a competition with LSU see who can eat the
most meat. We’re excited about that.

Q. Projection on how much meat you’ll be able to eat tonight?
DALTON FREEMAN: It’s per team. So I’m going to say in the hundreds of pounds. But it’sgoing to be fun.

Q. Malliciah, what about you, what’s been your favorite part of Bowl week so far?
MALLICIAH GOODMAN: Mine was the same. The go carts was the best part for me.
Playing the games and competing with my teammates is very competitive. Racing and
playing the video games. Even though I didn’t do so good in the go-carts it was still fun.
Q. I understand that Coach Swinney put a couple of players in the wall. Were you
one of the victims?

MALLICIAH GOODMAN: I didn’t race him.
Thankfully.

Q. Dalton and Malliciah, could you talk about your experiences at Children’s Hospital
yesterday?

MALLICIAH GOODMAN: It was a great experience just seeing the kids. It was my first
time going to the hospital and giving back to some of the kids. We appreciate them and their fight.
And just go in there really hit us, just appreciate every moment you can have, every gift
you have, don’t take advantage of it. Don’t settle for somebody telling you you can’t do something
and this and that. And we were on the radio station, and just talked to the kids throughout the
hospital. And it was just a great experience, fun for all of us.
DALTON FREEMAN: It was a very humbling experience. As he mentioned we were
able to get on the radio show, which Ryan Seacrest actually donated to the hospital and it airs
to all the Children’s Hospitals across Atlanta and maybe even further.
So that was a great experience to be able to give back and to meet some of those kids and
just great personalities. And you really just understand how truly blessed you are. And that’s
what I love about playing for Coach Swinney, he always emphasizes that. He’s more about making
you a better man than a better player. And it’s nice to be part of a Bowl that does the same thing.

Q. Dalton, for those of us that haven’t got a chance to see your team play, could you
talk about what kind of quarterback Tajh is and what as an offensive lineman you all have to be
prepared to do because he can extend the play for so long?

DALTON FREEMAN: I think Tajh, if he’s not the best quarterback, he’s one of the best
quarterbacks in the country. Leading in six of eight categories in the country. He’s very explosive.
The thing about Tajh, he’s a try-hard guy. He came in, right away he didn’t pick up the system
but spent an entire off-season after having the year under his belt really learning the ins and outs of the
offense and really just developing as a leader.  I think that’s what your quarterback has to
be, commander-in-chief on the field and he’s done a great job of that. For people who haven’t seen
him play, I think they’ll see a dynamic guy that can run or throw the ball as you say can extend the
plays and hopefully make something out of nothing.

Q. Dabo, we’ve heard about the physical nature of practice during Bowl month
here. I just wondered why have you decided to ratchet up the physical nature of practice, is it
more or less physical than preparation for South Carolina week?
COACH SWINNEY: Well, first of all, South Carolina, you basically have three days and you
have a practice plan that you go through each and every week that you believe in and you’ve played
several weeks in a row. So the season’s a little bit different than just this season.
But even preparation for that game, you’re always trying to get your team ready for what
they’re going to see. And I think we were well prepared for that game, had great preparation.
Don’t make any excuses. We got beat by a better team.
But the season’s over, and you have basically a month to get ready for a new opponent
and you study what they do and then you try to develop a plan to best prepare your team.
And it’s been very physical. But if you watch LSU play, that’s how they play the game.
It’s their style of play is a little bit different. I mean, people get caught up in you have to get an I
formation to be physical. That’s the furthest thing from the truth.
But it’s like saying that you can only run the option if you’re a triple option team or
something. We have elements of everything in our offense.
And we pride ourselves on being a very physical football team. We do it a little bit
differently than maybe LSU. But you have to prepare your team for what they’re going to see.

And this is the team that’s going to line up and a lot of times there’s one line out on the field and it
doesn’t really matter whether it’s third and 10 they’ll run the power right at you. You better be prepared
for that.  So that’s how we developed our practice plan and just trying to get our guys the best we
possibly can to simulate what they’re going to see on game day. And this is a national championship
caliber football team we’re getting ready to play.  So I’m confident in how we prepared.
We’ve tried to do everything we can to give our guys the best opportunity to win on game day, and
we’ll see how it turns out

Q. I just wanted to ask you, with all the SEC talk and string of national championships
and LSU being in the Bowl game last year, what motivation do you draw to represent the ACC
well and to beat a SEC power in this game?
COACH SWINNEY: For me we don’t really spend a lot of time talking about the
conference or any of that other stuff. We got one agenda and that’s to try to be the best Clemson
that we can possibly be and try to play our best football game.
All the other stuff is great, but to be honest with you it’s just distractions for what we’re trying to
accomplish. So that’s just a side part of it. We win the game, that gives somebody something else to
talk about, but it’s really not about that. Obviously the SEC has been the power conference in this
country for the last several years. But I believe those things come and go in cycles, and our focus
at Clemson is to be the best we can be and bring the national championship back to the ACC
through Clemson. That’s our focus. Nothing more than that. It would be great for us to find a way to
win this game and not have to answer that question anymore, at least for a few months.

Q. Coach Swinney, I read where a few years ago when you were looking for a
defensive coordinator, you interviewed John Chavis, can you just recall that meeting and as
you prepare to face his defense what stands out to you?
COACH SWINNEY: Yeah, he was actually coming to Clemson until Les stole him from me right at the last second. Dirty dog. He’s a
great football coach. I mean, I’ve known Coach Chavis a long time. I was at Alabama for 13 years.
And as far back as I can remember, playing and coaching, Coach Chavis is roaming the sidelines.

And Woody McCorby, my coach at Alabama and John are like best friends and actually worked
together at Alabama A&M at one point. And then also coached together at Tennessee for about five
years.  So I’ve had a lot of interaction with Coach Chavis and through other people that have been
around him. And I just have the utmost respect for how he handles his business. He works very hard
in recruiting. Does things the right way. He’s a great on-the-field coach. He loves his players.
And I think that’s why they play so hard for him.  And they’ve been — his defensive groups have
been so consistent all throughout the years if you track him. And I think it all goes back to who he is
as a person. There’s a lot of good coaches out there, but he’s a good man and he loves his
players.
I think that shines through with those guys in how they play for him. So great respect for
Coach Chavis.

Q. Coach, Dalton touched on it earlier
but most media outlets has said this is one of
the best three or four matchups in the entire
Bowl system this year. You guys were in a
BCS game last year. How does this match up
with the BCS game and the BCS experience?
COACH SWINNEY: Oh, this is
tremendous. It’s every bit as good. Probably the
only thing we don’t have our buses wrapped with
our pictures on the side of them, that’s about it.
We throw that in to Gary.
But I tell you, there’s really no difference.
This is a tremendous, tremendous Bowl. People
who have not experienced a Chick-fil-A Bowl but
have been to other Bowls, I’ve been to other
Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl
and Outback Bowl, Chance Bowl, Citrus Bowl,
bunch of Bowl games throughout my 20 something
years in college football here. And this is as good
as a Bowl as there is out there.
It really goes back to how it’s run, the
people that are involved, the pride that they take
into the organization. They have great events.
They make it competitive. It’s just not kind of the
same old, same old. They really do some neat
things here. They’ve got great gifts, all that kind of
stuff. But we’ve really thoroughly enjoyed our
experience.

And we have a great matchup.  Had we

gone to the Orange Bowl this year, Northern Illinois
is a great worthy opponent. But LSU’s the seventh
ranked team in the country.
So we got that lucky draw and coming to
the Chick-fil-A. So this is a big-time matchup and
certainly one of, probably one of the most
intriguing matchups from an outside perspective.
These guys are top ten in defense. We’re top ten
in offense. So it’s pretty easy to get excited about
that.

Q. For the players and coaches, if you
would like to touch on it. You talked about
preparing them for what they’re going to see.
Most times in Bowl games you might get out of
conference flavor you haven’t seen but you
guys are very familiar with the SEC. How much
does that help with your preparations, maybe
not having played LSU recently, but teams like
them?
MALLICIAH GOODMAN: LSU is a very
physical team, have big guys up front and big
backs. So you just have to prepare to be physical
with them for four quarters. That’s the thing that
we’ve been doing like Coach Swinney talked about
with practices, just having that mentality of it’s
going to be a four-quarter physical battle, battle,
you have to prepare your mind that way and fight
that way.
DALTON FREEMAN: As Coach said, I
think it’s all kind of a distraction. At the end of the
day, football is still football. We play some great
competition in the ACC. We also play South
Carolina, Auburn, other teams in the SEC.
So we’re used to seeing this kind of stuff. I
don’t think SEC varies that much in style from the
ACC. It’s all great competition.
COACH SWINNEY: And the span of 12
months, starting this past August, we will have
played Auburn, South Carolina, now LSU and then
Georgia to open up the season.
So we might as well be in the SEC. Heck,
that’s a pretty full schedule right there. But we’re
excited about having that opportunity. And if you
want to be the best, you want to put yourself in
those situations to play the teams that are
considered the best.

Q. Coach Swinney, what are your
theories as to why the SEC has been so good
and so deep in recent years?
COACH SWINNEY: Well, I think that it’s
been more top heavy as far as conference goes.
This year’s been a little bit more unusual, I would

say. Some really dominant, a few dominant
teams. A few more dominant teams.
But I think just their TV contract has been
huge. I think that’s probably been one of the things
that impacted them tremendously. Recruiting. Got
great coaches. Great tradition. And it’s a great
area to recruit college football players here in the
southeast. And I think that they’ve maximized
every opportunity and every resource that they’ve
had available to them through their conference.
I think they’ve done a good job of being
together as a conference. And, again, they’ve
produced one or two dominant teams over the last
several years. And I think their conference, the
teams in their conference has won about 14 or 15
national championships in the last 30 years, I think.
And I believe the ACC’s teams we’ve had about
11.
So it’s for whatever reason our conference,
we have really not produced that dominant team.
And we’ve been very, a lot of parity. Very
competitive from top to bottom. Much more
balanced in that regard. The SEC has been really
heavy on the top end and with some very, very
dominant teams that have been 12 and 0. 11 and
1, pretty consistently. And I think it all goes back to
just, first of all, great, great programs, great
coaches, the area that they’re in, great TV contract
exposure, all that stuff and recruiting at a high
level.