Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney held his Sunday teleconference where he looked ahead to this week’s game with Notre Dame.  Swinney said this game is no more important than any other, but admitted it “brings extra pizzazz”.

Here is a transcript from the Sunday teleconference:

Opening Statement

We have had a good week. It has been a little unique for us. I don’t ever recall having two Saturday’s in a row where we haven’t played, playing on a Thursday night game and then having an open date afterwards. I think we tried to make good use of the time. We got some guys healthy. We got some work done just really on Clemson. Just trying to improve our team and prepare for the long haul of the season. Then obviously getting to work on Notre Dame.

The players were off Friday, Saturday and today. We are excited about getting back in this week. What a great college football game that we have the privilege of being a part of this weekend with Notre Dame coming to town and GameDay and all that stuff. It is exciting.

I know we are going to have to play our best game to have a chance in this type of game. This is an outstanding football team (Notre Dame) that really to be honest with you there are not a lot of weaknesses with them. They are talented all across the board, but we look forward to the challenge.

I know our guys here at Clemson will be excited about hosting them. It has been a long time since Notre Dame has been here. I am looking forward to, like I said, getting back to work tomorrow.

I think health wise we are in a good spot. Hopefully we can have a good week of practice and we look forward to Saturday night.

Question – Will Dane Rogers, Jake Fruhmorgen and Chris Register all be back at practice tomorrow?

Jake for sure. I feel decent about Dane. Obviously they have been gone so I will know a little bit more tomorrow. I don’t want to speak before I know for sure. I am hopeful that Dane will be a little better and be able to do more tomorrow.

Register is probably still, he is much better, but probably not quite ready to play. But he is improving.

Question – Were you able to shore some things up on the return game in the off week?

In the return game? Our biggest emphasis was the kickoff coverage. We spent a lot of time working on kickoff coverage. We went back and coaches some fundamentals and some things that we really did a poor job of so absolutely we spent a little bit every day working on that. We have good people and we made a couple of changes personnel wise. The biggest thing is to do a better job with our discipline and execution there. We certainly put a lot of work into it. That is for sure.

Question – Just to get clarification on the special teams. I think you mentioned coach Hobby and coach Venables on the return team. Is coach Pearman still involved with the special teams?

It is just like our offense and defense that you have a coordinator then you have different position coaches within that. Danny is our special team’s coordinator and kind of oversees everything. Mike Reed coaches punt return. Marion and Brent handle our kickoff coverage. Danny coaches the punt team and the kickoff return. Robbie Caldwell coaches field goal and Dan Brooks coaches field goal block. We have always had that type of structure. All of us are involved in special teams and we put a lot of time into it. It is one of those things where a lot of people don’t think a lot about it until you have that one bad play. That one big play can change a game, good or bad. Certainly kickoff coverage is an area that we have to improve in.

Question – With this much time does it work against you or feed the players hunger?

They will be excited to play. My preference is to keep playing. I love playing every week. I don’t like sitting on the side but everybody has an open date. You try to use that time wisely and I think we have. Shoot our guys will be glad to get back in action. They love to play.

Giving an opportunity to be in one like this. They are all huge but this game isn’t any more important than App State, Wofford or Louisville. Just because it is Notre Dame doesn’t make it bigger. For us they are all huge. They are all a season of their own. Our guys understand that we only get twelve of them. They put so much work into it. One thing I will say is they have shown up ready each and every week and I don’t think it will be any different for this one. That is for sure.

Question – Any developments in the last week with Ammon handling kickoffs?

Yes he is back with us and back rolling. We will make that decision later this week but he will definitely have an opportunity there. He did a good job this past week and we have another whole week of practice here before we make that decision.

Question – Talk about having College GameDay and having the big Primetime show. You have to embrace that?

Absolutely as a competitor, a player or a coach, you want to have the opportunity to compete at the highest level. At least I know I do and our players do. Any time you get an opportunity, there are 120 something division 1 schools out there and if GameDay choses to come to your place I think that is a huge positive. I don’t see a negative in it. I think it is great. It is great exposure for our university and certainly our program. Everybody wants to have an opportunity to play in games like this. Not just these types of games with GameDay and nationally ranked teams competing but you are talking about Notre Dame. This is the winningest program in the history of football. It is an awesome opportunity.

Again they are all big but some games bring a little extra pizzazz with them if you will. Some outside things that come along with it other than your normal preparation. Certainly this game brings that. We will embrace it and have fun with it and get ready to go play.

Question – Did you learn any new strategies from the Panthers game today?

I just had a great time. It was kind of neat. I got a chance to see those guys before the game and got a chance to see them after the game. I am just really proud of, first of all the Panthers looked good, but I am really proud of Stephon and Tavaris and C.J.. It is fun to see those guys achieve their dreams. I got a chance to visit with their families and all that afterwards.

It was a great day. It was the first time I have ever been to a pro game during the college season. But it is the first time I have had back to back weekend free too. It was fun. I enjoyed it. The Panthers have a great arena and facility there. I really enjoyed that time with my family.

Question – You have three games in. Have any of the freshmen receivers stood out in the vertical passing game with Mike Williams out?

Yeah we haven’t had much of a vertical passing game the first three games with the way people have played us. We have created a couple of things and taken a couple of shots that we just take. But most everybody these first three weeks has played on top of us and we have done a good job of taking what is there. That is why I was so pleased with the Louisville game. We had to be patient. We ran the football. But as we move forward we will have teams, starting with Notre Dame, that will get up and press us and really play like we play on defense. We just haven’t seen much of that and that is when you have more opportunities to get the ball down the field.

But we are confident in our receivers. We have an outstanding group. We have seen it on the practice field over and over. As far as the young guys it is the same guys that have been there all of camp. They are all improving. Trevion is coming on. We are confident in him. Deon, Ray Ray, all three of those young guys and Renfrow. All of those are guys that are playing and are just going to get better. But Artavis and Charone are certainly the two guys that we feel are leading that group.

Question – Will we see more of Deon and Trevion out there on the boundary this week?

Yes, we will continue to see them.  There is no doubt about that, but we aren’t disappointed with anybody.  Charone has done a great job.  He hasn’t really had a lot of opportunities but other than the second game when he got behind them one time and he had a nice redzone touchdown.  We will just keep rolling like we are right now and those guys will continue to get opportunities and they need to take advantage of them.  Fourth quarter in the game up there Deon made a couple of plays.  And Ray Ray through three games has been consistent as have those other guys that have had opportunities.

Question – During the bye week is Kelly any close to winning the No. 2 QB spot?

He is improving.  He is getting better.  The biggest thing is he has had a chance to play some.  After three weeks you can really go back and evaluate and improve on some things.  Nick is still our second team guy, but definitely Kelly has improved a ton.  He is one of those guys that is going to continue to get better and better each day.  He has a ton of potential but we are still right now where we were.  If something happened to Deshaun Nick would get the first call off the bench but we wouldn’t hesitate to play Kelly.

Question – Which game will be the breast cancer game?

That is the Boston College game.

Question – The players have heard a lot from the media, fans and others about how big this game is for the program’s history.  Will the message be any different this week to try to put it in perspective?

It is really just the same.  The message is not any different than it was for App, or Wofford or Louisville.  It is about Clemson, it is about us.  That may not be what you guys want to hear, but it is.  We don’t really change what we do.  We believe in how we prepare.  We do what we do.  We don’t all of a sudden start practicing different because we are playing Notre Dame.  We practice the same and we have a formula that we apply each and every week regardless of the opponent.  You do speak to the things that can be distractions.  There are always distractions but in a game like this there is always more media, more things like that.  More people want tickets.  We will definitely kind of address that kind of stuff with all the young guys we have.  We will say lets focus on what we can control.  Our job is to prepare to play the game.  Let’s let all that other stuff stay outside of our box.  And that is where you rely a little bit on your veteran guys.  But you want them to enjoy it, be excited about it and embrace it.  We try to keep a good perspective but as far as what we do it isn’t going to be any different.