Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney held his weekly teleconference Sunday where he previewed Saturday’s win over Boston College and looked ahead to Miami. Here is a transcript of today’s teleconference:
Opening Statement
We are just kind of putting this one to bed and getting ready to move on to the Hurricanes here.
Again I am really proud of our team. It was an outstanding, competitive, physical matchup last night. I really like all the positives that we had in the game. There are so many of them we don’t have time to go through everything. Having said that we have a lot of things that we have to correct.
Offensively 532 yards on the number one defense in the land I think kind of speaks for itself. Certainly there are some plays that we wish we had made. And there were some negative things that we didn’t do a good job of but give them credit. They are the No. 1 defense for a reason. I am just really, really proud of what we were able to do. The big plays that we created. Obviously 420 yards passing. We missed some throws but yet Deshaun was still 27-42 and 64 percent and it was tight coverage all night long. I loved the amount of guys that are involved, guys touching the ball. I thought Artavis Scott was just outstanding. I thought he was the spark in the first quarter. Jordan Leggett continues to be a guy that is showing up on a weekly basis.
I am really pleased with the preparation that we had. I thought our offensive line we had a couple of guys that probably didn’t play their best game but from a preparation standpoint these guys really presented a lot of challenges. I thought the communication was very good.
I am really proud of Deshaun Watson and the way he played. He missed probably five or six throws that he would like to have back but man he responded and played great in the second half. It was kind of a tale of two halves offensively. He got us into some great checks. He has one bad decision all night and that was on the first interception. That was just a bad decision and a bad throw.
Probably the biggest thing offensively is we lost the turnover margin and we lost the field position battle but yet we were still able to put together some drives. We had to earn everything we got. We got a 75 yard drive for a touchdown, a 98 yard drive for a touchdown, an 85 yard drive for a touchdown and an 80 yard drive for a touchdown. We had two field goals off a 66 and 69 yard drives. We played on a long field all night and were able to put the drives together against, again, the best defense in the country.
Defensively we had a ton of big stops, ten punts. We held them to 87 yards passing. They did bust some big runs on us. We gave up more big runs that we have in a while. Those are all things that we can improve from. We have to do a better job of communicating. We had a bust on the 4th and six at the end of the game with man coverage. Overall a very physical game. I thought our guys responded to that. They were 3-15 on third downs. We had a bunch of tackles for loss and a couple of sacks. It was just a good team effort.
Special teams were very solid once again. Ammon Lakip was our special team’s player of the game. His kickoffs, he did a great job. We have a couple of field goals. We were solid in the punt once again. We were close on a couple of return opportunities.
It was a good solid win. They all feel pretty good about how they played, but when they come in here and watch this tape tomorrow they are going to see a lot of room for improvement. That is what it is going to take. We are just at the halfway point. We have done what we needed to do but we have to keep getting better. Guys have to take ownership of some of the mistakes that we are making and we have to go improve on it.
Miami is going to be another tough challenge for us, especially going down there but we look forward to it.
Players of the Game
Special Teams – Lakip
Defense – Boulware
Offense – Scott
Injury Report
That is a real positive. Usually when we come out of game with Boston College usually there is a long list on the report. Justin Falcinelli and Seckinger are the only two guys that we have any issues with. Facinelli just kind of hype extended his left elbow. He should be okay. We will put him in a brace. Seckinger looked pretty good this morning.
We are going to get Ryan Norton back this week. We should get Ryan Carter back, Austin Bryant as well. So hopefully we will be at full capacity as we get ready to make this tough trip down to Miami.
Question – I saw Ryan was taking some snaps with Jay. How will you handle that situation with Ryan coming back?
Dabo – He could have probably gone in and played if we just had to have him. But we plan to cut him loose this week. He will take the second team reps and Jay will be the starter. I think Jay has really performed well. He has done a great job stepping in and filling in for Ryan. We will see where Ryan is and we will let those guys get back to work and go compete. We are really glad to have Ryan back because we were very thin. Zack Riggs was out this game as you know with injury and then Falcinelli goes out. We were kind of down to our last center. Harrison Tucker ended up going in there and finishing the game for us.
Question – You talked about 3-15 on third downs. You are at an amazing rate of 80 percent of getting off the field on third down. How important is that for your defense and for field position?
Dabo – It is huge. It really is. We didn’t have as many three and outs. They did make some first downs and they put us on a long field. We didn’t win that field position battle. They put us on a long field all night. We had some long drives for touchdowns which was good to see because when you are getting the ball and having to go 80 or 98 yards your percentages to score are against you. Defensively we have been good on third down all year. The ability to stop the drive, even though they put a couple of first downs together. The ability to stop the drive and get the ball back is huge.
Question – Deshaun had a swollen hand last night. Is it going to be okay?
Dabo – Oh yeah. He haad a little cut but he is fine.
Question – We talked about Mitch Hyatt last night? How important was it for his to come in early?
Dabo – Well it was real important this year because we had a big need. It is the first time that has happened here (starting freshman LT) since 1944. It doesn’t happen very often. It is not something that you can just count on but that is what the situation was. We are really fortunate that he actually enrolled back in January and was able to go through spring practice for us. He got a little bit of a head start. He is just a really talented guy. He didn’t have his best game. Probably he and Joe it was their worst game. But on the season he has been tremendous. I am really, really proud of Mitch Hyatt. As I said last night he is not even close to what he is going to be.
Question – Are you anticipating the typical Clemson, Miami game. It seems like every time you get together it is kind of crazy?
Dabo – Listen this is a really talented football team. We don’t expect anything but their best effort. We are going to get everybody’s A game. I think our guys know that. Everywhere we go we are not going to get anybody’s B game or C game. We are going to get the best they got. That is why it is important that we are dialed in each and every week and putting our best foot forward preparation wise and with our focus.
This is University of Miami. They are coming off a big win. We have a long way to travel down there. They are getting ready to play a top ranked, undefeated team so there will be great energy from their standpoint. We have to match it.
This is a team that is very talented. They have a quarterback that is very impressive. I am just kind of getting going into looking at these guys today. They are capable of playing with anybody. There is no doubt about that and certainly capable of beating us. We are going to have to play a great ballgame on the road to have a chance to win.