Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney held his weekly teleconference Sunday where he reviewed the win over Syracuse, updated the latest injury information and looked ahead to Wake Forest. Here is a transcript of the teleconference:
Opening Statement
I am glad to get back home. It was a good trip up to Syracuse. I am really proud of our team, watching the tape, all phases. It was kind of a mixed bag. We did a lot of good things, but we also had some critical mistakes.
I am proud of our team, I really am. To get a tenth win five years in a row is just an incredible accomplishment. This has been a tough stretch, three out of four on the road and a couple of long trips to Miami and Syracuse. And Florida State right in the middle of it. These guys have competed their tails off.
We know we are going to get everybody’s best shot and we certainly got that last night. Unless you have been in this business it is really hard to have an appreciation for how hard it is to win and all you have to do is look at TV. You have four top ten teams get beat this weekend and two of them at home to unranked teams. It is just a really difficult thing to do to win with great consistency. And then to be able to overcome mistakes. For us to lose the turnover margin on the road -2 and still win the game. That is a really good sign of the type of team that we have.
Offensively it was really just an excellent night. Very few negative plays. 566 yards of total offense. I love our balance. We averaged 5.7 yards per carry and obviously had a great night throwing the ball as well. Deshaun had a career high total offense day. He is just really playing at an elite level for us. We had no sacks, just a lot of good things. The biggest disappointments offensively were the two fumbles. They really slowed our momentum that we put the ball on the ground. But listen good players make mistakes and Kelly Bryant is a great player. We have to get him going and he will get more opportunities. We aren’t going to throw a guy away because he makes a mistake. And that doesn’t have anything to do with defense. The defense had to do their job. That really hurt our momentum and we had a couple of drops. Leggett has been very steady and he had a big drop for a touchdown that I really think could have put it away. We ended up having to kick a field goal there. But all in all an excellent night offensively.
Special teams we blocked a kick. That is our second blocked kick in the last few games. Greg Huegel was really four for four but we took the points off the board on that last one so we could end it. One of our main goals was to not let the punt returner be a factor and he had zero return yards. I am really proud of Ammon Lakip and how he is kicking the ball. Excellent job with four touchbacks.
Defensively not our best but certainly well enough to win. The biggest thing defensively is that we continue to do a great job on third down. They were 3-13. I think we lead the nation in third down defense. We did get a fumble and we had some guys play very well. Shaq Lawson played excellent. I thought Carlos Watkins played one of his better games. Dodd has been very steady. Jaron it was good to see him get back.
The biggest disappointment was the big plays. They only had 300 and something yards but 243 yards came on seven plays. Only one of them was a pass. I am really, really disappointed in some of the things that we did. We had some misfits where we didn’t play things correctly but we also had some scheme issues. And that is on us as coaches. It will take all of us to take ownership and try to get some things corrected.
Having said that I don’t want to take anything away from Syracuse. They did an excellent job of coaching their guys and having them prepared. They executed well. They came out with a little bit of a unique triple option type of deal bringing a guy back in motion with two backs and just did a good job of scheming us up. It cost us but again we had some big stops along the way. Again 3-13 on third down was huge for us.
We have to correct some things defensively and that is us as coaches. And also some of the players taking some ownership and doing some things better.
But it has been a good stretch, winning these three road games out of our last four. I am excited to get back home this week and get our eleventh win. It would be three out of the last four years with eleven wins. It will be senior day and military appreciation day and all of the things that come with it.
Injury Update
Wayne Gallman just kind of rolled his ankle. He will be day to day right now. We will evaluate him each day.
Mitch Hyatt is okay. He had a stinger and he is okay.
Mackensie the same thing. We will evaluate him a little further tomorrow. We think he is okay but we are going to do an MRI and make sure as well.
Players of the Game
Offense – Charone Peake
Defense – Shaq Lawson
Special Teams – Greg Huegel and Ammon Lakip
Question – I know you can’t be happy with the number of hits your quarterback took, but you have to be happy with the way he stood in there and handled the all-out blitzes?
Dabo – He did great. We didn’t have any sacks, but they did come with some cover zero blitzes and I think Joe got beat one time and Mitch got beat one time and our quarterback got hit but he was able to get the ball off and make the plays. That is just part of the game. You never like to see your quarterback get hit but he handled it well and I thought that he was dialed in on where he needed to go with the ball. He threw it 47 times and complete seventy some percent of his passes so the protection was for the most part excellent. He did a great job of getting rid of the ball, extending plays and putting the ball where it needed to go.
Question – With it being senior day this weekend does that make it extra special?
Dabo – Well I think it is special for everybody, not just your seniors because it is your last home game of the year. Listen we work hard all year for twelve Saturdays. That is all we are guaranteed and then you earn anything after that. It is just a special thing every time we get to play in Death Valley. It is just incredible. Any time we play here these guys take such pride in that. They have won about 15 or 16 in a row which is a school record. Playing at home has been a great thing for us but when you know it is the last one of the year even if you are a guy that is coming back next year you have to wait all the way until next September to get a chance to play here again in this stadium. But certainly for the seniors and we might have a few juniors that are coming out or whatever. To know that it is your last game in this stadium is a special thing. I think every competitor remembers their last. I remember my last game at Bryant Denny. Ironically we were playing South Carolina. That was my last game ever to play in that stadium. You remember those things. You really do.
Question – Do you feel as though it was a letdown on Saturday?
Dabo – No, no letdown at all. We won by double-digits on the road. Offensively it was a career day for Deshaun. It was a career day for Charone and we had great balance. Just because they made some plays doesn’t mean we had a letdown. That is what I hate about that. People want to not give the opponent any credit. Well they made plays because Clemson was…No, they made some plays. I mean that third and forever on the three yardline go look at that tape. Shaq Lawson absolutely destroyed that quarterback but that kid hung in there and threw it up and their guy made a great play. That is just football. They made a big play on the fake punt thing. They kept that alive to get a field goal. Those kids fought for everything they got and they earned it. And they outcoached us a little bit with some schematic things and they blocked us some too. That doesn’t mean it was a letdown. What is a letdown?
All I know is we only have to have one more point that the opponent to win the game. If we can beat Wake Forest by one point, and South Carolina by one point and whoever it is in the championship game by one point we will be in the college football playoff. If we win that by one point and get to the national championship and win that by one point, guess what we will be the national champs.
Did we play perfect no. But we played a good game, overcame some critical mistakes that created some momentum problems for us. We overcame some big plays by them. There was a lot of good as well. There is no question that we have to get better. We have to have a good week of practice and go see if we can play better this week and come out of this game feeling like we were more complete in all three phases. But the objective is to win and we more than accomplished that.
Question – How did Mackensie look today after that knee injury?
Dabo – I haven’t seen him today. I will see him tomorrow.
Question – Was he moving around okay after the game?
Dabo – Yes, he was moving fine.
Question – Any update on Crowder or McCloud?
Dabo – No, we will reevaluate them tomorrow.
Question – Taylor Hearn didn’t make the trip. Is everything okay with him?
Dabo – Yes, he just didn’t make the trip. We can only take 72 and we didn’t take him.