Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney joined former Tigers Eric Mac Lain and Kelly Gramlich this week to preview the ACC Championship game.  On Wednesday’s edition of Gramlich and Mac Lain, Swinney was asked how he has handled things with D.J. Uiagalelei this week.

“How do you deal with that from D.J.?” Mac Lain said. “I think from the fan perspective, from somebody that doesn’t know football a ton, they see that stat sheet. They probably watch that game and they are like man that quarterback, God knows. But when you dive into it a little bit you are like five drops, a couple of miss protections, defense actually played pretty well and got their hands on the football. So how do you handle that with D.J.”

“Tell the truth, tell the truth,” Swinney said on Wednesday’s podcast. “So, Mac, this hasn’t happened very often because we don’t lose a lot of games so our Mental Monday meeting I made everybody in the building from the secretary to the administrative staff, everybody in the building had to watch the tape. We watched it all together. I ran the tape from about 4 o’clock to 6 o’clock for two hours.”

“Because when you lose a game like that, you get a lot of (chirp, chirp, chirp) and everybody on the outside thinks they know, and they ain’t got a freaking clue.  So I think it is important that everybody knows what is real and that everybody understands with complete clarity what happened and why and what we have to do about it. And so it was a two-hour meeting of complete clarity. So you just tell everybody the truth. And it is just not complicated. And when you don’t do the things that you need to do, you don’t deserve to win. So I pulled out the plays that we needed offensively, defensively and special teams. You just kind of stop the projector and you say, ‘OK, let’s talk about it. Why? Why are your eyes not on your work? Did we not go over it? Did we not practice it? Is this a new play? This is all about execution.”

Swinney explained how he believes some of the criticism Uiagalelei has received is unfair.

“The quarterback is no different,” Swinney said. “You tell him the truth. But I think it is also important because of what you said. Everybody blames everything on the quarterback. If it was all his fault, it would be an easy decision. But it’s not.  Now, again, he’s back on the mat with a two-count. So he has got to play well. But that is just where we are. So tell them the truth. He has to take ownership of his plays, but also everybody needs to see what we didn’t do around him.”

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