PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. – One day of preparation remains before No. 2 Clemson takes on No. 3 Ohio State in the Playstation Fiesta Bowl, and head coaches Dabo Swinney and Urban Meyer met today (Friday) for a final press conference.
Here is what we heard:
Meyer and Swinney were asked how they would manage knowing that the other playoff game would be going on before their two teams take the field, but the coaches unanimously agreed that they wont have the time to think about other teams.
“No, there is no time. Our days are incredibly structured on game day all the way until we literally get on the bus,” Swinney said. “We certainly don’t play it on the bus. We are locked in on what we are trying to do and that is it.”
Swinney spoke to the importance of keeping his team focused, but also noted that he continuously reminds his players to enjoy the journey and appreciate their opportunity.
“We just try to stay focused on our core values. I’m constantly reminding our fan base to enjoy the journey. I know there’s an expectation, but I really want to focus more on having an appreciation of our young players and what they do and how hard they work. We try to serve our players’ hearts, not their talents. I think if we keep that focus, then we’ll continue to be about the right things,” Swinney said. “Winning is not our number one goal. It’s just not. We want to win, but it’s how we win, it’s how we’re graduating our players, it’s how we’re changing and impacting their lives, preparing them for what’s next.”
While the two friends both joked with one another, Meyer and Swinney remained sincere when talking about the core values they have instilled within their respective programs.
“I always want to have a team that’s not worried about making mistakes. We call it 4 to 6, A to B. That’s the length of a play. And I’ve never been a part of a game that the team didn’t play the hardest didn’t win,” Meyer said. “The second one is the power to the unit. And that is we have nine units. If we can perform when talent is equated or sometimes better than yours, you have to perform with every unit playing at a high, high level. The last one is competitive excellence. And that’s just the reason we practice so hard is because when your number’s called you’ve got to make that play, and it’s not because of the lucky T-shirt or good fortune. It’s because of practice.”
For Swinney, it is a commitment to continuous effort and preparation that has helped Clemson reach a new level of success.
“It’s all in commitment to do the best you can do. That’s all you can do is be able to look in the mirror at the end of the day and know that you control what you controlled and you did the very best you can do. That’s really what we focus on regardless of who we play,” Swinney said. “It’s prepare with purpose, every day, because you’re competing in everything. Your meetings, your sleep, how you think, everything.”
The similarities that exist between Meyer and Swinney’s approaches to building strong programs have resulted in recruiting battles over players that exhibit great character and athletic ability.
“Believe it or not, I’ve never really recruited against Ohio State until Coach Meyer went there,” Swinney said. “Once he went up there and I think he brought some of his ties and recruiting experience from being at Florida. And it seems like now there’s a lot of guys we end up recruiting. Ohio State is kind of always in the mix. I think that ultimately that’s why we both have been successful, we’ve got good staffs but we’ve had good young people, good players. He’s done a great job of identifying guys and building a culture at Ohio State, and we’ve tried to do the same.”