CLEMSON – Clemson’s head football coach Sunday night Dabo Swinney reached out to media on its weekly conference call, this time to take a closer look at his team’s disappointing 14:35 loss to Notre Dame after staff reviewed Sunday’s game.
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The Tigers enter a week of prep ahead of next Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. ET matchup against Louisville in Death Valley.
The following is an abridged transcript of Sunday night’s conference call.
OPENING STATEMENTS: “First of all, injuries at play… we had one at Beaux Collins. He will definitely be out this week. We’ll get a better rating from him in the first part of the week. We still don’t have full clarification from Xavier Thomas yet. They (doctors) are still deliberating on the long term plan for him and what they will do in the short term.
Dabo Swinney’s team opened early Sunday as an 8-point favorite over Louisville. (Getty)
“Like I said last night, I’m really disappointed with the way we played. We had to gain the sales lead and stop the run. It’s as simple as that. They only had nine degrees, but they were the more physical team. The critical game was the blocked punt. We’ve lost momentum. It was a really bad night.
“The good news is we are a better team than I saw last night. A tough day knowing you are better than your performance. We’re 8-1, not 5-3. We own it, we learn from it, and we just get back to work. We have to do that. We can’t change anything about what happened yesterday. We’ll bring the team back here tomorrow and see if we can grow from that. It’s a chance to start over. Lots of ball and lots of chances, the only thing that’s off the table for us is knowing we won’t go unbeaten.
“We have a great opportunity to win the division title straight away this week. We want to achieve the best possible result. I look forward to a new opportunity this week. We missed our target yesterday but we want to try again to the standard we are talking about.”
Q: If you look at the first half, the end result they got, how critical was that?
SWINNEY: “That was it. They only completed one pass but it was a long drive. They just brought it to us physically. They’re a point and back in the game but we just never reacted in any way. We got it didn’t get the burst or spark we needed. Just not a lot of positives in the game. We had a couple of guys who played well individually but not much else that was good. We were beaten by a better team last night.
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Q: You have to go way back to see the last time you were physically overwhelmed. Given the rarity, how confident are you that it’s limited to this game and not something more distinctive?
SWINNEY: “Just based on what I’ve seen, we’ve played better this year. We shut out Syracuse in the second half. They’re a physical team. We’ve done it on several occasions. We have to react. I know each other. We have good people, good players, good coaches and a lot of people who care. We own it. They have to own it. And we have to fix it. It’s a lot of little things that we have to do better. It’s our job to make sure “We’re going to do that. The perspective is huge. We’re 8-1. We’ve been fighting all year.
“Our boys were really injured last night. They’ll come out tomorrow with a mindset to get back at it. They’re down to four unbeaten teams left. Any goal we have is still out there for us. It starts with us .” try to win this week. But I’m confident because I know who we are. We weren’t that last night. I don’t want to take anything away from Notre Dame either, because they dominated the game in every area.”
Q: After both quarterbacks took their clumps last night, do you still have faith in them? Is DJ still the guy?
SWINNEY: “I have faith in both. DJ definitely needs to get back on track. Obviously Cade made a mistake and we probably put him in a bad position. Just a bad decision. We want to take him further. DJ is always another guy we believe in. he’s 14-1 in the last 15 games as our starter it’s been a weird game how things have turned out he’s had some positive results but too many missed games too a lot of things he has to do to clean up. We also have to get opportunities for Cade and continue to evaluate that.”
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Q: On some of those throws where DJ held the ball too long, were there several where he just didn’t see the receivers open, or was there something else?
SWINNEY: “I thought he could have gotten rid of everyone’s ball. He kept four sacks and three of them too long. He was waiting for Antonio and Antonio got in the goal so he has to get away as quickly as possible. They got us from behind caught him and he didn’t stand a chance. I promise you, he’s been here today dissecting things. Nobody cares more than he does. Hopefully this week we’ll get back on track.”
Q: After watching the movie, what exactly were you watching last night when your line of defense collapsed?
SWINNEY: “They knocked us out a couple of times where we weren’t set up properly. We got hit by alignment a couple of times. We’ve been knocked out of our gap a couple of times. A combination of things a tough long day for the Tigers tomorrow (in practice). It’s unfortunate that you have to have a game like this, but hopefully it will make us better. Hopefully we’ll react the way champions react. Hopefully this week will be a good start for us.”
Q: jeff scott was just fired in South Florida. Do you have any comments?
SWINNEY: “Literally about 30 seconds before I got in here, RossTaylor told me that. I knew nothing about it. I will contact Jeff. I know he gave everything he could and apparently it didn’t work out. He’s a great coach, a great person and someone I love very much. I know he’ll grow from it.”
Q: You don’t have a vacancy right now, but if something happened later, he’d be welcome back, right?
SWINNEY: “I’m not going to get involved in any of those things. I just want to beat Louisville instead of thinking about all this hypothetical stuff.”
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Q: When DJ was playing well, his involvement in the running game earlier this season was an integral part of that. Has he been featured less in recent games?
SWINNEY: “He was a part of it in the Syracuse game. He had a few games in it. Definitely one of the things we could have done more. We definitely got off the run a little early (last night) looking back on it. Shipley needed it a few more touches. We only had 24 plays in the first half and Shipley only had seven carries and was averaging almost seven yards per carry. DJ put on a great run last night and has become a dedicated runner. Definitely a role of It’s something he didn’t do particularly well last night, but he’s done it a lot this year to help us win eight games and he needs to get back on track this week.
Q: Let’s stay on the offensive, on some of your problems this year, Brandon Streeter said last night that he feels he has the talent, the guys, to do the job. Are you looking at what you’re doing schematically, or is it an execution issue?
SWINNEY: “It’s a combination of many things. We are 8:1. We’re better, but we’re still a long way from where we want to be. We’re not where we’re going to be yet. We rate everything every week all the time.
“I love our players. We’ve done a lot of good things. We’re not 4-4, we’re not 5-3 like this time last year. We’re 8-1. We’ll try to be 9-9 this week 1. Nobody is happy with any facet of our game right now. We’re always trying to be better and better.”
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