Highlights from Dabo Swinney's Sunday teleconference

by TigerNet Staff - Sun Sep 05 19:09:26 GMT-04:00 2010

Swinney teleconference audio (MP3 Format)

CLEMSON – Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney addressed members of the media Sunday in his usual Sunday afternoon teleconference, and he said that after watching the film of Clemson’s 35-10 victory over North Texas that the Tigers have a lot to improve on before taking on Presbyterian next Saturday.

“First game, overall, I thought it was pretty good,” Swinney said. “Obviously we have a lot to improve on and we'll try to work on that this week and try to hold guys accountable for their jobs. The bad - obviously, defensively, we didn't play well enough. I was really disappointed in our time of possession and the amount of yards we gave up. I don't want to take anything away from North Texas, but it wasn't a good start for us defensively.

“We forced a lot of third downs but we didn't get off the field. We didn't tackle well. We have to take this film and challenge the guys and play like we're capable of this week and get better. We'll get back to work tomorrow with the players, put this one to bed and get on to Presbyterian."

Defensive tackle Miguel Chavis sprained an ankle on the fifth play of the game, and he tried to play through the pain but said he realized he was hurting his team and took himself out. However, Swinney said Chavis should be available this week.

"I think he's going to be OK,” he said. “It was a low level ankle sprain. He should be fine. We'll see how he goes the next couple of days. It does not appear to be serious. There's not much swelling."

Young wide receivers Nuke Hopkins, Bryce McNeal and Jaron Brown each had two catches on Saturday, and Swinney said he only wished his offense had been able to be on the field more so he could have seen more out of the youngsters.

"We just rolled them,” he said. “We didn't have the ball a whole lot. I hate that we didn't have more opportunities for those guys. Going in we wanted to get the ball to them more so that we could evaluate them more. Nuke and Bryce weren't overwhelmed and didn't have the look of freshmen. I just think they're going to be really good. I'm excited they're here. Bryce and Nuke had big plays on their first catches. Nuke also had a great block - he cracked in on their safety one time. It's good to see, a freshman playing with that kind of physicality in that first ballgame."

Junior linebacker Brandon Maye missed the contest after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery late last week, and Swinney said the Alabama native was missed by a struggling defense.

“I'm hoping he'll be able to play some this week. Certainly we missed him. He's a good player. Tig [Willard] got his first start and first chance to play that many snaps. It would have been nice had we had Brandon there. Hopefully Tig will learn from this film and get better."

Swinney was asked if he foresaw any lineup changes based on the game film, and he didn’t rule out that possibility.

"That's always a possibility,” he said. “We'll watch the film on these guys and go to work. We'll set the lineup on Thursday and go play. Every day is an evaluation day. We have a few guys defensively I'm disappointed in that I know are better players. We'll challenge them appropriately and get them better."