Swinney recaps Orange Bowl week, Cade Klubnik progress, injuries and mid-year enrollees

Heupel (left) and Swinney (right) pose with the Orange Bowl Trophy. (Photo courtesy of David Hood)

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Dec 29 10:33:23 GMT-04:00 2022

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida – Dabo Swinney lost his voice cheering for the Miami Heat during a Wednesday night NBA game, but he powered through Thursday morning’s Orange Bowl head coaches press conference, recapping the week and the chance to see five of his mid-year enrollees in action.

Swinney and Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel met with the media at the Le Meridien Hotel in Fort Lauderdale ahead of Friday night’s Orange Bowl (8 p.m., ESPN).

“Well, lucky day for y'all. I lost my voice, so I don't know where it went. Hopefully I'll find it soon,” Swinney said to open the press conference. “We've had a great week. Really grateful for all the people that work hard to put this on. It's a great experience for our staff, our families, our players, and I'm sure for both teams there's a lot of work that goes into it, practice areas, and also creating opportunities and experiences, whether it's great places to eat, being able to have a beach day and so forth.

“Got to go to a basketball game last night. Maybe I lost my voice cheering for the Heat, I don't know. But it's been a great trip. It's two great teams. Tennessee is one of the best teams in the country and has had an amazing year, so it should be a great game. We're thankful to be here and represent the league and represent Clemson in a place that's always been special to our fans and to college football.”

Swinney said that senior cornerback Sheridan Jones, a 4th-year senior, has been battling an injury and might be a gametime decision for the Tigers. Jones also has a chance to return for another year.

“I'm not sure. Sheridan could come back. He's been dealing with a hip flexor, so it's going to be close,” Swinney said. “He's one of those guys that's played a lot. He's got a lot of experience, but been battling a little bit. We'll see. But as far as is he done at Clemson, he's declared this as his senior year all year, but as you know, a lot of these guys have -- I guess we're going to deal with it for a couple more years, I guess, with the COVID year. I don't know if it's his last time. A lot of guys are going to decide that after the game.”

A rule change by the NCAA allows mid-year enrollees to travel and practice with the team, and Swinney said it’s been fun getting to see Ian Reed, Shelton Lewis, Vic Burley, Stephiylan Green, and Khalil Barnes take the field.

“Yeah, it's been great. It would be even better if they would let them play. That would be great,” Swinney said with a smile. “It's been fun having those guys. I think it speeds up their acclimatization process, just getting the feel of guys. Most of the time when they get here in January they're into school and off-season program and drills and spring ball. To be able to have a visual even though it's not a normal game week, to just kind of be exposed to that a little bit, to be around some of the guys that aren't going to be here when they get going, I think is a unique opportunity, as well. I think it's been great. I'm glad they did that. Then to be able to also put our eyes on them as far as having a first opportunity to really coach them in meetings, and then part of what we have always done in bowl prep is we get a lot of work on Clemson fundamentals, technique, kind of back to some basics.

“We get a lot of work on the opponent, and then we do a lot of JV work. We kind of create a JV season, create a couple scrimmages and have a lot of fun with the young guys, a lot of individual, a lot of that, so those guys, they couldn't scrimmage, because they couldn't get to that point, but to be able to get to work with them in individual drills and technique and coach them is very beneficial for them and us and I think just, again, it's been really fun. There were five of them that got the opportunity to come, and I think they've really enjoyed it. They're what we thought they were off the hoof.”

Swinney said that freshman quarterback Cade Klubnik is ready to go.

“He's been great. It’s been a blessing that he's had a couple, two, three weeks here to just settle in and lead. But he's really not any different,” Swinney said. “He's just a kid that he's always on, he's always got a ton of energy. He loves to play. He loves to practice. He's just one of those guys that really loves the game. He's embraced it, and he's done a great job with it. He's excited about it. He's worked really hard to get to this point and knows he has a huge challenge ahead. Just a lot more comes with it that he's had to manage, but I think he's done a good job.”