Swinney says the offense is "burdened by disappointment" and outside noise

Swinney says the offense is burdened by expectations.

David Hood · Senior Writer · Tuesday, October 19 2021

CLEMSON – Clemson’s offense is, as head coach Dabo Swinney has said repeatedly, in a funk. And Swinney thinks that the outside noise is starting to affect their play.

Clemson is 113th nationally in scoring offense, 84th in rushing offense, 107th in passing offense, and 115th in total offense. The numbers are staggering for a program that has annually fielded one of the nation’s most potent scoring machines, and Swinney thinks the players are putting too much pressure on themselves to turn it around.

"There's no question about that. How else do you explain some of the things that you see from some of our best players? I think some of it is human nature, especially in today's world,” Swinney said during his Tuesday press conference. “When I was coming up someone wrote a bad article and you hoped that your grandmother didn't read it. Now, everyone has a forum. That's all they get now ... hearing how bad they are and how bad their coaches stink. As a young person, you have to learn how to block that stuff out. If you don't, you don't play free and you get bogged down.”

Swinney then said the offense is burdened by expectations.

"This group offensively is burdened by disappointment, expectations and outside noise. As a coach, you fight that. You fight it all the time,” he said. “It's a loud, loud world we live in. If you don't put your armor on everyday, you'll suffer. As I always say, ships don't sink because of the water around them. They sink because water gets in them. You can't let all that stuff in. It's why I'm proud of D.J. His best game was this past one. He's really improving.

"We're still Clemson. We have a great group of guys. They're just not very confident right now. They have to quit reading what y'all write and stay away from twitter. Same thing if it's great. Either one is terrible for you. This is a team that has competed its butt off. All we focus on is the bad. There is a lot of good. Again, we don't have excuses. There aren't any. But people focus on what we don't have. We have started eight different guys up front and three different centers but we have to make it work. It can affect you but we've got what we got. We have all we need. We just need to make some plays that are there. And they are there. We have to execute and continue to believe in the right things."

He was asked if he spends extra time with the wide receivers during practice, and he said there are several position groups in a funk.

"I spend time with everybody on this roster. It's not just the receivers. It's everywhere. It's a funk,” Swinney said. “It's a stink and we have to get rid of it. It's lingering in the car. Y'all remember that Seinfeld show where there was this stink in the car. We need to get rid of it. The good news is we are still Clemson. We have great kids. We're in a funk but we have to play out of it. We'll look back on this several years and say, 'Y'all remember how bad we stunk then?' It's frustrating because we're not used to it around here. We'll get it turned around."

Update on injuries

"Frank (Ladson) is day-to-day. EJ (Williams) looks good. He responded well to the scope. We didn't even know that was going to happen. We made the decision last week to go ahead and do it. The good news is there was no ligament damage. He is responding well, but I don't know if it's a week or two weeks. That (scope) was his knee.”

On Will Shipley, Swinney said, “I don't know if this week (is reasonable). He moved around some last night. Definitely by Thursday we will have more of an idea of what he can do. Too early now."

On Joseph Charleston

"He came to me last week and feels like he wants to get a fresh start somewhere. It's always disappointing but I'm just kind of numb to it now. Eventually y'all will quit reporting it. It'll be like, 'Oh, by the way.' That's the world we have created. I love Joseph. He's a really good player. He has had some unfortunate issues, he has had injuries and missed a lot of camp. Other guys have taken advantage of opportunities. You'd like to see him finish here but everyone has to make their own decisions. That's the world we are in today. He wants to go somewhere in January. I love his mom and dad. They are super, super people. We are thankful we had a couple of years with him. We wish him well."

Phil Kornblut asked about Swinney being linked to LSU job

"I'm going to tell him to talk to you, Phil Kornblut. I'll tell him to go to PhilKornblut.com. I'll let you negotiate that. This is the only Death Valley I'm concerned about, right here. That's for sure."