Swinney says Tigers are 'pissed' but will move on

Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney says his group wasn't in a mood to meet and see if it was making ACC title game.

David Hood - Senior Writer - Saturday, November 30 2024

CLEMSON – Everybody is pissed.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney met with the media following Clemson’s 17-14 loss to South Carolina, and he was asked if the Tigers would be watching what happens between Miami and Syracuse, which resulted in a Tigers' bid clinched for the ACC Championship next Saturday vs. SMU (8 p.m./ABC).

“No,” Swinney said with a rueful smile on his face. “No. No. No. Everybody is pissed. There is a lot of disappointment. There is no gathering. We did not get the job done today.”

Swinney said he would see what happens.

“I’ll watch it to see what happens, but whatever God has for us, He has for us,” he said. “That is how I look at it. We will know our next step here pretty soon. Then we will pick ourselves up, dust off and see if we can go finish the way we want to finish. Then learn and grow from everything this year and see if we can get better next year.”

Swinney said South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers was the difference in the game.

“What an unbelievable college football game. That was college football at its best, for sure,” he said. “I thought both teams both laid it on the line. Both teams, it was an incredibly physical game. And games like that usually come down to a couple plays and that's what happened. And they made the couple plays, but we never trailed the game to what, 1:08 (left). And we go right down the field and we just make one mistake right there. But you got to give them credit again. They made the couple of plays, obviously the quarterback, I mean he made two of the greatest runs you're ever going to see.

“And he was spectacular, just incredible individual effort by him and was certainly the difference in the game. So 3rd-and-15, there late, and we got a spy on him, and he was just better than us right there. And he made an unbelievable play. And then I was really proud of how we responded. And obviously we're in position to, at a minimum get a field goal. We've got a timeout, we're in a good spot, and we just made a bad decision right there. We tried, we wanted to take a shot outside and for some reason he scrambled. And even if it's complete, it doesn't help us. We just now got to use the timeout. But so just one mistake, but man, I thought the kids competed their butts off. I mean, you saw the heart of the team. These games are obviously painful when they don't go your way anytime you lose.”

Swinney said the Tigers must put this one in the rear-view mirror and move on.

"That's it. There ain't nothing else to say about it other than congratulations to the opponent. You're disappointed that it didn't go your way," Swinney said before the ACC Championship berth was settled. "But I mean you got to keep going. We've got another game. I'm not sure where we'll play or whatever, but we'll have another game and an opportunity to hopefully finish with a win and a 10th win and another postseason win and build on that. A lot of football ahead. And that's why we've had such a great program for a long time. It hasn't always gone perfect. You keep going. We've had some really, really good moments, and we've had some really, really crappy moments, but we have a great program because we've always kept going. That's what we will continue to do."