Swinney updates status of Bryan Bresee, says Tigers have room to grow |
Bryan Bresee is doing better, and
Dabo Swinney likes the fact that his team is 5-0 but still has room to grow.
No. 5 Clemson finished off then-No. 10 NC State 30-20 in Death Valley Saturday night, a game in which the Tigers were without defensive tackle Bryan Bresee, defensive end Xavier Thomas, and cornerbacks Sheridan Jones and Malcolm Greene. Bresee, who is battling a kidney issue, was better Sunday. "Everything was good again today. They will check him again tomorrow morning,” Swinney said during his Sunday night teleconference. “He'll be day-to-day until they say he can go full speed. As long as things keep trending in the right direction, we are heading in a good spot." Swinney detailed what he saw in film review of the win over the Pack. “Great game last night. Proud of our team. Back-to-back wins over ranked teams. We still have a lot of potential ahead, a chance to improve a ton. Our best football is ahead,” Swinney said. “I love the energy that our guys had. They fought to the end and got better as the game went. Just a great, great night. Offensively we won the line of scrimmage. No turnovers. No sacks. We did a good job on third down and in the red zone. DJ (Uiagalelei) had another outstanding game. I'm so proud of how everyone is competing. We finished the game. We need to turn a couple of those field goals into touchdowns. We dropped a potential touchdown and had a snap issue which cost us 10 yards. Still, a lot of good things. "Defensively, I didn't like how we started but I loved how we finished it. We held them to 34 yards rushing. That's their fewest against Clemson since 2001. The two turnovers were huge. We had young guys step up. We still haven't had a complete unit on that side of the ball (injuries). Early, the targeting was a tough break for us. We gave up a busted touchdown. They had three trips to the red zone and got two touchdowns. We'll continue to clean up some things in practice. I feel like we won that game with what we did in practice last week. Really proud of our defense. We allowed 279 total yards against a really good offense.” Next up? A road contest at Boston College next Saturday at 7:30 pm (ABC). "We have to go on the road now and play a team that plays really well at home and a team that has a lot of conference now after beating Louisville,” Swinney said. Swinney said Uiagalelei continues to get better. "That's what good players do. They have consistency in their performance regardless of who they play against. It was a big night for him,” Swinney said. “He'll watch the tape and see two or three more plays he could have made. He puts a lot of stress on defenses with his legs. You can see his arm talent. There's no part of the field that he cannot attack with his arm. His confidence, his leadership, it's contagious. I'm proud of him. I say it every week. We just have to keep moving forward. The game has slowed down for him. He has a nice feel for our offense. He just makes plays. It's been fun to see him each week just get better and more confident." The offense still has issues to correct. "We've had some critical penalties. We felt like we had a great play call on the play where we snapped the ball early, so now you're 10 yards there,” he said. “We had 25 negative yards and 10 came from that play. We'd like to have none. Definitely we'll continue to clean up any negative plays. I am pleased, though, on how they protected our quarterback." Freshman wide receiver Adam Randall had one catch against the Wolfpack, but Swinney said Randall is headed for a breakout. “He hasn't had a lot of opportunities yet, but he will,” Swinney said. “He had an unbelievable week of practice last week. Just a great week. He's finally got his legs under him. He's ready for prime time. There's no doubt. There will be more to come for that guy, for sure. He's doing well."
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