Tigers practicing on Christmas, but still find time to celebrate

Cade Klubnik throws a pass during practice Sunday (Photo courtesy of Clemson Football Twitter).

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Dec 25 07:00:07 GMT-04:00 2023

College football bowl season sometimes means time away from friends and family at Christmas, but head coach Dabo Swinney is making sure his team gets in a little celebration while preparing for the Gator Bowl.

Clemson practiced for 90 minutes at Fernandina Beach High School on Christmas Eve and will take to the practice fields again today as it prepares to take on Kentucky in the Gator Bowl this Friday (noon, ESPN).

“This was a Monday-type practice, and it was a good start. Guys had great energy. Everybody was here and ready to roll,” Swinney said Sunday evening after practice. “But I do want to wish everybody out there a Merry Christmas and hope everybody has a great opportunity to spend some time with their family. Then I hope everybody will be able to get down here to this bowl game on the 29th.”

How will the team celebrate Christmas today?

“We're going to have a little dinner tonight (Christmas Eve). We’ve got a little entertainment coming in. We're going to have some fun with them,” Swinney said. “Then we'll have a big Christmas brunch for probably about 400 people tomorrow, all of our families and our team. We'll do that. Probably have some guys singing. I think Santa is going to show up and maybe have some gifts and so forth. Then we'll lock in and have a team meeting probably about noon. Full pads, Tuesday practice, have a little scrimmage to end it up with our JV, and keep getting ready for this game on the 29th.”

Swinney was asked about the matchup against Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops - who has been with the Wildcats for 11 seasons – and what makes two of the longest-tenured coaches in the game so successful.

“Just keep showing up. I'm sure Coach Stoops would probably tell you the same thing. Just keep showing up. You have to have a program to have that type of consistency. You have to have some substance to what you do,” Swinney said. “It can't be smoke and mirrors, can't be something that you're up one year, down another year. We've been the only other program out there that has been as consistent as us the last 13 years is Alabama. We've been incredibly consistent academically. We just had 87 guys make a 3.0. That's the second most in school history.

“I'm just really proud of, again, the overall consistency. I know our record this year wasn't quite what we wanted it to be, but still, we've been a really consistent team. But we've built this program on belief. We've built it on integrity. We've built it on toughness, and we've built it on people. You just have to have the right people. You have to get the right people involved. Then you got to have a foundation that is built to last. That's what we've had here.”

Swinney said consistency is the basis of his program.

“Honestly, that's been our goal from the moment I got this job is to build a program of consistency. One that has always got a chance,” he said. “Some years are going to be better than others, but we've been able to do that. That's probably what I'm most proud of, is just the overall consistency of what we've been able to do. When I got the job, we hadn't won a league title in a long time. I think we've won it eight times in the last 12 years now, so we're consistently competing for championships. Our recruiting we’re pretty much 8-15. I think we've had 13 top 15 recruiting classes in a row. We've never had a number one class, but we've always been, I think, we're second in wins since 2011. That's really what we want to be, because if you can be consistent, you always got a chance.”