Swinney on 'heavyweight matchup' with Georgia, Clemson camp and a surprise standout

Swinney sees the former four-star prospect Pennington as a physical specimen like former Clemson DT Dexter Lawrence was.

by TigerNet Staff - Wed Aug 25 10:41:04 GMT-04:00 2021

Clemson kicks things off next Saturday in Charlotte in a top-5 battle with the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs, and nobody knows the stakes any better than longtime Tigers coach Dabo Swinney.

"These are two great programs. The last decade, these two programs have represented the best of the best," said Swinney on the Packer and Durham show on the ACC Network Wednesday. "Both teams have been to the playoffs. Both teams have been in national championships. Both teams recruit well. We recruit well. We recruit a lot of the same territory and things like that. Both teams in the top-5 preseason and all that stuff. And then it’s Clemson-Georgia and just the history of Clemson-Georgia that goes back years and years and years. Fans have been excited and always have been. We’ve had a couple matchups with them, one here and one there and now we have a neutral site…And then you throw in that nobody was at the games last year and people are excited to come and get back in the stand and see some football -- and in particular, a game of this magnitude.

"It’s a heavyweight matchup out of the gate. And college football, there’s so much unknown especially in an opener. We don’t get any preseason games. It’s for real the first time you take a step on the field, and you throw in the fact that you have two really high-level teams playing each other. It just generates a lot of conversation."

The Tigers wrapped the camp portion of the preseason leadup last week and are turning the focus to the Bulldogs, and Swinney likes where they're at.

"We’ve had a very smooth camp. Very fortunate," he said. "Last year was crazy with so much change and injuries and stuff like that. This year has been very smooth. The guys have done a great job. We have a lot of veterans...That’s really been good because those guys provide a lot of experience and leadership. We’ve got 67 first and second-year players who really haven’t had a full season yet. So there is this amount of enthusiasm and energy and we’re a talented roster so it’s been a great competition. We’ve been able to settle in on what we need to do to take the next step, which is to go play and go from there. We got a lot of installation done for the season. Pleased with that.

"Injury-wise, we’re in a pretty good spot, so hopefully that stays that way. And the leadership has really been great. So now, it’s just so many things going into this first game. You just got to get in the rhythm of the season."

Swinney was asked about surprise position groups in camp and he said they all performed how he expected, but he added that freshman offensive line summer enrollee Dietrick Pennington was among the surprise individual standouts.

"You think, ‘Ah, he’s probably going to be behind and has a lot to learn,’ but this guy, oh wow. He’s like Dexter Lawrence at offensive line," Swinney said. "He is a special, young talent. He shocked me, as far as where he is and how quickly he grasped the concepts of what we’re doing and physically where he is at 338 pounds. Just incredible."