Sunday Orange Bowl Practice Videos and Quotes

by TigerNet Staff - Sun Jan 01 13:36:35 GMT-04:00 2012

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA- Sunday pre-practice interviews with players and head coach Dabo Swinney Dabo Swinney
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“January 1, Sunday, and we’re wrapping this thing up. Today’s practice will be about mentally trying to get them focused. We’ve had a lot of physical work and really trying to get them dialed in from a mental standpoint and get things buttoned up. Tomorrow will be like a Thursday practice for us and then we’ll get them into game prep mode.”

“That was quite an honor [winning the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award]. Hopefully I can coach 20 more years or so and I’ll never receive an honor greater than that. Bobby Dodd award is a special award because it represents a lot of things. As I said last night, it’s just an honor to accept it on behalf of our team. You show me a coach of the year and I’ll show you a great staff and a bunch great players. I’m just the name they put on the trophy. It’s these guys and this staff of coaches and support staff and then our players are the ones who get it done. They’re the ones that made a decision to buy in and to believe and put the work in. It’s a real honor and complement to our program and the direction we’re headed and it caps off a good year for us. I’m just really humbled and honored by it.”

“We’re good. Everyone’s ready to go. The biggest thing for us right now is getting our legs fresh. We’ve been getting them in the cold tubs and we won’t condition or anything today and didn’t condition yesterday. We’re really just trying to get them game ready now. The physical part is behind us, now it’s just mentally tying it all together.”

“They are who they are. They play three guys and have all year. He’s a really good player. A very powerful back and had been really productive for them from a yards per carry standpoint, and you never want to see that. It’s such a shame to get hurt down here in this environment, but that’s just the nature of the game. They’ll go and get the next guy ready. They’ve got some good players. They’ve got some freshmen they’ve been playing all year, so it won’t change who they are.”

“Malliciah [Goodman] has gotten better every year. He’s a superstar in the making. He’s a superstar of a person already. He’s an unbelievably gifted athlete. He’s very smart and is one of those guys that if you worry about juniors leaving early, he’s one of those guys that we’ll have to make leave Clemson after he graduated. He’s just one of those guys. He’s special. It’s been fun to watch him grow and develop and he’s had an excellent year for us and he’s still got another level to go to. He’s really improved physically. That’s what I’m most proud of. He’s a great athlete and hopefully next year he’ll become even more dominant for us.”

“Personally it’s going good. The guys are ready to go against West Virginia. I heard they’ve had a couple incidents on the team with guys being hurt, so I’m going to pray for those guys and hope they can play, but practice is going good so far. You can tell it’s a different vibe out here with guys serious every day, just like we would be at Clemson.”

“I’ve been running every day, but they’re keeping me away from the physical aspect of things because when you have a concussion, you want to stay away from physically getting hit, but I ran routes with the team and it felt good to be out there.”

“The team has been able to make this like a normal game week, I haven’t, but I’m trying to get back in the groove of things now.”

“We’ve been like that since the first day we got here ‘cause we’re not an out-of-shape team, we run constantly, but we’ve been wanting to get after these guy s since the day we got here. They’re a pretty good team and we’re a good team and match up equally, if you ask me. We’re just ready to get after it.”

“When you’re down here, you can get distracted pretty easily, but that’s when Coach Swinney instills in us to be a professional whatever we do and not let the outside things get on the inside. Coach has been keeping us on an early curfew so guys can’t go out and stay out late and do all the things they really want to, but I think it’s a good thing guys aren’t out partying all night.”

“That speaks a lot about Coach Swinney. His attitude and everything he stands for. I feel like he’s a coach that deserves that. I’m not trying to be biased because that’s my coach, but he’s done a lot of great things for this University and for us as players so he deserves that award.”

“I really want to be like a little kid and go down there and get autographs, but I doubt we’ll be that close.”

“We always try to find weak links in defenses and attack them. That’s just a part of the game and how we play but I really didn’t know that [WVU’s safety is out], but I really hope that he heals because I really want to play against them and not have any excuses. We’ll probably attack whoever we feel is the weak link.”

“Keeping the tempo on people is a major part of our offense because not too many people practice against that, but to us, we practice against that so when we get in the game it’s easier.”

“All the guys can’t wait to get after these guys and not it’s pretty much game week. New Year’s came and people got the celebrating out the way. Now it’s time to focus on West Virginia.”

“I’ve been working hard and praying hard and this is just God’s plan for me and it’s a blessing to be living it. Second team All-ACC is such an honor because there are some great kickers in the ACC, so I was very honored to hear that.”

“Practicing on Christmas day in Nashville a few years ago was freezing, it was tough and it’s a little warmer here. It’s much more comfortable and it’s a blessing to be here.”

“You just have to focus on the uprights and your target. When I’m walking on the field pregame, I’ll check the field out and check my spots out and visualize looking at the stadium past the uprights and see what my targets are going to be and hit those targets, so the atmosphere really doesn’t affect me that much.”