Swinney issues challenge to Clemson fans |
CLEMSON – Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney issued a challenge during his weekly press conference fans who have complained about the noon kickoff for Saturday’s contest against 16th-ranked Miami. Swinney said that he has received a ton of emails and calls concerning the early kickoff, and said that he has no say in the start time. Furthermore, he is tired of hearing about the early start – Clemson fans just need to come out and support the Tigers, no matter the start time. “There's been a lot of talk about the time of the game,” Swinney said. “I've gotten emails or letters. My job is to get the team to play. If it's 9 a.m. or 9 p.m. Let's quit quacking like a bunch of ducks and quit whining and complaining. It doesn’t matter. Let's get up and get excited about playing football. Let's get up and let's go play some ball and enjoy the day. TV is TV and they control a lot of things but let's have great fan support. I think there will only be about 1,500 from Miami to come this way. “Let's get the Valley rocking. Let's make it a great experience. There will be a lot of people watching Clemson for the first time. Let's make them go put coming to Clemson on their bucket list. We had this place rocking to 125 decibels the last time Miami was here. Let's get it to 126. Fans have the huge opportunity to set the tempo. It's always great when this scoreboard lights up out there. Let's play some Clemson football. “ Swinney also said it was exciting to begin ACC play – and what he hopes are 10 straight weeks of football. “We are getting ready to play nine straight games,” Swinney said. “Ten if we can make it to the championship game. We talk about running the race to win- and we are doing that. But we also talk about endurance. And we’ll need that in the next 10 weeks. It's ACC play. This is the opportunity for us to work to our next goal and that's to defend our Atlantic Division title and get back to the championship game. This is a huge game in that regard. We've played three games and I like our personnel and the chemistry on this team. “ He also said he wants to make sure that his team remembers what happened at Auburn. “One thing I've told the team is, 'remember the Tigers.' The Auburn Tigers,” he said. “That's what happens when we don't maintain the killer instinct. Those are things we control. It's about the players. It's not about the coaches. Our job is to make sure we give our players an opportunity to win. I think our guys have bought in. That's really what it's about. It's no secret. We are just trying to get better as a team and work on Clemson and hopefully to play well Saturday.”
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