Swinney says "I just feel really good about this team" |
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney told the media Friday that while his team had just nine practices this spring, those nine practices were enough to evaluate his squad.
Swinney held a conference call Friday to discuss how his team and coaches are handling social distancing and the cancellation of spring practice and spring game and he said his group made a lot of progress. “We're going to push forward through all this. No doubt that this will pass and we'll get back to doing what we love to do,” Swinney said. “But I'm very grateful and thankful that we were able to, to, you know, evaluate our team. We had a lot of great meetings and a lot of installation. And we did have nine good practices and one full scrimmage and one half scrimmage. I think we were able to make a lot of good progress in the nine days.” Swinney said he likes his team. “I just feel really good about this team. I will say this, and I told the team the other day, I think this team without question is further ahead of where we were last year at this time,” Swinney said. “I don't think there's any question about that. We just have a lot more functional players in our first groups. Last year, you know, our first group defensively, especially upfront, we were as green as they come. “But our first groups on both sides, and even some of the twos, really can go play winning football for us. So I feel good about where we are. We got a lot to do, but you know this whole deal that we're going through right now has created a unique challenge for us as a football team and I tell you, I, I knew that we had great people, but to see everyone rise up and adapt and find a way to still be great, it's been really special to be a part of it.” Swinney mentioned that he has been able to spend a lot of time with his family, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been busy. “I've never been busier. I can't wait to get back to my office at work,” Swinney said. “Because it just seems like I'm on the phone all day every day. We've all become a little more technologically savvy. I had never heard of Zoom or Microsoft Teams and I've become pretty good at all those things and we are able to do everything. “The only thing that we're not able to do is practice and to actually be in a room together, but we are doing everything. We really are. We were having staff meetings. We had a team meeting the other day with like 180 people on it. We had all of our staff and all of our players and it was amazing.”
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