What Clemson players said after blowout win over FSU |
Several Clemson players spoke to the media following their team's 45-14 blowout win over Florida State.
CLEMSON QUARTERBACK TREVOR LAWRENCE
On the game:
“I was proud of the way we responded from two weeks ago. We had a good two weeks of preparation. It was good to see, and we knew were going to play based on how we prepared.”
On first play:
“That’s something we usually work on at the end of the week as far setting in stone what we’re going to do at first. The coaches did a really good job of game-planning throws, and it worked well.”
On gameplan:
“I think it was [about] us going out and playing. [Using] fast-tempo and taking some shots, and it worked out well. Guys made plays.
On national ranking as motivation:
“[It wasn’t] necessarily just that [but] the way we played two weeks ago. We wanted to prove that we’re a better team than that and can do a lot more than we did. We have high expectations for ourselves just like a lot of people do. We just want to play well, and I think we played really, really well.”
CLEMSON RUNNING BACK TRAVIS ETIENNE
On the game:
“It was very important for us to remember who we were, come out, play football and play to the standard.”
On if No. 2 ranking was used as motivation:
“No, not at all. Coach always tells us to run the race before us which is to win. We just run our race and go out there and play to our potential.”
On the team:
“We’re a team to be reckoned with. We’re still trying to put everything together, but we’re running in the right direction.”
CLEMSON CORNERBACK DERION KENDRICK
On his interception-return touchdown:
“I was reading my keys, and I read them well, and I saw the ball leave his hand and knew I had it.”
On the fast start defensively after a tough performance in the last game:
“Well, two weeks ago y’all know we had a slow game, a bad game. We had a good week in practice. Being able to go in there, watch film and knowing what the teams were doing and just executing and just practicing complementary football.”
On play-calling versus execution:
“It’s just really about executing. It’s something we didn’t do two weeks ago. It’s just being in the right sports at the right times and making plays.”
CLEMSON SAFETY TANNER MUSE
On the defense’s strong performance:
“Coach [Dabo] Swinney challenged us to really dominate a game. It’s been a while since we’ve really dominated a game like we did today. So we just took that as a challenge from him and tried to do our best.”
On Clemson dropping from the number one ranking:
“I wasn’t surprised. It’s happened before, so it’s not really a big deal. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter to us. If you go from one to two, you’re still on the floor. At the end of the day, it’s all about how the endgame works. That doesn’t really surprise me any how they do the polls or whatever… I think we definitely showed that we are one of those teams right now, but we’ve just got to continue to keep doing it.”
On the key to a strong defensive first half:
“I think it was our preparation. We had two weeks to prepare for these guys. They did a lot of different stuff that we weren’t prepared for, but I think when you apply the concepts of what we thought they were going to do with all we have, I think it just plays out really nice. I think when you’ve got a really veteran back seven, you can do that kind of stuff… At the end of the day, you just apply concepts.”
CLEMSON LINEBACKER ISAIAH SIMMONS
On national ranking as motivation:
“I don’t really think it mattered. That preseason ranking means absolutely nothing; we got that based on last year’s team. This is a completely new team, and what ranking we get will be earned throughout the season.”
On defensive performance:
“We’re trying to open up our stride. We felt like we took a step back last game, so from here on out we just want to build on each week and get better and better as the season goes.”
On team mindset:
“We all had a complete different focus with the bye week and this week to prepare. We got a wake-up call. We knew we couldn’t make the mistakes we made last game if we wanted to come out with the win.”
CLEMSON WIDE RECEIVER JUSTYN ROSS
On the North Carolina game as motivation:
“Of course everybody was mad. They were talking bad about us, but we weren’t really worried about it because we know what we’re capable of, and we showed it tonight.”
On his two touchdowns:
“I was able to get good leverage, and then when I got to the top of my routes, I was able to break them off. Trevor [Lawrence] is going to find me every time.”
On having a good opening drive:
“It’s always important to come out and have a strong opening drive just because you want to start the game off right. You want to get a good jump on every team.”
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