Quick notes on Dabo Swinney press conference

by TigerNet Staff - Tue Nov 26 11:09:35 GMT-04:00 2013

* Dabo Swinney Dabo Swinney
Head Coach
View Full Profile joked that it was a beautiful day outside today.

* SC is a great team. They have had a great season. First time top 10 matchup.

* They are probably the biggest group upfront this season. They are a really good group.

* Their QB's have played well all season.

* Conner Shaw is a gritty player and his will to win is special. I have all the respect in the world with how he plays.

* They have two good running backs. Similar guys, compact guys that you need to have wrap up. Very impressed with the year they have had.

* They have a lot of guys out wide that can make plays. All of those guys have made plays. Ellington has been a steady thorn for a lot of people.

* Very impressed with their TE's. They run a lot of verticals. Those guys they got can really run and have great size.

* Very very good DL and very deep. They are confident with all of those guys.

* The LB's have gotten better as the season has gotten through.

* They have had some big plays on special teams.

* They are a top 10 team and they have play tough and hard and play with a lot of confidence.

* We have had a great year. To be 10-1 is almost perfect. We want to finish and have the best postseason we can have.

* We have to play great football. We have to win the turnover battle. Great opportunity for us. This is the reason you coach or play. This will take our best game to win.

* They have won 17 games in a row there. Their QB has a lot of confidence there.

* Always excited for Thanksgiving week. Thankful for so much.

* "We're always physical in practice. Last week was the first time the pads came off on a Wed. all year."

* "I won't take anything away from Clowney, he's a great player, but we had some big-time breakdowns."

* "Our guys know how they played last year."

* They won the turnover margin, and had it 40 minutes to our 20.

* Dabo says Clowney is an elite football player, big time. But while everybody so worried about JC, other guys are making plays. 90, 97, 92, 52 can all play.

* Clowney is an elite type of guy. They move him around. He plays on both sides. They walk him around and through gaps. He is one of those guys where you need to know where he is.

* If we play consistently, the scoreboard takes care of itself.

* South Carolina's a tough team, it's not like we've lost four games to East Tobago Community College.

* The thing for me, I just want to see us play well. People don't like it when I say that.

* "The best we can be at this point is 11-1 and that is what I want to be."

* "I don't draw my joy in life from a football game. Painful in a relative term from a football sense? Yes. But I don't draw joy in my life from winning.

* On legacy question: "My legacy should be that I left this program better than I found it and I made a difference in people's lives."

* Dabo on Boyd: "He's like the guy they've got, Shaw. He's got a great will to win." He's a winner. He has won a bunch of ball games. He's willing to do whatever it takes to win the game. Prepares mentally and physically.

* The team will have a big thanksgiving dinner after practice on weds.

* It’s huge. We have gotten beat four years in a row, and nobody wants it to go to five. We've got to win the dang game.

* Question on whether Mike Davis is better than James Davis: I don't know about that. He's already a great player, but well on his way. It'd be interesting to see who has bragging rights around the turkey table.

* On Clemson's defense: Anybody who doesn't recognize how improved we are defensively just has their own agenda and doesn't want to recognize it. We are much, much improved.

* Two teams that are going to fight their tails off. We're going get their very best and they will get ours.

* "Coach Spurrier is only mean to me when he ain't around me."

* "He's always very civil. And our wives like each other."

* It's not about nan-nanny boo boo[trash-talking]... It's about winning this game.