Dabo Swinney calls out Ashton Hampton performance, wants to see bounce back

In Clemson‘s loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday, the Tigers were victimized outside a handful of times. It got to the point that Branden Strozier came in to replace Ashton Hampton for a good chunk of the snaps.

Hampton simply wasn’t getting the job done. Coach Dabo Swinney explained.

“I don’t think we’ve been, we haven’t set the edge well enough in the screen game, in particular,” Swinney said. “We have not defeated some blocks well enough, gotten off some blocks. And got to do a better job on that in space for sure. That’s definitely a concern.”

A sophomore, Ashton Hampton earned the ire of his head coach with his play on Saturday. The Yellow Jackets took full advantage.

“I mean Ashton’s giving up PIs and giving up bad big play with bad eyes,” Swinney said. “I mean we’re playing man coverage and he’s looking in the backfield. So just precision in what we do, detail, eye discipline. I mean it just, we’ve got to be better, and technique and fundamentals.”

Swinney broke down what he did with Ashton Hampton struggling. It’s what most coaches would do in that scenario: grab the next guy up.

Strozier has proven fairly effective in his role, and Swinney even praised him for being a player on the come-up. He expanded.

“You’ve got to put the next guy in there,” Swinney said. “Strozier deserves to play. I think Strozier, honestly, has had a good camp. He’s a kid that I think the arrow’s up by his name. He’s progressing for us.

“But Ashton is a special talent. He’s a special player, but we’ve got to get him playing that way. And he will. He’ll respond. But just really poor on that one big play on the slant and go. That was a critical play in the game, and it wasn’t, it just, he just, looking in the backfield. And it’s just eye discipline on doing your job. Then the one screen that they hit out there he just out of control, flying and diving at the ground as opposed to collisioning and creating, making the receiver have to stop his feet. This is basic football. We’ve got to clean some of that stuff up.”

Ashton Hampton will get the chance to lock his spot down. But it’s very much up for grabs if he continues to play poorly. Swinney’s comments made that clear.

And it’s not like Strozier was perfect, either. There’s room for improvement all the way around. Such is usually life when you’re 1-2 on the season.

“So Strozier deserved the opportunity to play. But he missed a tackle,” Swinney said. “Should have been no gain. So we’ve just got to be better. We’ve got to be better. That’s our job as coaches to get them better, and they’ve got to play. Again, it’s early in the season. You’re playing in games that one play can make the difference.

“If we win both of those games we still have the same problems, that’s the thing here. You just feel different, right? Y’all probably ain’t asking some of these questions. But that’s just the reality of it. We’ve got to, we’ve got to clean up some technique, some fundamentals, some eye discipline on both sides of the ball.”