Dabo Swinney: It was 'great' for Clemson to reset during bye week
After racking up back-to-back wins, Clemson was able to get into its bye week at 4-2, looking to reset and refocus on the team’s goals now that the team has experienced a couple losses.
Coach Dabo Swinney knows his team needed it after a long haul.
“It’s big. I mean most people don’t really realize what all these guys do,” Swinney said. “I think a lot of times we forget that these are human beings and they’re not robots. They’re not a part of a Madden game. These are real people and they’re students.
“I mean there’s a lot going on for these guys, academically, they’re young people, socially, you name it. They’ve been grinding for all summer and then you go through all camp, and now you’ve got six weeks and you’ve got performance and expectations. It’s a lot on these guys. It’s a lot on anybody.”
Clemson’s season has likely been particularly challenging, as the Tigers are always a team entertaining College Football Playoff hopes. With a humbling loss to Duke in the season opener and then an overtime defeat at the hands of Florida State, the Tigers’ chances of reaching the playoff are pretty well done and dusted.
Yet there’s still have a football season to play.
One of the reasons Clemson hasn’t had quite the year it had hoped is due to injury.
“The biggest thing is just we were pretty beat-up football team in that Wake Forest game,” Swinney said. “We had Antonio Williams for three games, Nate (Wiggins)‘ out, Sheridan (Jones)‘ out. I mean obviously Cole Turner played one game, he’s out for the year. We lost Walker Parks.
“So it’s good to be able to get that break when it came because now we anticipate having everybody, with the exception of of course Walker and Cole, starters who will be out for the year. So I think mentally and physically we’re probably in as good a spot as we’ve been since the start of the season.”
Clemson’s schedule will remain challenging. There are back-to-back road games upcoming against Miami and NC State, as well as a season-ending road trip to South Carolina. Notre Dame and North Carolina also adorn the home slate.
That’s a tricky set of games, particularly if Clemson is hoping to make any sort of push for a New Year’s Six bowl.
For now, it’s just been a nice respite for the Tigers.
“It’s great for them to be able to kind of just get a break,” Swinney said. “Again, I thought they did a great job last week. We’ve created a little bit of momentum these last couple ballgames and that’s something that we certainly hope to be able to continue, but we’ve got to go earn that and we’ve got to go play well. But I thought they had good spirits to them last night.”