Dabo Swinney: "An absolute coaching failure"

CLEMSON — Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney resumed his weekly, in-season, news conference late Tuesday morning, this time to discuss his team’s open date week of practice and preparation for Saturday’s upcoming opponent – North Carolina.

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The Tigers (1-3, 0-2), a 14-point favorite at BetMGM, will square off against Carolina (2-2, 0-0) on Saturday in Chapel Hill.

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The following is an edited transcript of Tuesday’s news conference.

Opening Statements

“We’re excited to get back at it this week. It was a good, much-needed, open date week for us. We would have had some guys out otherwise. We have a tough Tuesday and Wednesday practice coming up. We’re in as good a spot as we’ve been in from a health standpoint.

“We’ve done a lot of self-scouting and evaluations. It’s not really complicated on what we have to do better. It’s football stuff … we have to get better. Everyone is in a good spot from a mental standpoint. We have a chance to play and coach our way out of a hole. It’s a reset and it starts this week. We need to play together and play complementary football and we’ve done that very little.

“I’m proud of how our guys have responded. I’ve been pleased with the leadership and not surprised. You always assume things, but until you see them and get confirmation, you never really know. We get to see what we’re made of now. The guys are eager to get back out there and play some football. It’s not too late for this team to be the team that they want to be.

“It’s a tough challenge for us this week. We were up there in Chapel Hill in 2019 and it came down to the last play. It’ll be a tough game this time, too. They’re 2-2. For them, a lot of change obviously. They had a bunch of guys come in January and May. They have had some changes at quarterback. They’ve had an open date as well. We expect both of their quarterbacks to play. They have skill outside. They have some kids who can really run. I’m impressed with their backs. This kid, No. 35, he has been impressive and has come on for them. He’s physical. They’re big up front. A lot of RPOs built into their system, climb routes with deep overs, shots. They challenge you schematically. They’re growing into their identity.

“Defensively, they’re big up front. They’re thick and strong. They have some experienced guys at secondary. I think it’s a team overall that’s getting better.

“We’re excited to get back in the fight and see if we can win a game.”

Question: You said you wanted to do some soul-searching after the last game. Did you and what was that process like?

SWINNEY: “My soul is cleansed (smiling). Truly, you look at everything when things aren’t going well. It’s never too far away from one side or the other. When you’re on the wrong side of things, everything stinks and everything is magnified. We are what we are and I know nobody wants to hear that it’s a few plays here or there.

“Honestly, it’s been a coaching failure. We have just failed as coaches. And I’m not taking away accountability from players. Some of these guys are getting paid a lot of money. But it’s just an absolute coaching failure. I don’t know any other way to say it. I’m pointing a thumb at me because I hire everybody. Our problems are football stuff. Big picture, our program is great. Our program is built right. Our program has never been built better. Your program should drive consistency. Whatever your purpose is, your program should fulfill that. As you build a program, does it get the job done?

“The No. 1 thing is consistency. We’ve had 14 great years here in a row. We’ve had some elite years, some bad moments. We’ve had 11 championships. The No. 1 thing in our program is graduation and we lead the nation there. No. 2 thing is build great men and we’ve done that. But also a part of the program is winning championships. Every signing class in 17 years here has won a championship. The program is built right organizationally, processes. We’re in a good spot.

“But from a team standpoint, this has been a football, coaching, failure. It’s football stuff. When you have guys who aren’t playing like they’re capable of playing, that’s on coaches. Our job is to get guys to play to their potential and we have failed at that as coaches. And it starts with me. It’s blocking. It’s getting off blocks. It’s making critical plays, routine plays, routine decision-making. It’s that stuff. And we can fix it. That’s the good news. But we have to be better and that’s the frustrating thing. The function of the program is … I don’t think we could be better. But this team and this moment? We have to be better.”

Question: Have you made any staffing changes during the open date week?

SWINNEY: “No. It’s not time for that. We have good people. It’s a result business. When you’re in the out house, everything stinks. When you’re in the penthouse, you still have a pile of crap on the floor but you don’t notice it. Our job is to bring out the best in our players. And we haven’t done that. And again, I’m pointing the thumb at me. I make the decision on who runs the rooms. We’ve got good coaches but we haven’t done it at this point.”

Question: Do you have a sense of where those (coaching) failures are specifically?

SWINNEY: “It’s football stuff. It’s making a third down catch. It’s the proper angle, playing over the top instead of underneath. It’s decision-making. The read tells me to give it, I give it. When it’s not happening, it’s on us as coaches. Players have accountability, too, but it starts with us as coaches. We can coach our way out of it like we coached our way into it.”

Question: You aren’t running different drills?

SWINNEY: “We do the same drills everyone in America does. We’ve practiced really well and it just hasn’t shown up on game day. I think some of it too is we’ve had young people who have been affected by criticism and failure and noise. Sometimes you play tight and try too hard and it hasn’t gone the way you want and you can get frustrated. They’re learning a lot of lessons. They’re equipping themselves. That’s the world we live in and we have to navigate those things. There’s no question they’ve been affected by that.”

Question: Is it common for you to have a scrimmage on Wednesdays during a bye week?

SWINNEY: “It depends on where the bye week falls. Have you been able to play a lot of people? We haven’t been able to play a ton. We wanted to evaluate some guys. A lot of the twos and guys who haven’t had many game live reps, that’s what we wanted to get done.”

Question: How do you evaluate play-calling now?

SWINNEY: “It’s not good enough. We’re 1-3. There have been a lot of plays that are there but we haven’t made. That’s frustrating, but still, that’s us as coaches. Period. There has been good play-calling and bad. There’s always good and bad. We’re 1-3, so not good enough.”

Question: Will there be any major changes with your depth chart?

SWINNEY: “I don’t think so. I think we’re playing our best players. We’ve got good players. We lost one safety, one linebacker and one defensive tackle. We lost one tight end, one back and one offensive lineman. We’ve got good players and we’re just not playing like we’re capable of playing. You’re always evaluating your personnel. If we need to make changes, we will. We just have to get these guys playing with confidence. They’ve lost some confidence, noise is loud and everything (on the outside) is terrible.”

Question: Would you change up team routine or your personal routine?

SWINNEY: “Yeah, I’m changing underwear (smiling). Listen, man, I’ve been doing this a long time. I believe in what we do. From a program standpoint, things are great. Every year is different, a different challenge, a different journey. We need to clean up our execution. It’s not any of that. We have a very proven process here. I know y’all don’t like to hear it, but we’ve won 10 championships in 10 years … eight league titles and two national titles. But this year, this team, we’ve done a poor job as coaches. Maybe you make a couple more plays and you win a game and you have some confidence … a lot goes into it. I have total conviction, though, in what we do.”

Question: Anyone you’ve sought advice from?

SWINNEY: “No. The man upstairs. I’m the same coach who has stood up on podiums with confetti flying and national championships. God is good all the time. He’s not just good when things go your way. That’s the counsel that I seek. It’s not complicated. We’re not building rockets around here. This is football. It’s playing harder than the opponent, it’s getting to the ball … if we just change turnovers, we’re probably 3-1. It’s football stuff.

“I’ve sought a lot of counsel from the good Lord. Know what he tells me? ‘Hey, I love you. I’ve got you just where I want you.’ So my faith is in that. All things work together. I don’t like it. We all like it when it all goes the way we want it. I’m grateful for everything, the crap and this bad moment that we’re in. We’ll come out of it better.”

Question: Do you feel yourself changing the way you communicate to players given the money they’re making now?

SWINNEY: “Sure. It’s a part of the process. It’s another box you have to check. You used to not talk about it and now you have to talk about it. It’s a great opportunity to further equip them for life, which we have always done a great job with that. There’s more pressure on them. People look at them differently.”

Question: Any players whose leadership has surprised you or impressed you?

SWINNEY: “I wouldn’t say surprised me but I have been impressed. We have what we call the council. If y’all could hear these guys where there are no cameras, no social media … I held it up and told our coaches that this is what gives me confidence, our guys who articulate and lead, just amazing young men. They’re wired really well. They can think. We should just publish the council notes. I wouldn’t do that. No one would write it anyway because everyone wants something negative. We’ve got some great kids, though. I’ve been able to connect with them a little deeper and see their heart. We have people who love this place.

“Antonio Williams, for example, he was kind of nonchalant and casual. He and I didn’t get along his freshman year. To see him now, who he is as a man, the leader he has grown into, to see him stand up and speak is impressive.”

Question: What’s in those council notes that you’re so proud of?

SWINNEY: “Their words. It took me 30 minutes to read it. Their hearts. How they process their hurt and disappointment, their vision forward. It’s amazing. We have what we call a huddle and that’s everyone who touches our kids, everybody who is involved, support staff, academic people … Woody McCorvey runs that. Staff meetings can get bogged down and you don’t want to take a lot of time in a staff meeting trying to hit every area of your program. We created this huddle years ago. I get the notes on Tuesday nights and I then I go through it. I’m not even in it. I can go through what the staff needs. Ben Boulware doesn’t need to know every little thing that’s said. Sometimes they need to hear it from me. It hits different from me. Like, ‘Hey, you need to keep that freaking locker room clean.’ It comes from me instead of the equipment people.

“The council is a different layer. I meet with our leadership group and Woody will meet with the council. There’s just a lot of communication in our program. Our program is doing what it’s suppose to do and at an incredibly high level. Every coordinator except for Tom Allen here has won a championship in 17 years. We’re just in a moment right now where our season hasn’t gone well and we have a good team but we’re not playing like a good team. And that’s a coaching failure and it’s my job to fix it. And we’ve always fixed it.

“What we’re dealing with right now is football stuff and we can do something about that. It’s not that we haven’t been trying. We just haven’t gotten the results. As I’ve always said, God never says oops. It didn’t catch God by surprise. It caught us by surprise, but it didn’t catch God by surprise. We may not win another game, we may win them all. We’ll give God the glory the whole way.

“We’re playing our best players. It’s our job as coaches to get players to play better. When they don’t play to their potential, that’s on you as a coach. Not that a coach is perfect. Anyone can have a bad game, but it’s been too much. Guys start pressing. All they hear, too, is bad. Negative. Heck, I drove in this morning listening to Footloose. When it’s bad, I don’t listen or read anything.”

Question: Do you embrace the challenge of going up against Bill Belichick?

SWINNEY: “Yeah. Are you kidding me? It’s amazing. I never thought I’d get a chance to go up against him. How cool is that? How many rings does he have? Eight? He’s arguably the greatest ever, certainly at the pro level. It’s a cool thing. I wish we were 4-0 and I’d feel better about it. For me personally, it’s my 300th game. I couldn’t believe that. I went home and told Kathleen that. That’s amazing. I really didn’t think I’d be here for maybe a year.”

Question: What do you make of coaches being fired in the first month of the season?

SWINNEY: “In case you forgot, that’s how I got the job here. We were 3-3. Jeff Scott loves to tell the story. That was a crazy day. I was trying to figure this thing out and met with every coach and told them what Terry Don said. That was all the way back in ’08.

“Now, it’s the world we live in. I hate it. These are good people. I reached out to Brent Pry last week. He’s one of the best people. Sometimes it just doesn’t work. I hate that we’ve normalized the nastiness in society and how people are attacked and destroyed. We have a job to do and we’re all held accountable. We all understand that. It’s still tough. It’s a hard thing for anyone to deal with. Everyone says oh they’re paying him a bunch of money. Coaches coach, though, because they love what they do. You love to impact lives and you love the game.”

Question: Belichick’s media persona is kind of grumpy. What did you learn about him when you spent some time with him this off-season?

SWINNEY: “I’ve talked more with him this year than I ever have. He sent me a text before the season wishing me well. He’s a really nice man. He has a persona that he’s probably earned but he’s a nice guy, smart. In the meetings, I was so impressed with him. He’s 74. Passion doesn’t know an age. He’s passionate about what he wants to do in life. He wants to coach and he’s really good at it. Purpose knows no age. Why should you settle for something you don’t want to do? I was so impressed with him. He asked a lot of questions, very basic questions. I always want to know why. I’m the same. What’s your why as a person? What drives you? I know what mine is and that’s what drives me. I know what our purpose is. We may not win a championship and it may mean (to some people) that it’s the end of the world but I don’t look at it that way.”

Question: Do players utilize a sports psychologist?

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SWINNEY: “Yes. Yes. We have a ton of resources available to them, both from a perfrmance and mental standpoint. We have a tremendous amount of resources that are available to them all the time. In addition to that, we’ve had Milt Lowder who has been a consultant with us for 17 years.”

Question: You said you didn’t want to make any midseason coaching changes, so if that’s the case, what does accountability look like for your coaches?

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SWINNEY: “You play the season and you get results. You have accountability. It’s how we communicate and all that stuff. You let the chips fall where they are. If you have to make adjustments, you make them. Again, it’s all football stuff. If we have to fix football stuff, we will, whether it’s coaching or whatever. We have eight games. Why can’t we be the hottest team in America? There ain’t no quit. We have a long way to go. We’re just getting to October. There’s a lot of opportunity out there for everyone. Let’s try to create a little bit of momentum.”

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