Dabo Swinney: "God is at work here; this moment will make us better"

CLEMSON — Monday evening, two days after his team’s third loss of the season, Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney addressed members of the media in a teleconference following his coaching staff’s Sunday film review of Saturday’s game tape.

The Tigers (1-3, 0-2) will enjoy a BYE this week ahead of traveling to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to face UNC (2-2, 0-0) on Saturday, October 4. The game will kick off at noon and will air on ESPN.

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As is standard protocol during an open date week, Swinney will not hold his regularly-scheduled news conference this Tuesday and will not be available to reporters following Wednesday evening’s practice. His Tuesday presser will resume next week, September 30.

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The following is an edited transcript of Monday evening’s teleconference.

Opening Statements

“Just a quick recap from the game. Incredibly disappointing. We just can’t seem to play complementary football. We really struggled in the first half defensively. We were rolling pretty good with limited opportunities offensively but got in a hole. There are some positives and I know everybody looks at the record but we have a great group of young men. We don’t have the record that we envisioned so a lot of disappointment, but I’m really proud of these guys on how they hung in there. This moment will make us better. I like the response from our guys. It’s not what we expected but I don’t think it caught God by surprise. That’s just what I believe.

“We came through the game in pretty good shape injury-wise.

“This is a big week for us as we reset what’s in front of us. That’s what our focus will be. We’ll just continue to help these players transform their lives. I don’t know God’s big picture plan but he’ll use this for good. I don’t have any doubt about that. It might be 20 years from now. It might be a player saying this was the best thing that happened to him and it taught him a lot. I know God is at work here and we’ll use this opportunity to glorify him through this. We have a great group of young men, great leaders and seniors. My focus is to do what I think I do best which is to coach, teach and mentor our young men.

“We won’t win the national championship. We’ve won three in 130 years. That doesn’t mean we can’t finish well and enjoy the journey. This is a part of the journey and there a lot of great days ahead.

“We need to consistently put things together. Football is hard. We want to get 11 guys giving it all they’ve got. That’s where it starts. We have a lot of guys who have done the best they can do. Sometimes your best isn’t good enough.

“We have a team that is hurting but I can’t even begin to express how proud I am of how they responded today. One of the best team meetings I have ever been a part of. I’m really proud of these young men and their enthusiasm to get back to work tonight (in practice). We will learn from what we have been through and apply it going forward. We’ll build. For me personally, I hurt for everyone. I wish everything would go exactly the way we want, but that’s rarely the case. But I absolutely believe God will use this to make us all better.”

Question: As you look to maximize this season ahead, will you make any in-season staff changes?

SWINNEY: “I don’t anticipate that. We’ll just try to have a great open date and reset our goals. We have an 8-game season. That’s how we have to look at it. We have a bunch of great people who have worked their tails off. It’s frustrating when you don’t get the results you worked for, but that’s life. Life also is about accountability. My job is to make sure we are better. We have not achieved what we expected to achieve. And I also don’t want to take anything away from our opponents. I think everyone here has responded the right way. We’re locked in and we’ll try to have a great couple of weeks here and go from there.”

Question: As a head coach as you look at this open date week, do you say you need major changes? Tweaks? Your mindset?

SWINNEY: “I have to find a way to get our team playing better, playing to our potential and starting faster. No one wants to hear that we’re a couple of plays away but momentum is a big thing. Confidence and disappointment, those are all factors. We just have to focus on doing some little things better and putting these guys in a position to execute with more precision. You have to do what winning takes. We’ve lost the turnover margin two weeks in a row. We had a poor first half defensively. We’ve played from behind just about every game except the first one.

“We want to get these guys to play better and that starts with us as coaches. We want to use this as an opportunity to develop them. It’s an opportunity to teach these guys and equip them as they move forward in their lives. I just feel like God is at work with this team. I’m excited about that.

“For me personally, I just lean on my fundamentals and just stick to the fundamentals. I just keep my eyes on the Lord. I don’t just quit when things don’t go my way. God never says oops. I’ve believed that since I was 16 years old. We just have to find a way to execute our plan to win.

“It’s a frustrating thing because we are a talented team and we have underachieved. And that falls on me. I feel like I have let a lot of people down. We’ll just completely flush it and focus on what’s in front of us and the opportunities that we still have. I believe God will use this in a mighty way. That’s my perspective. This is a part of our journey. We’ll come back stronger than ever.

“As I told our players today, anyone can navigate wins. True leaders have to navigate the valleys. There’s no quit with these players and there’s no quit with this staff. Everything that we need to do better, we can do better. We have to get 11 guys on the same page more consistently and we have to find a way to play complementary football. We haven’t done that consistently.”

Question: Seems like it’s been a common theme with Cade Klubnik not seeing the field well and missing the layups, open receivers. Is there not confidence that Christopher Vizzina can do that?

SWINNEY: “Yes. There is. And there is confidence in Cade. He’s still our starter. Everybody has to be better. Coaches have to be better, the defense has to be better, Cade has to be better. I definitely have confidence in CV. Who knows what the future holds, but we feel like Cade is still our starter.”

Question: How much confidence do you have in Garrett as your play-caller?

SWINNEY: “Those are things you evaluate. There are things we can do better on both sides of the ball. There have also been things that haven’t been executed.

“We have good people. I love the people that we have. We have to find a way to finish strong. That’s what our focus will be on.”

Question: Considering the landscape of college football, do you foresee anyone saying they want to go forward and redshirt?

SWINNEY: “I have no idea but I haven’t seen that. We had one of the best team meetings (today) I’ve ever been a part of. God works in mysterious ways. There have always been a lot of positives that I have seen.”

Question: Why do you think that the practice results have not translated to game days?

SWINNEY: “I don’t know. I don’t know. It just hasn’t translated quite yet. We have a lot of games to play. Hopefully we can play our way out of it. I would say just execution and you know disappointment in some failure early and maybe some guys not handling the noise well. Maybe they’ve played tight, whatever. Things just haven’t worked out like any of us wanted.”

Question: Can I get your reaction to the ACC fining Syracuse for faking injuries Saturday?

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SWINNEY: “I don’t have any comment on that. That’s for the officials. I thought Syracuse competed their butts off. Coach Fran did a great job. That’s one of the weird things about adversity. I’ve been really blessed by a lot of people who have reached out to me personally, a lot of people across the country and Fran is one of them. Syracuse earned it. They were the tougher team. They executed.”

Question: You just said you’re confident your players will respond. What have you seen since Saturday that gives you this confidence?

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SWINNEY: “My players care. I’ve been in a lot of locker rooms in my lifetime and I’ve seen a lot of disappointment. There was a lot of pain in that locker room. These are great kids and they care. When you have people who care, you know they will respond.

“I came over yesterday and then today listening to our leadership council. It’s inspiring to see this from young people. We have a bunch of great leaders on this team. I liked the comments that were made in our team meeting.

“I believe we will come out of this stronger. I’m looking forward to doing everything I can to help them finish strong. I’m grateful for our seniors. There are a lot of great things that could come out of this as a team and as a program, as we deal with adversity.”

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