Dabo Swinney: "I still believe in the greatness of our team"

CLEMSON — Sunday evening Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney again addressed members of the media in his weekly teleconference, this time to take a closer look at his team’s loss to Georgia Tech following his staff’s Sunday film review.

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Swinney made some opening statements and of course fielded several questions. He will again hold court with reporters late Tuesday morning at his weekly news conference.

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

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Opening Statements

“Good evening everybody. Obviously, a really painful and disappointing loss. That’s one that leaves a scar, for sure. You just give credit to Georgia Tech. We’ve had really two tough, tough, losses to this point. Both games have literally come down to the last play. We have to find a way to come up with one more play.

“They got three points on one turnover and we turn it over on the eight-yard line where we were going to get a field goal. Then we missed a field goal. So those things make a difference in a game. The third down drop was huge. The 90-yard drive in the fourth quarter to take the lead was the biggest disappointment defensively. The game-winning drive for them and walk-off 55-yarder was disappointing.

“Our guy competed to the last play. We’re just not playing complementary football when we need it. We pin them deep and couldn’t get that one stop. You have to give credit to Georgia Tech, too, especially their kicker.

“You play the game and coach the game long enough, you’ll have highs and lows. This is a definite low. We know where we are and we’re 1-2. We have nine more left to show what we are made of. I still believe in the greatness of our team. That’s what we control … what’s in front of us. We can’t do anything with what’s behind us other than grow from it and learn from it. That’s where our focus will be. We’ll see if we can get to 1-0 this week against a Syracuse team.

“This program is built from adversity and to withstand adversity. I have no doubt we’ll respond. It’s definitely frustrating. We haven’t gotten the results. We have to get better starting with me.

“Injury-wise, we came out of it pretty good. Tristan Leigh was out again. Elyjah and Khalil were out. Antonio has been out all year other than five plays.

“Our eyes are looking forward to playing a tough Syracuse team.”

Question: After yesterday’s game, one of your former players, Shaq Lawson, questioned the toughness of your team. Did you see that?

SWINNEY: “Listen, everyone is entitled to whatever opinion they have. I have a ton of respect for him. Like I said, we have to be better. As poorly as we played against LSU offensively, it still came down to one play. We have to be better everywhere, players and coaches. Criticism is part of it. That’s just part of it. I understand that frustration.

“People care about this program and I care about this program. I also understand there’s perception and then reality. We’re 1-2 but not every 1-2 is the same. The last 15 years the worst season we’ve had is nine wins. That doesn’t mean we haven’t had adversity. We’ve started out 2-3 twice. We’ve started out 1-2. We’ve started out 4-4 and 4-3. We’ve had lots of adversity over the years. You have to keep batting through. But again, the criticism will come with the territory.”

Question: Y’all have rotated quite a lot on the defensive line. Has it produced the desired results late in games for you?

SWINNEY: “I think you just answered your own question. No, it hasn’t produced the result we wanted. We’re 1-2. We played well enough to win defensively against LSU. But we have to get off the field. Teams are possessing the ball too much. We’re soft on the perimeter. What we’ve been doing right now isn’t getting us the desired the result, that’s for sure.

“We’re playing tough, hard, physical. We’re just not getting the job done. I mean we stopped them three straight drives against LSU in the fourth quarter and we didn’t capitalize offensively. The Troy game, they only gave up one touchdown. This particular game, we couldn’t stop the quarterback. He beat us straight up. He had 100 yards rushing. They won that battle. But even with that, it was one play. We didn’t get it done. We had our opportunities on things that we can control. But also, you give LSU and Georgia Tech credit.”

Question: Cade has turned the ball over every game so far. What can he do to remedy that going forward?

SWINNEY: “He has to be more decisive. The ball got knocked loose from his body the other day. He has to keep it high and tight and avoid the collision on the ball. He has had a couple of poor decisions. The tipped pick wasn’t really his fault against Troy. He had one against LSU and overthrew one there. That was just a bad decision. He was really good last year at taking care of the ball. He has to get dialed back in there.”

Question: Watching the tape, what’s your evaluation of your open field tackling and of your handling of the physicality of Ga. Tech?

SWINNEY: “We rushed the ball for 174 yards. There were no sacks. We were 8-of-13 on third and fourth down. I thought the offense got it going, but the turnovers, the drop and the two three-and-outs in the second half and a lot of details where we have to get better. It was good to get Walker Parks back in there. He battled his butt off. We just didn’t play well defensively. We were 8-of-15 on third down. We did some good things, too. The two fourth down stops were good.

“I thought they blocked us. They blocked us and we didn’t do a good enough job of winning that matchup. We’re not playing good at corner and at Tiger. We’re also soft on the perimeter.

“No lack of belief in our team, though. Again, we’re a few plays away from being undefeated but we still have the same problems. So the narratives are different. We have a lot to improve on and that’s what we have to do as coaches. They give you 12 games for a reason. In 2014 we were 1-2 and we rallied. We’ve been around here a long time and we have to be open and honest within our walls here.”

Question: What do you make of the struggles at corner?

SWINNEY: “Poor technique, not playing with confidence. Poor fundamentals. I’m just talking about the position. We’re not playing to our capabilities. Disappointment is part of it. These guys work their butts off. Disappointment can lead to lack of confidence. We just have to learn from it and grow from it. We have good players. We have to get them playing good.”

Question: What about Peter Woods and T.J. Parker through two games?

SWINNEY: “Peter I think has been pretty solid and T.J. has been good but not great. We need him to be great. We all have to get better. There’s no one on our team and no coach that doesn’t need to get better. We all have to take it up another level.”

Question: The Sapp touchdown that got overturned, did you agree with it?

SWINNEY: “He definitely had his foot in. It was close but they felt like he didn’t fully control it. They got the reviews and thought he bobbled it.”

Question: What went into your decision to wear purple jerseys?

SWINNEY: “Just changing it up. They were wearing their whites and weren’t truly the home team (with their uniforms).”

Question: When you say everyone has to be better, including you, what can you do to be better?

SWINNEY: “Yeah. Be a better head coach. I’m the leader of the program. I’ve got to get them confident that they can make that one play. That’s literally what it is. I’ve been here many times. I know there is a lot of panic (out there), but there’s no panic here. We’ve had a lot of adversity here, many, many, times. We’ve always just hung in there. We all have to be a little bit better. It’s not like we’re getting run off the field and it’s not like we’re losing to crap teams. We’re just coming up a little short. We all have to find a way to improve … every single one of us.”

Question: You’ve talked about outside noise and negativity. How do you balance that with your players in pushing them and challenging them, but also instilling more confidence in them?

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SWINNEY: “It’s the same thing. That’s just the world we live in. Just like people tell them how great they are, you try to get them not to listen to that. Same deal when they’re told they’re no good. You have to lock in, stay together and stay the course and bounce back. You play and coach long enough, you have adversity. It hasn’t always gone our way here. We’ve had one undefeated team. Football is not easy. I have great respect for all the teams we play and their coaches. We’re not entitled to win.

“We have to find a way to make these key plays to win. That starts with us as coaches. There’s a perception and reality. The perception is that everything is terrible and we stink but that’s not the reality. We’re still a couple of plays away from being 3-0. That’s a fact. The rest is a bunch of noise. We’ll live and die with the results. Let’s do what it takes to get those results.”

Question: How was the gap control and run fits from Sammy and Wade yesterday?

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SWINNEY: “Pretty good. Sammy had another good game. He graded a winner. Wade was a little less on his grade. His biggest miss was the spy and he got caught up in the trash. The quarterback ran around us for about 13 yards. Linebackers have played pretty dang good through three games. They can improve but they’ve been pretty consistent, those two guys for sure.”

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