Dabo Swinney: "It's all on me; I haven't gotten it done this year"

CLEMSON — Sunday evening Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney addressed members of the media during his weekly teleconference, this time to take a closer look at his team’s 46-45 loss to Duke on Saturday following his staff’s Sunday film review.

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Swinney also spoke on a range of topics, as the Tigers (3-5, 2-4) turn their focus to a week of preparation ahead of next Saturday night’s home matchup with Florida State (4-4, 1-4).

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

Opening Statements

“Not much different than what I said last night. We’ve been able to watch the tape and it’s what I thought in real time. Just hard to put into words the disappointment. It’s very frustrating. Just missed opportunities.

“Offensively, it’s probably as good as we’ve played in a long time. A really well-played game. 45 points ought to be enough to win. We’re 134-0 scoring 45 or more points. 560 yards and 7.8 yards a play. Very explosive. Cade was awesome. 75-percent, 385 yards. We needed to get the running game going and we did. Adam was awesome. Gideon had his coming out day. No turnovers was a big key for us. Our offensive line, tight ends and receivers really blocked well. Antonio Williams was awesome. Tristan, T.J., Bentancur and Olsen were outstanding in the run game. The one sack was really on the defense, on the scheme. They just got us on that one. We had a couple of penalties, but really just very little negative.

“The flip side is we have not played complementary football all the way back to the opener. We just haven’t been able to put it together all year. Defensively, not much good. Our run defense was good but just not anywhere good enough. Too many yards, too many points. It’s back to back games with big play busts and poor awareness. They were 5-of-5 on fourth-down conversions. We gave up a 95-yard field and needed one stop and didn’t get it done. No takeaways. Just poor execution across the board. That’s coaching and recruiting and all the above. 10 plays for 294 yards. We won’t win many games that way.

“We didn’t deserve to win. We had plenty of opportunities to win. I was proud of the fight in the guys who competed all the way to the end. It’s a shame it ended that way. A tough pill to swallow but that’s where we are. We have to flush it and we have to see if we can have our best possible finish.

“It’s been a tough year but something good will come from it. 14 great years sprung out of that losing season in 2010, which includes 11 championships. We’ll find a way to get back to where we need to be and want to be. We have the ingredients. It’s just part of our journey and part of our story. This has been a real frustrating time. As I look back on life, any time I’ve been a part of something bad, something good has come from it. Hopefully we’ll be better because of it. Right now we’re in the fight and we have to regroup and reset.

“Injury-wise, we held up well. I feel like we came through pretty good.”

Question: You just mentioned it’s coaching and recruiting. What do you mean specifically with recruiting?

SWINNEY: “It’s personnel, coaching, everything. We have to be better all across the board.”

Question: You mentioned the success Duke had on fourth down. What was it that allowed them to be so successful?

SWINNEY: “Poor leverage, poor technique, poor eyes, recognition. One fourth and one was a good call but a couple of the pass plays, we didn’t get it done, didn’t get our hands up and didn’t win the matchup. Very frustrating. The busts were the biggest disappointment. 294 yards on 10 plays. Poor execution across the board. That’s on us as coaches and we didn’t get it done.”

Question: On the recruiting-personnel comment, you said you liked your personnel at safety in August. Curious as to how you evaluate them now.

SWINNEY: “Hasn’t been good enough. We have talent there but we haven’t played well enough. We haven’t played well enough at any position. We had busts at every single position in the game. Every single position. You won’t be a great defense with that.”

Question: There was a clip that picked up some traction yesterday where you were laying into your players. Khalil Barnes looked disengaged when you were talking. Were you able to talk with him about that since?

SWINNEY: “No. I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. I was yelling at all of them. That’s the only thing I remember … the whole defense. It wasn’t any particular person. I guess I’m the only coach to yell at somebody.”

Question: When you get to this point in the season and you have experienced players having these busts, how much is that on the players and how much is that on the coaches?

SWINNEY: “It’s all on coaching. It’s all on me. It’s my responsibility. It’s all on me. I haven’t gotten it done this year.”

Question: Any comments on getting fined by the ACC today?

SWINNEY: “No. I just stand by what I said. It is what it is. We just have to agree to disagree. There’s a lot of accountability for coaches and players but I don’t think there is for refs. There should be some ability to challenge a call like that. I don’t blame the loss on that. It would have been great for the guys to overcome so much crap to win.

“They don’t want us talking about refs, so you’d have to call them and ask them about it. But I do think there should be more accountability and an an ability to challenge the call in such a critical situation.”

Question: Do you think the conference should disclose whether they messed a call up?

SWINNEY: “I’ll leave that up to them. In 2009, they suspended four refs after that Thursday night game with Georgia Tech. But that was a different regime. I won’t tell people how to run their shop, but I can have an opinion. We’ll just have to agree to disagree.”

Question: You mentioned postgame that Graham Neff could fire you right there. Have you talked to him since yesterday?

SWINNEY: “Yes. I was just making a joke. I talk to Graham all the time.”

Question: Do you know what went wrong on the kickoff return they took for a touchdown?

SWINNEY: “Yeah. We had 11 guys covering it and nobody touched him.”

Question: At some point in the first half it looked like Mickey Conn and Tom Allen got heated at one another. Have they been able to mend fences? Was it just in-game stuff?

SWINNEY: “Yes. Just in-game stuff. You give up a 77-yard touchdown on a bust, it’s frustrating. That’s football. That’s the game. Highly competitive environment. Tom takes a lot of pride in what he’s trying to do. We’re just not getting the job done in any regard right now.”

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Question: How do you evaluate Tom to this point in his first season?

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SWINNEY: “I think Tom has done a great job. I really do. He’s a winner and a really good football coach. It just hasn’t worked and come together like we had hoped. That’s nobody’s fault but mine.”

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