Dabo Swinney on Klubnik, Brayden Jacobs, injuries, SMU

CLEMSON — Late Tuesday morning Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney again addressed members of the media during his weekly, in-season, news conference.

The Tigers (3-3, 2-2) are preparing to face SMU (4-2, 2-0) on Saturday. Clemson remains a 9.5-point favorite over the Mustangs at BetMGM.

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The following is an abbreviated transcript of Tuesday’s presser.

ALSO SEE: Tuesday Insider | MONDAY INSIDER | Clemson Recruiting Big Board: Running Back | Brayden Jacobs an uplifting sight for Clemson | A more formidable obstacle for Clemson | Clemson’s verbal commitments | Clemson’s junior commitments

Opening Statements

“It’s good to be back home. We’ve not played well at home, so our big goal this week is to play well. We have not done that here. We want to get back to playing like we’re capable of playing. Our fans deserve that. We’ve created some momentum the last couple of games by not playing perfect but playing well. Guys have seen the results of playing well. They’ve earned the right to win by doing what winning requires.

“SMU is a good team. I didn’t know Rhett Lashlee well before he got into the league. He’s one of the good guys in college football, a really good coach. We have a lot in common. I have a lot of respect for him as a person. He has done a heck of a job at SMU. They got after us last December in Charlotte. We were fortunate to put the game away.

“Offensively, this is by far the most dynamic quarterback we have played. He’s a problem. He’s a really good player. He makes a lot of off-schedule plays. He’ll let it rip from every arm angle you can imagine. He’s just a really good player. He has a great feel for the rush lanes and when to step up and out and when to run around. He has made a ton of big plays. You have to cover these guys until the whistle has blown. They haven’t run him a ton, but I’m sure it’ll be a big part of their plan against us. Really good receivers. Explosive. Same thing at running back and they’re committed to running the ball. They’re a big play action team. They want to throw the ball off the run action. If they’re not having success inside, they force you to be strong on the perimeter. A lot of misdirection and eye candy. They have two elite tight ends. I just think they’re a really good team across the board.

“Defensively, their two ends are really good pass rushers. They’re top 10 in sacks. They win with beating their guy but they’ll also win with some of the pressure that they’ll bring. They bring a lot of pressures. We have to do a good job of communicating. No. 1 and No. 9 are really good players. They’re very sound defensively and very consistent. They’re coming in here undefeated in the league. They had a tough loss to Baylor, down to the last play and a tough loss to TCU, a rival. They’re trying to get back to Charlotte. It’s playoff football every week. We look forward to this weekend.”

Question: The fact you haven’t played well at home, has that been one of the more disappointing pieces of this season for you?

SWINNEY: “Yes. We’ve stunk. LSU is a good team. It’s not like they stink. We had a chance to win the game and didn’t make the plays. The Syracuse game, we didn’t start playing defense until the fourth quarter. We didn’t play well in any game until North Carolina, at least collectively. We’ve had some players play well every week but not as a team.

“We’ve had two good games, complementary football. We need to keep playing well.”

Question: Do you feel like playing at home brings more pressure?

SWINNEY: “We’re still top three in the nation in wins the last 12-14 years or so. It’s a tough place to play but every team is different, every season is different. Some teams overachieve and some underachieve. We’ve had a bunch of good seasons, mostly great seasons at home, but we have to get back to playing well here. Again, I give LSU some credit. We just got in a funk. Some of our best players didn’t play well. We got beat. That’s college football. It’s hard to win every single week, especially when you don’t play well.

“It was good for them to see it the last couple of weeks. It won’t get any easier, though. We have to play well. If we play well, it shouldn’t matter where we play. If you’re only going to win at home, you won’t be great. We were good at home when I got this job, but we weren’t great. In my 17 years here, we’ve been great at home. As of late, though, we’ve stunk. We have to do what winning requires. We have to play well and earn the right to win. We have to be explosive and create some takeaways, run the ball and stop the run, play with physicality and discipline. You make plays in special teams and don’t have stupid penalties. We have to get back on track. That’s been a real disappointment to this point. The good news is that we get more opportunities. We have to earn it. No one will come in here and bow down.”

Question: Do you feel like Brayden Jacobs has played well enough to push Tristan Leigh?

SWINNEY: “He’s played one game. In that game, that moment, he played really well. We have a ton of confidence in Tristan and Blake Miller. We have to get Tristan to 100-percent. We have more confidence in Brayden now because he has finally taken it to game day. That certainly was big for him the other night. They’ll have their hands full this week with those defensive ends.”

Question: How do you get better with the disparity in turnovers?

SWINNEY: “We had three stops on downs (at BC) and I count them, too. We have to create them. We had two turnovers last weekend, so in my book we had five takeaways. You have to stop making stupid plays. Cade made a bad throw and the ball kind of slipped out of his hand. He was trying to throw it over the guy. Adam was wide open. Sometimes when you have big leads, you can be more careless. We’ve had a couple of cheap turnovers that we need to eliminate. We have to be smart and keep getting it. We have to attack the ball and have great details. If we can’t get there, we have to get our hands on the ball. We have to have 11 guys on the ball.”

Question: How much has Cade practiced?

SWINNEY: “Last night he was with the trainers. He’s sore but he’ll be better each day and hopefully ready to go on Saturday.”

Question: Think he’ll be able to fully participate in practice?

SWINNEY: “Oh yeah. Yeah. Sure. He’s sore, but I expect him to play. We’ll be smart with him. We have almost a week before game time. The main thing is making sure he has the plan down and work into practice and he’ll be ready to go.”

Question: After reviewing the film, is there any difference in your reserves at running back?

SWINNEY: “No. We like our rotation. Adam has been really good for us. They all have something different. Gideon is a very dynamic player and getting better every week. Eziomume is a downhill, violent player. He’s still developing trust in the passing game. Keith is Keith. He doesn’t run away from the tackles. He likes contact. He brings something different. He’s a true finisher. He will punish people. All of them bring something to the table. It’s a good group. We don’t have Jay and Jarvis, two talented players.”

Question: You mentioned Blake Miller. What about his consistency and performance last Saturday?

SWINNEY: “When you don’t notice your linemen, good things are probably happening. You usually notice them when something bad happens. I thought Blake played very well. He was awesome. He was ACC Player Of The Week. He did very well in space. Linthicum did well. They were out there covering up people downfield. He had a really good game.”

Question: What about your rotation at right guard?

SWINNEY: “Both are good players, both starters. Walker had the rib injury, so he was limited in the North Carolina game. We had him ready to play but we held him so he healed up more. Those guys are doing well. Harris has been a real bright spot for us. He played well. He was tough and physical. Walker is smart … he’s one of those guys that something is hurting all the time but he’s still out there going. Harris also has done well at center when he’s been in there. We’ve had a hard time having all seven of our starters available.

“Ronan O’Connell, we really like him. He’s a very physical kid. He had a guy in the back of the end zone on that last drive. He’s strong and physical. Blanchard is a guy you’ll probably see the last four guys. Honestly, he could help us right now. If we could ever get the five-year rule, that would change things for us. We have six games left. We’ll have him available at some point.”

Question: Where is Elyjah Thurmon now (in his recovery)?

SWINNEY: “He’s still recovering. He’ll be out this week. We’ll look at him again once we get into the open date.”

Question: What have you seen from Christopher Vizzina of late? Your evaluation?

SWINNEY: “We gave him a ton of work in the spring and in fall camp with the ones. He performed well in those opportunities. Sometimes he didn’t know he was going in, sometimes he did. We just tried to create that strain on him and he did a nice job. As a redshirt freshman last year he didn’t have a lot of opportunities, so it’s been good to see him have some time over the last two weeks. And it’ll just help him.”

Question: What’s been your appraisal of Garrett Riley and how he’s been able to script some of your (explosive) plays the last couple of weeks?

SWINNEY: “We’ve had field position and that’s been the biggest helper. We were 112th in field position going into the last two games. We’ve had good starting field position. We’ve executed and we’ve had a quarterback who has played well. We’ve been good on third down. We’ve run the ball efficiently. We were efficient in the North Carolina game. We were just explosive. A lot of the run game, too, it’s not run game but it’s run game to us (screens). It’s part of the run game for us. We’ve been able to get into a rhythm and have made plays. We’ve made contested plays and we’ve had fewer drops. Guys are playing with confidence. It’s easier to get in a rhythm when you’re executing and have good field position.”

Question: What qualities have your players shown to come back after such a tough start?

SWINNEY: “Our program is doing its job. The program is very strong here and what it’s set up to do and the purpose of it. It’s thriving. This particular team has had its challenges, but you see the character of our guys. They just fight. A lot of people quit and give up if something doesn’t go their way. That’s not the mentality in our building. I got the job 17 years ago. We were 3-3. We’ve always been fighters here. We’ve had 17 great years around here but it hasn’t been without challenges. We’ve just always kept going. We just stay the course. We have had a ton of adversity around here. We’ve had some really good seasons and some amazing seasons along the way. It’s your culture and character of the people you’re working with. You go on to the next one. You learn, grow and get better. You can quit or push through.

“It’s fun when you can see a group of young people who make a decision to go get better and have a will to fight. I’m proud of them. Leadership has been great but not surprising. It’s who they are. This team has done everything right to this point, but that’s football. That’s the seasons of life. Every year is a season of its own. Some teams underachieve and some overachieve. In football you’re going to have adversity. What do you do? How do you respond? These guys have been awesome. They’ve been together. You see their heart. They care about Clemson. They love Clemson. No one hurts more than our players and our coaches. What do you do? You get back up and go again. They’ve had a good couple of weeks. Every week is a playoff week for us.”

Question: Have y’all been running more two tight end sets this year than in the past?

SWINNEY: “I don’t think so. We’ve been a mixture of 11 and 12-personnel ever since Garrett got here. You’re always trying to manipulate the defense. What are you trying to accomplish? You can be an all-12 personnel team or a combo. We like our skill and our tight ends so we try to have balance with both of those.”

Question: Your pass defense, your overall evaluation of them to this point?

SWINNEY: “Getting better. We’re moving on up. We’re playing with more technique, more fundamentals, better awareness. We had two busts last week. We missed a man call and missed an over-route we should have matched. We’ve been better getting our hands on some guys in cloud coverage. That’s a big part of some of the pressure we were able to get last week. We’re not where I think we will be, but we’re in the right direction. Hopefully we can continue that trend.”

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Question: T.J. Parker, you said he played well at North Carolina, his best game. How do you think he played last weekend?

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SWINNEY: “Really good. Physical. He was in on one of those sacks. He played really well back to back.”

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