Dabo Swinney on offensive woes, practice, Georgia Tech

CLEMSON — Tuesday morning Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney met with members of the media during his weekly news conference. Swinney again discussed his team’s latest game while looking ahead to Saturday’s matchup with Georgia Tech.

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The No. 12 Tigers (1-1) will face the Yellow Jackets (2-0) in Atlanta (Ga.) at noon in what will be the two teams’ conference opener. Clemson remains a 3.5-point favorite at BetMGM.

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

Opening Statements

“We’re excited to head to our first road game this week. This is a huge challenge in Georgia Tech. This is a big game for both teams as we get into conference play. Brent Key has done an amazing job down there. This is a tough, physical, well-coached, team. They’re battle-tested especially with Haynes King at quarterback. He is a warrior. They have good skill around him and they’re tough and physical up front. They put a lot of strain on you defensively. They’re going to put it in their best players’ hands. They’ve done a nice job on the perimeter with some guys they’ve brought in there. They’ve also blocked a couple of kicks.

“Defensively, they’re not giving up a ton of big plays. They do a nice job of executing their defense. They’re active up front, thick and stout.

“This is also a rivalry game. It’s one of the older rivalries in college football. It’s always been fun to be a part of this game.”

Question: The physical battle is always important within the line of scrimmage. Is the mental part just as important for you this week?

SWINNEY: “Yes. Yes. It’s always critical. Everyone presents their own challenges. Every snap there’s a shift or a motion or a jet. By nature of their scheme, it’s quarterback counter or power with RPOs built into it. They just control people based on reaction. It’s basically a triple option scheme from spread formations. They’ll turn around and hit you right up the middle with downhill play.

“It’s all about the quarterback because he’s the decision-maker. He’s equipped to make them right, so you have to win matchups. You have to tackle in space. Eye-discipline is critical but you also have to do a great job in space. The ball gets in space by nature of everyone doing their jobs. That’s what they do best. They make you defend the field sideline to sideline.”

Question: Does it concern you that they can use two quarterbacks?

SWINNEY: “Yep. Their backup is a good player and threw for a ton of yards last week. You have to be prepared for that. Any time you see something like that on tape, it puts your antenna up a little bit. We just have to have our eyes in the right place and we have to communicate well.”

Question: Watching the tape the last two weeks, what’s been the biggest reason for the offensive struggles?

SWINNEY: “Routine stuff. It’s just that simple. The frustrating part is that it hasn’t shown up in practice. There was a lot there in the first game. We didn’t take advantage of opportunities in that first game. This past week, just some precision in what we were doing. Defensively after two games, they’re not perfect but they’ve given up three touchdowns in two games. The fourth touchdown was on the offense, a pick-six. We have to clean up things from an execution standpoint on offense. We have too many nine out of 11 guys doing their jobs. We’ve played two games and got two different experiences.”

Question: What is your identity on offense? What have you seen in practice?

SWINNEY: “Right now it’s not very good. It’s early, though. We have a long way to go. Very productive in practice. Elite quarterback play. Explosive receivers. We’ve had a really good run game (in practice). Been that way all through camp.

“We didn’t have the start that we want. But it doesn’t mean we can’t have the ending that we want.”

Question: Having some time to review the film, what stood out about Adam Randall vs. Troy?

SWINNEY: “Toughness, heart, his will to win. He had opportunities. His timing in some things, especially when it comes to your counter and power, he’s too fast. C.J. Spiller used to be that way. Heck, he was the puller because the puller was behind him. You need to be in the hip of your pullers and that comes from playing. I think Adam – and he did some good stuff – but some more precision in his footwork, timing and the feel for where he needs to be in some landmarks. He has to stick to that. He’s done well in practice. Last weekend was his first real opportunity. He’s a good football player. Hopefully we can get some rhythm going where we can get the flow going with some of our other guys.”

Question: Do you have more confidence with your in-game adjustments after Saturday?

SWINNEY: “Yes. They did a good job. It’s not so much about that as it is about executing what they’ve been coached to do. The biggest thing Saturday was just calming everyone down and playing through the funk. That was a really weird deal. You felt like you were down 35-0. You finally get a break and it’s a fumble and it goes 50-something yards the next way. Then you have a pick-six inside of your five. But hey, that’s football.”

Question: Has Cade been as much of a factor with his legs as you envisioned?

SWINNEY: “No. He’s been too much of a factor with his legs in that he has scrambled when he didn’t need to scramble. That’s what he did early in his career. He’s running out of the pocket for no reason and he didn’t do that at all in camp. It was really bad in the LSU game. Hopefully they’ll pick up from where they left off on Saturday.”

Question: What’s the message to your team given that it’s an ACC opener?

SWINNEY: “There’s always a message when you’re going on the road, though it’s no different than home. External things can’t control what you do. If it does, you’ll always be controlled by external things. You have to be focused when you’re in the arena. If you’re focused on all those things you can’t control, your energy goes that way. Just focus on what you’re doing and tune all that stuff out, whether it’s real noise or noise that we live in as a society. You want to be a great team, you have to win on the road. We all get eight conference games and every game is a playoff game.”

Question: How do you feel like your team is handling this early-season adversity?

SWINNEY: “Great. Let’s not take anything away from Troy. They’re tough and have good players and you’re down 16-0 where everything is going against you. You saw the grit and courage of our team. Same thing with LSU. It came down to the last play. We missed some big opportunities. And I don’t take anything away from them.”

Question: What did you say to Adam after that first touchdown Saturday?

SWINNEY: “Just gave him a hug. He ran through some trash and you could see his heart and will to win. It ignited his teammates. It was great to see that.”

Question: You said your defense should be better on third and long. Was that more Troy or y’all?

SWINNEY: “It’s us. They just took advantage of us. The 28-yard run, Sammy is right there but for some reason he ran backside. He was right there in the gap, but he played over the top. Do your job and it’s a one-yard gain. We had a pass play and Ronan had the wrong call and lined up wrong. He’s suppose to be in a show position and he just stayed there. The big wheel route, that’s Kobe. His eyes were on No. 2. He played it like he had man coverage on the running back. He should have been dropping in that zone right to him.

“It’s nothing that can’t be corrected. Guys are playing hard. Neither team we’ve played held the ball long. I talked to their coach after the game and there was no way they were going to hold the ball. We have to tighten some things down and get off some blocks.”

Question: Is Tristan Leigh practicing this week?

SWINNEY: “We’ll do an injury report on Thursday. I’m sure you’ll know tonight so you can tweet it out. Check Larry (Williams). He’ll have all the info way before then.”

Question: Antonio, how has him not being there impacted you in your receiving corps?

SWINNEY: “He’s our best player there. He’s special. He’s crafty. Smart. He’s a special dude. It certainly doesn’t help us that he’s not out there. If we can just find a way to battle through these first couple of games …

“The positive is that Tyler Brown has been able to get back into a rhythm.”

Question: Is this is the first time you’ve had a lot of things positive happen on offense in practice not translate to game day?

SWINNEY: “I feel like I’m living 2016 all over again. I went back and looked at my notes after the Troy game in 2016. It’s like I could have just walked into the team meeting with the same comments. Different reasons but same comments. Only difference is that we made one more play than Auburn in the opener. I think we had 11 drops in our first two games. We played terrible at Auburn. Deshaun was not playing well. Everyone was beating up Deshaun. Everyone was asking what was wrong with Deshaun. That was the first time they got all the rat poison. This group hasn’t had the rat poison. This group, I don’t think some of them have managed it well. I’d say the same thing about that group in 2016.

“That 2015 team might have been the best team I had, to be honest with you. That team won the league and went on to the national championship game. Coming into the 2016 season, there was a lot of rat poison. You had all these guys back. This isn’t a video game. It doesn’t work that way and you get to just fast forward to Tampa. It’s one step at a time. You have to play every game and you’re getting everyone’s best shot. We didn’t handle that well out of the gate. If Cade throws the touchdown to Tyler against LSU, I’m still pissed on Monday. It’s about how you play. Some of these teams out there don’t break a sweat until October. We’ve always played people. We’ve got the dudes but if we don’t play better, we won’t win many games. We have to do better as players and coaches.”

Question: Do you know enough yet to diagnose the reasons behind the current … (issues on offense)?

SWINNEY: “The part that is suppose to suck is my punter and special teams and they’ve been great. But they’ve been told how bad they are. Jack Smith has done a nice job. Y’all couldn’t wait for him to shank one. Y’all couldn’t wait to tell people that Swinney was stupid and should have gone to the portal. I’m sure y’all have those headlines ready. We have three good punters. I really believe in McCune. I’ve been mispronouncing his name and he finally got the courage to tell me the other day. I’ve got confidence in Robert Gunn. Jack is a guy we recruited and I thought he was just a touch better. He has placed the ball well directionally, but I have confidence in those other guys. I think we have a really good punting situation.

“Our execution isn’t what it needs to be. I knew I had great players. Everyone has a job to do. Are we in position to be successful? If we’re not, that’s a different story. Everyone has accountability. And we better be on point this Saturday. This will be a battle.”

Question: The fans had a tailgate part 2 during the lightning delay. Were you aware of that?

SWINNEY: “It was a great crowd at the beginning and then fairly sparse. Those that were still there were loud and right on point when we needed them to be. They want to be safe and I know that. I thought they did a great job. We really felt their presence and it made a difference down the stretch.”

Question: Your relationship with Brent Key?

SWINNEY: “He’s a Birmingham boy. We’re both from the same neck of the woods. I just think he has done a great job. He loves that place and he played there. It’s important to him. He’s put his personality into it. They’re a physical team. He’s an offensive lineman and he’s put a strong emphasis on running the ball. They’ve got really good coordinators. Always fun to be around him. He’s got a good personality, good perspective.”

Question: How important was it for Collin Sadler to play as many snaps as he did at tackle last Saturday?

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SWINNEY: “I wish he didn’t have to but some of these moments can bring big benefits. We have five tackles, the way we look at it. All of a sudden we had to have him play. It’s good for him long term. It’s great for us to have the flexibility to have our best five on the field. It’s a blessing. He’s gotten some good experience now. It’s a lot like Elyjah Thurmon last year playing some tackle. You don’t forget that. That leads to confidence.”

Question: What do you remember about A.J. Hoffler?

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SWINNEY: “I think he’s a great talent. He’s a great kid, a great mom and dad. I wish we could have finished the race with him here. It’s a decision he made. I think he has a bright future.”

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