	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

CLEMSON UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 7, 2016

Dabo Swinney

Clemson - 56, Boston College - 10

DABO SWINNEY: Just really proud of our team, tremendous job preparing, first of all. I'm proud of how they got themselves ready. We knew when we saw the schedule, when the schedule came out, that it was going to be a short week. We were going to play Louisville on a Saturday and have to come in on Sunday and get ready for a short week. But at that time we didn't know we were going to play at 8:30 on Saturday night and getting to bed about 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning at home, so it was a taxing week. But our guys didn't complain. They just got it done, and did a great job coming in Sunday and Monday. I thought we had two of our better practices, and on Tuesday we kind of hit the wall, coaches and players, and I told everybody, hey, go home and get some rest. Let's come back tomorrow.

But they just did a great job, and I love the mentality of this team and the leadership of our team. We came up here to take care of business, and we did just that. We wanted to play our best game of the year. We played our best game of the year. I thought we were -- it was a dominant second half. Really great start, about as good a start as you can have outside of the muffed punt, but other than that we had an excellent start. This is an excellent defense. I tell our guys, and I mean this sincerely, we don't play anybody that's better coached than Boston College. We don't. They're as well-coached a football team as we play every year, without a doubt.

We just hit some big plays and got control of the game pretty early. The execution was tremendous, outside of just a couple little snafus like at the end of the first half. But a dominant second half, and that was good to see. The three-and-out and the offense goes down, I think we scored about every possession until the game was kind of in hand there in the third quarter.

So again, just really proud of them, and it's our eighth consecutive road win, which ties the Clemson record. I've been doing this a long time, and there's a reason that record is only eight. It is really hard to do, really, really hard.

Just proud of our team for coming up here, getting themselves ready, and then offensively the three plays of 50 plus yards in the first quarter against the No. 1 defense in the country was just tremendous execution and some just want-to. Mike Williams, I mean, that play he made was just a phenomenal effort. The play by Leggett, it was well executed, a great little play action that we felt good about coming into the game, and to see him make another huge play. The run by Gallman, it was just an outstanding job and got us off to a good start.

But the balance of our offense was tremendous, rushed for 200 plus and passed for 200 plus, set up all of our play actions, and the play to Mike, the play to Leggett, those were play action passes, and our ability to run the football was critical. Deshaun, four touchdowns, no interceptions, another excellent night. Gallman has quietly tied the all-time record for 100 plus yard games, and he's just kind of blue collar, not flashy, just never look up, been playing football at Clemson for a long time. We've got a lot of great backs, and now Wayne Gallman is tied with Priester. I'd say the odds are he's got a chance to break that before his career is over. Really proud of him. And Deon, a couple really nice plays by Deon.

I thought our special teams were solid all night, outside of the muffed punt. Did a good job with our punt and kickoff coverage, and really good job. I thought we had a chance -- on the bloop. We were really close on that. It was a bang-bang play and a good job by their guy keeping Jadar from getting it.

Defensively the tackles for loss, the sacks. Ben Boulware was awesome, once again, and I think he led us in tackles. Had two big turnovers. One of them, a pick six there at the end. But we had a couple stops on downs down there on the goal line, which was just huge.

You're happy to get the ball, but you're not happy to get it at the inch yard line, but it was great to get the stop, and just can't say enough about those guys.

The other thing that I thought was great was we played a lot of people, and they continued to play well. It's good to see Feaster get in there and hit it. That's the gear that we've been waiting to see, and it was great to see him instinctively cut it loose. It was good to see all those guys, Tyshon and Adam and Fuller all get opportunities to play, those linemen and tight ends, and same thing defensively, we played a lot of guys tonight, and guys continued to play at a high level no matter what the score was.

So really proud of our guys, and for us, it's good to get a break tomorrow and Sunday for our guys to catch up on a little bit of rest, come back Monday afternoon, got another division game next week, and look forward to being back at home. It's a noon game, and my expectation and my hope with our crowd is it's the same atmosphere as it was last week against Louisville, that we'll have that same type of fervor in the stands.

We'll get back at it on Monday, and also just want to say it was an honor to be a part of this game. I got the real privilege to meet Welles Crowther's mom and dad before the game, and what an inspirational story. You talk about a true American hero, I didn't know the story until this week, and I actually showed about a 15-minute video to our team because I felt like they needed to know what it was all about. Not that they were just coming to play in the red bandana, what does that mean, and man, what a powerful, powerful story and inspirational.

It's an honor to be a part of this game, and then the last thing I'll say before we take any questions is just our thoughts and prayers are with all the people out there that are dealing with this hurricane, and just praying that the good Lord will bring peace to that situation and calm that storm and keep people out of harm's way, and with that I'll take your questions.

Q. Christian, Mike and Tremayne seemed to get --
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, I think everybody was okay. Mike, I felt like he could have kept going, but he kind of tweaked a lower part of his butt, or I guess that would be the top of your ham, so we just said, well, let's just hold him and see. He was loosening up and he was ready to go. So again, these guys played a short week, and they're a physical team. But that was them.

And then Christian is okay. He's probably going to milk this through the weekend. He's got a little boot on his ankle, but he's good. He's in good shape. He played well. It was good to see him at his homecoming have three tackles for loss, as well.

Ryan Carter, I think he's okay, just kind of sprained his ankle, too. I don't think anybody was serious that will keep them out of practice on Monday, but we'll see as we evaluate them tomorrow.

Q. You talked about the preparation and sort of the focus coming into this game, Tuesday gave them a little break. Was there any point during the week where you were a little worried about them getting the energy?
DABO SWINNEY: Well, yeah, Tuesday I was a little worried because I just -- you know, like I said, bless their hearts, Sunday and Monday I think we were all running on adrenaline, just the high of that game. The practice was excellent, but like I said, Tuesday, everybody just hit the wall, coaches and players, and as I told our staff, hey, everybody has got to get some rest. Tired work is not good work. So I just cut the practice schedule, cut the periods, just tried to do everything that I could to kind of manage the week, because it wasn't really a true normal week for us, obviously, and they didn't have a day off.

I just kind of kept telling them, hey, let's grind through this and I'm going to take care of you, let's get our work in, let's get a good plan. We're going to be rested up. So they got a little rest because we came up here early yesterday and they got a little rest and obviously got a chance to sleep in this morning. But they were ready to go, they really were.

We talked a lot about the -- how special this place is to me because obviously this was my first win as a head coach here, and we were going -- win one was here and win 81. I talked a lot about those guys of '08, and as a matter of fact that's what I told them in the locker room was eight years ago about this time, I was in this locker room with a group of guys that were 3-4, and they didn't owe me anything, but they made a decision to buy in and to give it all they had and to lay it on the line, and we laid the first brick in that October of '08 right here to the foundation of our program now. And those guys all -- I got to stay. Those guys all moved on and they're all doing other things in life, but it all started with those guys, and I told the guys tonight, I want to see a team that plays with a heart of gratitude because very few of us would be here without that group of '08 and their commitment, their will to leave the place better, their will to do something about what was in front of us and not worry about what was behind us.

I'm so appreciative of all those guys. Five of them are still with me. It was great. We took a picture before the game. That was the thing, I said, just play in a way that shows your gratitude to those guys, and I thought they did just that. They played awesome.

Q. The onside kick in the second half and then right at halftime you were sprinting down the sideline at halftime to get the time-out. Was it important to you to keep the foot on the gas for all four quarters?
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, we're trying to get better as a football team, and any time you have opportunities to work through unusual situations, you want to do that. I wasn't really worried about the score, I just wanted to coach to our standard. We practiced that exact same, we practice that. We practice it in fall camp, we script it in the stadium, and I was so frustrated because we called time out, and we said exactly what we had to do, and then when you have a moment of insanity. It's so frustrating. So it's a teachable moment. It's an opportunity to get better from that. I mean, we knew exactly what was going to happen. We were going to be wide open over the middle, catch the ball, get down, call a time-out, kick a field goal and go into half, and man, what a great drive. There's eight seconds. This is what we practice. So just very disappointed with our execution right there, but good job getting down there, good job putting ourselves in that situation, and it was a good opportunity to practice or have a live rep at what we practice, and it was frustrating that we didn't execute it properly. That's on me, and we've got to clean that up because those are things that could be the difference in a ballgame down the road.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297