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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 20, 2017

Dabo Swinney

Greensboro, North Carolina

DABO SWINNEY: Well, first of all, just really proud of our team. Hard-fought victory last week up in Louisville. Really excited to see our team improve. Had not seen us play on the road yet and that was just another step for us.

Now we get an opportunity to get back here at home, another big defense game. Boston College, they are 1-2 right now but they have had two tough losses against two good teams. But this is a very just tough, physical football team, and this is going to be a big challenge for us this week.

There's a certain mindset you have to play when you have to play Boston College. Got great respect for Coach Addazio. They have got a bunch of guys back on defense, about 12 or so guys that started at some point last year. Very impressed with their quarterback, their running back. They are big, strong, physical up front just like all BC teams. They are built in the trenches.

We've got to have a great week of practice. They present a lot of problems as far as just schematically how you have to fit things up. You don't have a lot of room for error because they are going to force the issue in how they run the ball.

We are excited about getting here at home. It's Hall of Fame weekend for us and got a lot of former people coming back.

Again, just thankful for another opportunity here in the valley and look forward to seeing if we can find a way to keep some momentum going in our season.

Q. The defense has been so good in each of the past two weeks in terms of getting pressure on the quarterbacks. What's been the secret to the success there in terms of sustaining it?
DABO SWINNEY: Well, it's a combination of a lot of things. Guys have worked really hard in preparation in the off-season: You know, film study, depth up front, guys coming in and continuing to play well; the mixture of how we pressure the quarterback.

It's not just always -- I think we had six sacks last week by six different people. So it's not always the same guy. Sometimes it's the D-line and sometimes it's the secondary and sometimes it's the linebacker, so just mixing it up, and guys just taking pride in doing their job.

And then I think it's also a credit to the play of our secondary. I think we've made some quarterbacks have to hold the ball with our coverage, which has allowed some guys a little more opportunity to get there and then just being relentless.

You know, just having a relentless mindset on defense, and that's what we've seen the first few weeks. That's what it takes if you're going to be a consistent defense week-in and week-out.

Q. Do you get the sense overall -- I know it's still early, but you guys have been pretty good; that this year's team might be better than last year's?
DABO SWINNEY: Oh, shoot, we've played three games, and I would answer that question just like I would answer last year after three games. Everybody wanted to know what was wrong with our team and we're not a good team. My answer then is the same it is now: We've played three games and we're 3-0 and that's where we want to be. We've got a long way to go.

Same thing for this team. Three games don't make a season. We're happy where we are but we've got a long way -- we've got a lot of improving to do. That was a big win for us last week but it was probably our worst game defensively. It was our worst game defensively of the three. That doesn't mean we played bad but we made more mistakes, more mental errors, more missed tackles. Did not do some things that we need to do that if we don't fix we'll get exposed.

Same thing offensively. There's just so much we have to continue to improve on as a team. I mean, we have a long way to go. September is not the time to be talking about, you know, if we're -- who we are compared to past teams and so forth.

I mean, we're just a team trying to earn our way right now, and we're good enough to beat people but we're not good enough to just show up. We're capable of getting beat each and every week by any of these people in our schedule.

Q. If you had the power to change an NCAA rule either on the field or off, which one would you kind of mess with?
DABO SWINNEY: NCAA rule, oh, man. If you give me about ten minutes I'll give you a bunch of them.

But I would say I don't -- the one that they just changed, I'm not a big fan of the spring official visits. Not a fan of that. I would change that back to the way it was right now if that's -- one thing, that's what I would say.

Q. Too much of a headache for you guys? What's the reason there?
DABO SWINNEY: I just think that it's too early. It's just my opinion. I just think it's too early, and I think it's better later in the process.

Q. You talked about your defense earlier and you guys I think have lost 12 players on that side of the ball to the NFL Draft in the last three years, but you keep producing on the field. That's obviously recruiting, but how much of it, also, is Coach Venables?
DABO SWINNEY: Oh, it definitely starts with recruiting, that's for sure. You've got to have the right type of players, and then it's development.

You know, so it's your -- it's how you run your program. It's your strength, conditioning. It's the development of the player when they are not playing; what's taking place; how are they being prepared for when that time comes.

So it's all of those things and then it's coaching. Coach V, man, does an unbelievable job. He's passionate about what he does, and it's not just Coach V. He'd be the first one to tell you, we've got a great staff. It certainly defensively starts with him but he's got a great staff around him.

But man, he just has such a passion and sets the tempo every day when he comes into those meetings, when he comes to practice. I don't think there's anybody better out there than Coach V. You know, he's just been a great addition to this staff from day one, and it's just grown and grown and grown since he's been here and has really just brought great consistency to that side of the ball.

And again, you've got Mickey Conn over there and Mike Reed and Todd Bates. Just a good group of guys and a great support group around him with our player development guys and our GAs. So he just does a great job week-in and week-out. We've got a very systematic approach as far as how we prepare week-in, week-out, offensively and defensively. Just so proud of Brent and how he leads that group week-in and week-out.

Q. And he had such deep Big 12 roots. How difficult a recruiting pitch or sell was it to get him to uproot, so to speak and come to Clemson?
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, you know, he had been there a long time and he had done a great job. I just think it was just timing. Part of it was timing.

I didn't know Brent, but once we talked, there was a mutual connection there. I could tell that he was looking for certain things but I think the biggest thing was just being able to articulate the vision of this program, and to get him to understand who I am and Clemson and the way we want to do things here and the vision of what I thought we could do, and then how we were going to do it.

So those are things that we talked for a long time about, and really laid it out for him. And then it was just he needed to come and see. I think when he came here, he really fell in love with it. He loved the community. It was an opportunity to move his family to a really, really great community like Clemson.

So you know, it was a difficult decision for him, for sure, because he had a comfort zone there and he had been there a long time. But I think he saw the uniqueness of Clemson and the opportunity that we had here, and I think he saw the right fit for him and for his family.

It's been great. It's just been awesome. You know, Brent's become a great friend and just love working with him every day. I mean, he's always the same guy. We just have a great relationship and he does a great job mentoring our players. He's just passionate about it. That's what I love. That's what I try to do is surround myself with people that are passionate about the players and how we do things here, and he's certainly both of those things.

Q. Do you believe in trap games, and is there any fear that the boys might be looking ahead to Blacksburg?
DABO SWINNEY: No, I don't believe that. I believe this is the biggest game of the year, and that's the mindset.

I understand that that happens in athletics if you don't have the right culture; you don't have the right mindset. Boston College come in here and beat us and if they beat us it's because they beat us, not because we're looking ahead. It's because we didn't play well.

For us, we try to literally, every game is the biggest game of the year. That's just the mindset that we go into our week with. We don't do anything different with. He don't practice any differently for Kent State or Florida State or Boston College or Virginia Tech or whoever. We are very committed to how we prepare and I think that helps us to develop consistency with our players.

Again, there's a sense of urgency every single day, and you have to have a great appreciation for winning and what it takes. You've got to be willing to buy into that week-in and week-out. I think that mindset has allowed us to be very consistent, and you know, we've lost games, but I don't -- it's not because we were looking ahead. It means we either didn't play well or that team just whooped our butt. Simple as that.

So we're just dialed in on this one. We don't ever look ahead and we don't look back, either. We fix our eyes on what's right here right now and let's have a great Wednesday practice. That's all we're worried about.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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