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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 18, 2017

Dabo Swinney

Greensboro, North Carolina

DABO SWINNEY: For us coming off a very disappointing loss, we've got to learn from it and flush it and try to refocus and get back on track this week with an open date. Get our football team healthy and learn from this past game, just like we try to do from every game.

You know, our guys competed hard. Just came up a little short and ran into a really good Syracuse team that just outplayed us but looking forward to the break this weekend. Practice today and tomorrow. Had a great community service day yesterday but our players will be off Friday, Saturday, Sunday, so glad that they are going to get a break.

Just doing a lot of studying of ourselves this week and try to get a head start on Georgia Tech, as well, and we look forward to being back in the valley a week from Saturday. I believe it's going to be a night game here at home, so should be fun. Looking forward to it.

Q. Urban Meyer said last week that he thought there should be a cap on how many road night games teams have to play each year. I know your team has played every road game at night dating back to last season. Do you think there should be any changes in terms of how many road night games a team has to play each year?
DABO SWINNEY: I think a lot of that depends on the type of team you are, the season you're having and the TV demand and all that.

I know this: We haven't lost a road game in three years. Last one we lost was I think in 2014 November. But we played 13 night games in a row away from home and went 12-1, so it's late nights but we've been pretty successful, so it's hard for me to complain.

But it is hard. It's tough when you play that many away from home, and especially with our situation here at Clemson because we have to go all the way to Greenville. I think we got in about maybe 5:00 last week and it was a short week. It's hard but it is what it is.

Like I said, if you've got a good team, TV is always going to dictate that type of stuff. I mean, for example, we went to Louisville, it's game day, and so it's great to be able to play in those type of games. But that part of it is if you're the traveling team, you know you're going to get home at 5:30 in the morning or so.

I don't know how you could control it with a cap or anything because again, TV is going to really dictate that, you know, the demand for the type of game. It is what it is.

Q. I believe you guys practiced on Monday. What did you kind of see out of the guys as you try to move forward from Friday night?
DABO SWINNEY: Just, you know, like we do every Monday and certainly it was -- Monday is the first time we've been our players. It's always a tough day when you come off a loss. Again you have a lot of guys on this team that haven't lost.

So it's just an opportunity to teach every single week. It's important for these guys to learn and grow from the good and the bad. But us, I thought we did a good job of just kind of flushing it out and refocusing and keeping the right perspective. We had a bad day. Haven't had a bad year.

You know, I like the fact that it hurts because I think that, you know, a little pain makes you better along the way. I just saw our team go back to work and continue to focus on the things that we -- even if we had won the game, had a lot to correct. But we didn't win the game and we've still got a lot to correct but there was a lot of good, too.

So just back at it, got our mind right on Monday and that's what we tried to get them to do. Staff-wise had a big Monday, Tuesday, and yesterday was a community service day for our team. They didn't have any football activities yesterday. Just all journey (ph) community service stuff and that was a great day, and then today we'll get back at it.

We'll go pretty hard today. We'll be in pads today and tomorrow and try to finish up the week with some really good work on Clemson and some good work on Georgia Tech and give these guys a little break this weekend. They certainly deserve it.

Q. How is Bryant responding to treatment?
DABO SWINNEY: It's been good. It's been good. Looks good. He's responded well.

Q. Talk about your trip to Alabama last Saturday night. What was it like getting away from football for a night?
DABO SWINNEY: Well, that was awesome. I wasn't real fired up about going. We got in about 5:00 and got a few hours sleep and caught a plane to Tuscaloosa. I thought it was great to be with my teammates and especially to be with coach stall rinse. It was awesome, really just what the doctor ordered, get perspective.

I'm really glad we were able to have that moment in that time. What we accomplished 25 years ago was very special and it was fresh last Saturday; it was 25 years ago. We had a couple hours just us as a team and coaches and to see all of the coaches there: Larry Kirksey, Bill Oliver, Jeff Rouzie, Jay Fuller, Woody, Coach Stallings, it was great and then most everybody came back from a teammate standpoint. So we just had a lot of fun cutting up and just telling stories.

But to have that time with Coach, because obviously he's not doing great, he's had a couple strokes and a heart attack a couple weeks ago. For him to still make the effort to be there, it was important that those who could got there.

So I'm glad we had that time and then they treated us great. They did everything before the game, so it was good to be able to get all that done and then we were right back out and back here by the second quarter.

Just enjoyed it. It was a special moment.

Q. I hope you have a good bye week.
DABO SWINNEY: Thank you. Appreciate it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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