	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

ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 25, 2017

Dabo Swinney

Greensboro, North Carolina

DABO SWINNEY: For us, we're coming off an open date. Just excited to get back to play. Been a long couple weeks here. Just trying to get ourselves better as a football team. Got a lot of guys that are trying to get healthy. Proud of our team after seven games. We're still in the hunt, in the mix of this division, this conference. That's really what we're trying to do.

That's always been our goal here, is to have a chance to compete for this league, and consistently do that. So here we are going into game eight. We're right where we want to be with a chance going into late October, early November to compete for this conference.

Got a huge challenge Saturday night with Georgia Tech. This is a really good team. Got great respect for them, what they do, how they do it. They're literally two plays away from being an undefeated football team. Paul has done a great job, man. They've had a couple tough breaks, but this is a team that can beat anybody. I mean that.

For us, it's just trying to focus on playing well, correcting some of the mistakes, learning from these previous seven games. That's what we tried to do through this open date with a little extra time. Hopefully we can play our best four quarters Saturday night. We're certainly going to have to play well to have a chance to win the game.

Q. Over the history of your coaching career, have you noticed a difference in your team's results coming off a bye?
DABO SWINNEY: I don't know. I've never really even studied that, to be honest with you. I'm sure somebody's got some data somewhere.

I think a lot of that depends on who you play, type of team you got year in and year out. I don't really know. I think we've done okay, for the most part. I have no idea.

Q. How did Kelly do yesterday? Is there a limitation to where you want to see him get to before you decide you're going to play him on Saturday, a certain percentage?
DABO SWINNEY: I can't jump in his body and do that. I just watch practice. If he can practice and do everything that we ask our players to do in practice, then there should be no reason why he can't play.

You always defer to the player, you know. Sometimes you think a guy can go, and he can't. It's just watching practice. As long as he can do everything he needs to do to be successful, gives us a chance to win, he'll be good to go. I get a report every day on who is in practice, who is limited, who is out. That's how we go about our business.

He's taken every rep, doing a great job. But I have no idea. I mean, I don't really know of many players that are 100% this time of year anywhere. It's a long season. Most everybody's got something that they're dealing with. But Kelly looks good. Hopefully he won't have any setbacks and will play a great game Saturday.

Q. In the off week, everybody has a different way they look at it, but what were some of the priorities for your team during the off week?
DABO SWINNEY: Well, the biggest thing is just a lot of work on Clemson. You take advantage of some time as a staff to really reflect on the previous seven games, really study yourself offensively and defensively, then also we do a lot of crossover study. Our defensive staff is studying our offense, our offensive staff is studying our defense, trying to help each other so that we can really plan a little better and give ourselves some good knowledge going into the second half of the season.

Some guys just rest, a lot of rest and rehab, treatment, things like that. I think that's a huge part of it. Then obviously you take a little time to work on the next opponent. That's really kind of our priority. For us, we also do some community service, as well. Then just get these guys time off.

I mean, we practice Monday, Wednesday, Thursday when we have an open date. Tuesday we do community service. That was a great day. Then we give our players off Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It's a great break for them just to kind of mentally clock out a little bit and get their minds on something else, come back refreshed and recharged, ready to get back into the ground.

Q. I know you played Georgia Tech on several occasions. What different things do you see in this Georgia Tech team this year?
DABO SWINNEY: Well, they've got really good experience on defense. Ted has been there several years now. They've got a great understanding of what they're doing. They put their players in position to be successful. They've got a good understanding of their scheme. I think they're complementing each other well offensively and defensively.

On the other side, they just, you know, different day, same story. They do what they do so well. They're incredibly well-coached. Paul has such a great understanding of that system. The quarterback has been outstanding. I mean, he has a great grasp. That's really where it starts for what they do offensively. He is very empowered and has to be a great decision maker. He has been. He's leading them in rushing. He's a tough kid. He's athletic. He's not that big, but he is dynamic.

They usually always have some big receiver on the outside. That's exactly what they got in the Jeune kid. He's 6'3", 200 some pounds. They're averaging right around 18 yards a reception. They don't throw it a lot, but when they do, it's chunks. Again, they're a really good team. Talented, complementing each other with their styles of play.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297