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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 5, 2018

Dabo Swinney

Greensboro, North Carolina

DABO SWINNEY: Well, we're proud of our team for a good start this past week. Played a lot of guys, and bottom line is we played well, and that's what we're trying to do each and every week is put our best foot forward to give ourselves a chance to be successful.

Huge challenge this week. Really tough environment that we're going into, and a very talented Texas A&M football team. Very impressed with what I've seen on tape, and offensively, defensively, the guys they've got on their roster and special teams showing up, as well. We're looking forward to it. No matter what happens out there, this will be a great opportunity for us to grow our team for this year.

Q. How much of an advantage or a help is it to have a game under your belt before you have to prepare for a game like this?
DABO SWINNEY: Well, I think any time, regardless of who you're playing, any time you've got a game under your belt, it's a bonus. It's a benefit. Especially in college football. I mean, we're the only level of football, the only level of football that doesn't have preseason games, jamboree games, scrimmages with other teams, and so it's very difficult. Every opener is a huge challenge, regardless of whether you're playing an equally matched team or you're playing a team that maybe doesn't match up as well. It's still a huge challenge. Any time you can get back in the rhythm of a season and have some actual game experience definitely helps you to be prepared for the next opportunity.

Q. We've heard a lot of times some coaches say teams make their biggest jump from week 1 to week 2. Do you subscribe to that theory?
DABO SWINNEY: I don't know about all that. I just -- I think you try to get better each and every week, and I think it depends on a little bit of the match-up. I mean, this is our first road game. We're playing a team that there's a lot of unknowns, and there's going to be some adversity in the game. This is going to be a big challenge for us.

I've heard that many times. I don't know how accurate that is. But I hope we make strides all throughout the season, and bottom line, by the end of the year, we're playing our best football.

Q. I was curious, obviously the fact that Jimbo is the coach there at A&M is getting a lot of the attention, but because of who his coordinators are, do you feel like it's nothing like preparing for Florida State in the past?
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, I mean, this is, for us, like another opener. I do think the unknown is definitely a competitive advantage for them because we don't know a whole lot about these guys. And it's been a challenge because we've only got one game to look at, and there's really only about half of that that you can really pay attention to. As opposed to when you have some working knowledge and video evidence of two or three games to study or you have a staff who's back from the previous year, so last year's film is more relevant. But last year's film is totally irrelevant to us. The only thing we can get off of last year's Texas A&M tape is to get a little bit of a feel for some of their people. In preparing for this game, we've spent all of our time watching Notre Dame because that's where the D-coordinator came from, watching Wake Forest, because he was at Wake Forest prior to that. You're just watching schemes, and you have to just totally disregard the people that you're looking at. So that's a little bit of a challenge.

And then you have to prepare for what Jimbo did at Florida State. But you don't really know. Jimbo has got a lot of versatility in his scheme. I mean, he can be a pro set. Next thing you know he's out there in empty. So there's just a lot to prepare for, especially early in the season, and this is one of those games that as that first quarter kind of goes, you've got to try to get dialed in and figure out, okay, what exactly is their plan going to be, as opposed to they know a lot more about us. They kind of can study our people from last year and who we are as coaches. But it makes it fun. It'll be a big challenge, and as coaches, we're going to have to do a great job of helping our guys make the right adjustments and really get settled in on exactly what their plan of attack is going to be.

Q. And because of who his offensive coordinator is, do you really have to look at Memphis film rather than what he did at FSU?
DABO SWINNEY: Absolutely, and when you look at some of the Memphis stuff, he did a lot of that stuff at FSU. A lot of people think Jimbo is just this pro-style guy, but if you really go back and study him, he's a lot of shotgun, he's a lot of empty, he's a bunch of spread sets. So there's plenty that they could do. But I think at the end of the day, you prepare for what you think they're going to do and then you've got to also prepare for some of what they might do, and then you go from there. That's what makes these games a challenge early in the year like this. You don't really have an identity of the team yet.

Q. Coach, obviously Texas A&M is trying to get where Clemson is; how did you turn a good program into an elite one??
DABO SWINNEY: Well, just one day at a time. One day at a time, one graduate at a time, one season at a time. That's really it. I mean, you build a program and a culture through who you surround yourself with, what type of staff you put together, who you recruit, the type of people that you surround those recruits with and how you develop your players, how you graduate your players, how you discipline, the accountability. I mean, it's not something that you can just flip a switch with, especially where we were nine years ago. I think Texas A&M is a lot further than where we were back in the fall of '09. I think Texas A&M has got great facilities. I think they've got more four and five starters on their roster than we have over the last four years or so, so I think they've got everything they need. They've got great support, and I think they've hired a great football coach in Jimbo Fisher who's been incredibly successful. He's been around a lot of successful programs, and I don't have any doubt that he'll build something special there at College Station.

Q. Obviously you guys last season were really good on the road. You played three ranked teams on the road and in primetime in a few of those and were able to rise up to those challenges. What is it about this group of players that you have that has made them so effective in those hostile road environments? I know a lot of those guys are still on the team.
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, this senior group has had a lot of success, but obviously it's a different team, new season. But I think just the overall -- just the culture of our program, focusing on the things that you can control. We try to do a good job of preparing our guys for the environments that we're going into from a noise standpoint and all that stuff because those are definitely factors that you've got to deal with, procedurally, et cetera. But at the end of the day, nine years ago, that was one of the main objectives was, for me, building our program -- listen, the same things that win at home win on the road. Those things don't change. You're never going to be great at anything if you allow the external factors and the things that you can no control over to dictate your performance week in and week out. That's just a part of our culture, and our guys have bought into that. So that's part of it. But then the second thing is you've got to be good enough. You can have the right mindset and you can be focused on the things that you can control and really all that stuff, but you've still got to be good enough. So I think we have built just a talented program. That's first and foremost. But I think the mindset and the culture is a huge part of being able to build a consistent winner, whether you're on the road or at home, and trying to keep the guys really locked in on how they have to focus to be able to win in those environments. And I think our guys have done a great job with that. But it is a challenge, there's no question about it. It's a huge challenge for every program. You don't see many programs who have great records on the road against evenly matched teams. We've been able to be successful, and I think that's a big reason why.

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