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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 30, 2009

C.J. Spiller

LINDSEY ROGERS: We are now joined by senior running back C.J. Spiller. Last Saturday C.J. set an NCAA record with his seventh kickoff return for a touchdown against South Carolina. In addition, that return surpassed the 7,000 all-purpose yardage for Spiller. You're the fifth player in NCAA history to accomplish that feat.
At this time we'll open the line to questions.

Q. I just wanted to ask you a little bit about Dabo. From an older guy's perspective on the team, what's the difference with him as the head guy? What does he bring that might have been lacking?
C.J. SPILLER: He just brings that confidence of believing in his players and his coaches. He has a good ear of listening to what's going on throughout the game, and if a player goes to the coach and tells him that something is working through the game, he'll communicate that with the coordinators, and he does a good job of communicating with the players.
Many things that he's done this year is he's had our whole team believing in us. Win or lose, the following week he's going to continue to preach to them about believing and never giving up, and that's the thing that I love about him.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about your injury, how you're doing now, and can you talk a little bit about how difficult the season has been with the injury and how you still managed to go out week after week and put up these kind of numbers?
C.J. SPILLER: Well, the injury, it was fine. It didn't bother me none Saturday throughout the game. I think I was just more -- had more of a sick from like a bug, a virus or something when I woke up Saturday. You know, I've just been able to rehab, doing all my rehab, and I do a lot of running, so I stay conditioning.
And then on Saturdays it be feeling better. But usually after the games it's sore, but that's something that I had to get the mindset that I didn't want to miss any games. Some guys probably would have sat out, but being that it's my senior year, it's my last time going around, I didn't want to sit out any games and I wanted to be out there with my teammates trying to help win a championship game and win ballgames.

Q. And just a quick follow-up, what's been different about this year for you not sharing the load with James Davis? And touching on that a little bit, what are some of the lessons that you learned from him that you've carried over to this year?
C.J. SPILLER: The main thing that has been the difference, the team started stacking the box. They know if I'm in the backfield by myself, they can put some extra guys in there to try to slow our run down. But our offensive line has been doing a great job of covering guys up.
The main thing I learned from him is you're going to have some highs and lows, but it's how you handle all that situation. I've had some highs and lows throughout this whole season, but I try to handle it the best way I can, get advice from good people and I just go about my business. Andre Ellington and Jamie Harper did a great job of sparing me, so it's not like I've been carrying the whole load by myself. The only thing that's been nagging is just my injury. Other than that, physically I'm fine.

Q. It's a two-part question for you. After the outstanding career that you've had at Clemson, do you need this Conference Championship to validate your career? And should y'all win, does it establish Clemson as perhaps the new power in the ACC?
C.J. SPILLER: I mean, people remember champions, and that's one of the reasons I came back for my senior year is to try to win the championship game. That's something that hasn't been done here in 18 years, and I want to try to help this team accomplish that.
I think if we win or lose, I think people are going to always have that -- I guess that fear or something about playing Clemson because they know with Coach Swinney that his team is going to be ready to play for four quarters or however long it takes to get the job done. Only time will tell if we're the powerhouse, but I think the way we played this year, teams surely have tremendous respect for us.

Q. Kind of a follow to that, do you guys hear from some of the players from the '81 National Championship team as you're trying to get that first league title for Clemson since '91 and get into a major Bowl?
C.J. SPILLER: Well, we have Jeff Davis that works here with us in the office, so he does a good job of communicating with us what it takes to be a champion, how you go about trying to become a champion. I think he did a great job since I've been here of trying to communicate that to our team. This year I think guys really took that to heart, and we understand that it's not going to be easy to become a champion. You've got to give up some things, sacrifice some things to become a champion, and I think by him being here, it's been very beneficial to our team.

Q. And unrelated to that, can you quickly talk about what Stanley Hunter has meant to the team this year? Unfortunately he hasn't been able to play, but I know he's still around and helping.
C.J. SPILLER: Well, you know, it's always great when you see -- you never want to see a player where he can't never play football again. Stanley loved the games as much as anyone on this team, and to have it taken away, I'm pretty sure -- I know it was devastating for him. But now he has an up-spirit about it. He's always out there encouraging us at the game, encouraging us, keeping our heads up high. To have a guy like that on the sidelines encouraging you, you can't do nothing about go out there and play your best.
It meant so much for us to have him on our team, for guys to wear his numbers, to go out there and show the respect that he has on his teammates.
LINDSEY ROGERS: Thank you so much for joining us today.

End of FastScripts

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