	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 MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 23, 2010

Dabo Swinney

COACH SWINNEY: Good to be with you guys this week. Excited about playing South Carolina in our rivalry game. It's one of the great things to be a part of in college football.
South Carolina's had a great year. Winning their division for the first time, they're really playing well as a team. All three phases are very good. They lead their league in rush defense, and they're third in the nation in sacks.
Offensively they're as good as anybody, very efficient. Scoring a bunch of points a game, just very good on third down. Got a lot of good football players that are playing well for them right now, starting with their offensive line.
Defensively, they do a great job. Both sides are well coached. Tough challenge for us. It's a game that really will come down to execution and whoever takes care of the ball the best will probably win this ballgame. But look forward to Saturday night at 7:00 o'clock in Death Valley.

Q. When you look at South Carolina film, obviously they're having a really great season. Do they look that much better than they did to you on film last year, I guess? What stands out this year about them?
COACH SWINNEY: No. 21, Marcus Lattimore. He wasn't there last year. He's a very, very good player. He's got 19 touchdowns, rushed for over 1,000 yards. That's been the difference in in their football team.

Q. Given that, I guess on obviously you've been playing some good defense in the last month or two. How do you feel about your run defense going into this game?
COACH SWINNEY: We live and die with our guys up front. That's where we build our defense. Those guys have played very good. We've had to play some other good offenses. I do think this is the best one we'll have played yet as far as when we played them and most efficient.
But they present a big challenge. But it still comes down to being able to block and tackle and get off blocks. So if our guys up front will play well and do a good job of minimizing the effectiveness of their running back, then I think that gives us certainly a better chance to win the game. If they can stay balanced, that makes for a long day.

Q. Have you been at all surprised at the caliber of your defense in the last month or so? Or did you figure going into the year they'd be this good?
COACH SWINNEY: No, I felt like going into the year they'd definitely be the strength of our team. I felt like we could be a dominant defense. We kind of have grown into that. We really weren't that early in the year. We did some good things, but we were giving up some big plays and not playing very smart.
But our front has played really well all year. But the last five or six games, our defense has grown into what I thought they could be and not giving up a lot of points. People are having to go the distance and earn it the hard way. Just playing much smarter and playing very good as an overall unit.

Q. Your offensive line you were talking about it last week and how well it's performed. How is Dalton Freeman's role in all of that?
COACH SWINNEY: Oh, he's the cog in the wheel. He's really performing well. He's had a good year as a sophomore. His experience last year has helped him this year as it will next year. But he makes all the calls and just does a great job of quarterbacking that offensive line.
He really is what you're looking for in your center. He's very smart, very athletic. He'll give you everything he's got. But awful proud of the season that Dalton has had. But all of our communication is inside out, so it all starts with him.

Q. Like every center I've talked to, he didn't start out at center. He converted from a guard. What are the things that you look for in the center that you want?
COACH SWINNEY: You've got to have good quickness. Good first-step quickness with the ability to snap the ball. Some guys have a hard time doing that. Dalton's athletic, which is something that we like to have with our center guys, especially when you're running the zone scheme.
The main thing is you have to have a high football IQ to play center in our scheme. Dalton certainly has that. He's the son of a coach, and he runs well.
But I tell you what, he absolutely understands the game and does a great job making adjustments and getting everybody else on the same page.
In our system, he quarterbacks that offensive line. You've got to have a guy like him. Glad we've got him for two more years.

Q. Just curious if you've ever read his blog and if you were at all nervous about a player doing that?
COACH SWINNEY: I've never read his blog. Didn't even know he had a blog. Anything I need to know? Anything I need to be nervous about? I haven't seen it. I have no idea.

Q. It's got some good stuff in there, just some inside looks about what it's like being a football player. It's good stuff, actually?
COACH SWINNEY: Who does he write a blog for?

Q. FS South?
COACH SWINNEY: I didn't know that. He's an aspiring writer, that's good to know. Told you he was a smart guy.

Q. Coach, Da'Quan Bowers came into the season with three or three and a half career sacks in two seasons. What were your expectations of him? Obviously a great recruit out of high school. And what's allowed him to blossom to this extent some?
COACH SWINNEY: Just talent, work ethic and perseverance, all of those things combined he just really changed. I mean, he was a good player but he wasn't, I wouldn't say, a good worker. He wasn't a consistent performer week in and week out, play in and play out.
He really got dedicated and focused in the off-season. He changed his body. Went from 290 to 273 pounds. Through that work ethic, I think he grew with his confidence.
He paid a big price in summer as far as how hard he worked and prepared himself. Then he had to persevere through some personal tragedy in camp. I think all of those things with the talent he has, he's just the epitome of what great work ethic, plus talent, plus perseverance, what it can result in.
He's had a great season. We all felt like he could be a dominant player, not just a good player, and that's what he's become this year and just really, really proud of him for the type of season he's played. It's just been awesome.

Q. As a coach, when something happen as it did with Da'Quan's family this summer, how do you -- I mean, there isn't anywhere in the handbook, so to speak, for dealing with that. What did you do, what do you say and how do you help someone return to to football after something like that?
COACH SWINNEY: Just like you should handle it with anything. Anybody returning to a job or whatever, whatever their normal routine is, you just treat him like a human. You show compassion. You give him time, and that's what we did.
We told him to come back when he was ready to come back. It's a very difficult thing. This is his best friend. He's the only boy. He and his dad were very close and he was actually with him. He died in his arms really unexpectedly. They thought he was okay.
So very difficult time for Da'Quan, and you know, we just reached our arms out, put them around him. Basically, told him don't worry about football. Let's just get through this one day at a time. He came back when he was ready.
But he had a lot of love and support from his teammates, his coaches, you know, his community. I think all of those things along with his faith, his mom and two sisters, helped him to get back.
Biggest thing I did was just being an encourager to him and talked a lot about faith, not a lot about football at all. Then when he was ready to come back, he was out a week or so, he came back and went back to work. He really hasn't looked back. He's just been relentless ever since.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297