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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 31, 2011

Dabo Swinney

DABO SWINNEY: I hope everybody is doing well today. Good to be with you. We're probably like most everybody else out there, just excited that it's finally game week and anxious to see our team play somebody else and get a real gauge of where we are. Troy is a tough opener for us, and it's a program that I've got a lot of respect for and know a lot about, and it certainly will be a big challenge for us. But we are excited about cranking this thing up this week and having a good season.

Q. It seemed like Boyd's numbers in the scrimmages this summer were better and more consistent than they were this spring. What was the difference for him?
DABO SWINNEY: (Laughing) Well, first of all, we had about 30-something guys that were with our football team that weren't there in the spring due to injuries, and we brought in 27 new players. So that's probably the biggest thing. And this spring was the first time we had had installation as far as with this system. After 15 days of spring ball, Tajh is one of those guys that really worked very hard this summer in taking ownership of this offense, and he came back even much better. And I thought he had a really good spring, but he came back, as we challenged him to, better than he was when spring ended. Proud of him for that. And then we've got some really good players in here, young players that I think are going to make a difference for us. I think all those things have helped him with his performance.

Q. What do you want to see most from the offense in this opener? I guess just what are some concerns and what are you excited about to see from this new offense?
DABO SWINNEY: Well, I want to just see us play smart and execute. I mean, that's really what it's about. We've got good players, we've got good coaches. It's about execution, and I want to see us go out and play the game the way we've practiced. We've had good focus, we've had excellent preparation. These guys have been very dialed in on trying to get better every day, and you know, we've set a standard, and I want to see us play to that standard. So that's really the biggest thing.
Just avoid some of those first game things that sometimes you see a lot when you turn the TV on; take care of the football, no stupid penalties, be clean with our procedures and so forth.

Q. I was wondering from the beginning of fall camp up until the eve of your first game if there's anybody who has really progressed beyond what you expected of him, somebody who's just really not necessarily come out of nowhere but has just jumped up and become maybe a lot more than you were looking for?
DABO SWINNEY: Well, I mean, I think we've got several guys that are worthy of mentioning, but if I had to say one guy, it would be Sammy Watkins, and that's just because he's a true freshman that's been here for a few weeks. I knew he was going to be a really good player, but I just have been blown away by his ability to not just learn the offense but his work ethic, his attention to detail. He's way beyond his years, very polished guy, studies, takes great notes. I mean, just about his business all the time, and that's a very uncommon thing for a true freshman. He'd be the guy that has surprised me, again, not that he's a good player, but just the whole package that he's got.

Q. Has he found his way into the starting lineup already?
DABO SWINNEY: Oh, yeah, that took him about three days.

Q. Yesterday when we got to talk to Andre he talked about last season, how he's envisioned maybe his first touch this year. Do you kind of daydream about that first play of Saturday?
DABO SWINNEY: Well, I just want it to be a positive play. I know what we're opening up with, as we kind of have our plan set and ready to go. But just, again, to go back to what I said earlier, I just want to see us execute and take care of the football. Every play is designed to score, but hopefully we'll have the same result that Andre had last year, and he'll be able to take it to the house again. Again, the main thing is just to have a good positive play and stay on schedule.

Q. There's been a lot of talk about Tajh in the preseason, who's going to replace Da'Quan and some of those freshman linebackers, but you've got a lot of new faces in the secondary. How does that alleviate some of your concerns during fall camp, especially how you think they might perform in the early going?
DABO SWINNEY: Well, I think that's definitely an area where there's a lot of questions on our team, and not just in the secondary but our backups in general. I think that Rashard Hall and Jonathan Meeks are two guys that are really good football players, have played a lot of football. Same thing with Xavier Brewer, Coty Sensabaugh, those guys have played a lot, Bashaud Breeland is a freshman that's going to be making his debut this week. But behind those guys, we're a talented group, but a lot of inexperience.
That's going to be a real story to watch for us is how those guys perform on game day and how they get better. That's going to be the challenge for us as a staff, to do a good job in bringing those guys along, because by mid-season we've got to have some dependable depth. Right now we've just got depth. I wouldn't say it's really dependable yet. That's yet to be proven. So they're going to get their opportunity here pretty quickly. But we're young, and again, talented guys, but we've got to go play on game day so we can have some video evidence and kind of see where we are versus an opponent and go from there.

Q. Are you in a position where you can maybe script some of these guys that are going to get a certain number of snaps on Saturday, or is that sort of a dangerous approach?
DABO SWINNEY: No, you don't want to -- the big thing is, and the difference from your fall camp, is you do a lot of wholesale substitutions in fall camp. You've got your first group, your second group, and you're working on certain reps and things like that. But in a game it's not necessarily like that. You have to be smart with how you substitute, and hopefully some of those guys will play -- when they're playing with some of the starters, those guys will help them.
But as far as going into it with a set number of plays, don't really have that. But we know the type of system Troy runs; we're going to have to definitely substitute, and we want to do that. We've got to be able to keep some guys fresh, and the only way guys are going to get better is to play them. But we want to play them on our terms. So hopefully we can stay healthy, at least the first half of this season here while some of these guys develop through some experience.

Q. Is Jonathan Massaquoi somebody that concerns you this week, and is it somebody that you've been preparing for specifically?
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, he concerns me. He had 13 and a half sacks last year. He's to be a concern to anybody they play this year. He's probably as good a guy as we'll see all year. Outstanding prospect. He'll be an NFL guy, and they've had some good ones come out of Troy in DeMarcus Ware, and the guy from the Giants, Osi Umenyiora. They have had some pretty good D-linemen up there. He's definitely right in line with those guys, and he's a guy that we are very well aware of, and we'll have to have a plan for him if he's having a lot of success with his pass rush.

Q. I wanted to ask you, last year the ACC had astonishing field goal accuracy as a league all around the league. Your guy Chandler started off a little rough but he finished pretty strong. Can you talk about your confidence in his ability, the way he finished and the way he's looked in the off-season?
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, we were at the bottom of that astounding list that you're talking about there. But we did finish strong, and that's something -- because of the way the season went and the type of year it was, in particular kicking the ball, nobody really talked about that. But I'm proud of Chandler for how he finished the season hitting six out of seven.
And we made a change with our snapper, Phillip Fajgenbaum, who's now our starter, he took over in the Florida State game and did a great job for us. We just feel like we've got some consistency there now with our snap hold.
And the kick, Chandler has had an excellent spring. He carried it right over into fall camp. He's been very consistent. The only thing for him is just to go have that consistency on game day, and that's the next step for him. He struggled as a freshman last year, but I really think that that experience is going to help him, and again, he finished strong, and I like how he's carried it over right into spring and fall camp, and I expect him to play well. But it's definitely something that a lot of eyes are going to be on for sure.

Q. I was going to ask you if something seems to have changed in football just over the last 20 years. It used to be if you got 60 percent accuracy you were pretty happy. Now it's like guys, 80 percent is average in the ACC last year.
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah. Actually that's a good point. I think we had a kicker here way before I got here named Chris Gardocki, who was one of the best ever, and I think he punted and kicked forever in the NFL. But I believe that Chandler, even though he had a poor year, his percentage I think was higher as a freshman than Gardocki had as a freshman. But it's just different times.
And for us in particular last year the way the season was, we missed six kicks inside the 20. We had a lot of games that were three points, four points. We lost five games by six points or less, and those were games where we missed kicks. It's a definite factor in the game, and it was very glaring in that regard for us as a team last year.
But hopefully we'll be much improved, and I really believe we're going to be. But again, we've got to go play and have the same kind of performance on the field -- on the game day that we've had on the practice field.

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