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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 11, 2013Dabo SwinneyMIKE FINN: We'll bring on Dabo Swinney, head coach at Clemson. Coach, just a brief opening statement, then we'll go to questions. COACH SWINNEY: We're excited about having a little not really open date for us, because we play on Thursday night. We have to practice this weekend. But it is good to have a little extra time to get some of these guys healed. Recovering from a tough camp and a very, very difficult opener with Georgia. We're really happy to be 2‑0 right now. But got our biggest challenge coming up here against NC State. Huge, huge game conference‑wise, division‑wise. They've obviously got a new staff up there. Presents some challenges from an unknown standpoint. But their offense, they're very dynamic. Do a lot of similar things that we do. Been impressed with what I've seen so far with them on film, how they're using their personnel. Very, very big up front. Defensively probably the best defensive line we've played. Very active, very fast off the ball. They play incredibly hard. We're going to have to have our A game when we go on the road. That's always a challenge. But looking forward to going up to Raleigh next Thursday. With that I'll take questions. Q. Dabo, Jordan Leggett seems timid about his knee, he's unsure about his place with the tight ends. How do you see his role developing as the season goes on? COACH SWINNEY: Like any other freshman, just growing and maturing in his position. He's going to be a great tight end. He's still working his way back. When you miss the amount of time he missed, you're coming back from an injury, there's always going to be a little period there where you're trying to get back to where you were prior to being hurt. He's doing good. I think, again, he's not quite back where he is, but he's working every single day, getting a little bit better each day. He's still a true freshman. I mean, this guy's got a lot to learn. Boy, he has a great upside. I think he's going to be a great, great tight end for many, many years. This is a big year for him from just a developmental standpoint. I don't have any doubts by the time this year's over, Jordan Leggett is going to have made some plays and helped us win a lot of games. Q. We talk about the clichés, motivation, previous games. I'm curious, do you bring out Florida State's visit to NC State's last year, because that was also a Thursday night? COACH SWINNEY: Shoot, we got our own problems. We went up there last time and got our tails handed to us. We don't have to look any further than ourselves. It's a very difficult place to play. Our last experience up there was not good. We played one of our worst games of the year that year, and we won the league. It was a very disappointing night. I think we had about five turnovers, I believe, three of them inside our own 20. That's a recipe for disaster. That's what it was. We'll have to play much, much better to have a chance to win this game. Q. There's a report on Twitter that after Miami defeated Florida you threw up a U. That will endear you to Miami fans. But my question is, do you feel now that the profile of the ACC is good enough, if there were, say, three undefeated teams all from major BCS programs, the ACC would get the benefit of the doubt over, say, the Big Ten? COACH SWINNEY: There's no question. I mean, listen, the only problem that the ACC has is we have not produced a dominant team, period, as of late. Historically the teams that are in this conference have been outstanding. I mean, heck, Miami, just in itself, they won a bunch of national championships. We've got the tradition and the history from a team standpoint, the teams that are within this conference. But we just haven't produced that 13‑0, 12‑1 team. Part of that is because this league is incredibly competitive and we haven't had that dominant team like the SEC has. The SEC, they've had three, four, five teams, that between them, they've produced that one team. This league hasn't done it. It is what it is. Until you win games, big games like this conference has done as of late, you have to put up with people saying this and saying that. Until you win those games, at least your fair share of those games, you deal with that stuff. I think as we continue to win those games, then those perceptions change. The bottom line is, though, if this league produces a 13‑0 or 12‑1 team, they're going to be in the mix. This conference is a tough conference and we played a tough schedule outside of conference, and I think that factors in. Q. Having had your indoor facility now for several months going almost on a year, has it had the tangible and intangible benefits that you envisioned? COACH SWINNEY: Oh, my gosh, it's paid for itself three times over. It really has. You talk about picking a year, a perfect year, to build an indoor facility, we picked it. We were able to practice in it about five times before our bowl game last year, which was huge for us, because the weather was terrible. To be able to continue to practice full speed, especially when you're trying to prepare for a physical team like LSU was, it was huge. Then this spring and this summer, we've had a world record of rain around here. We've never missed a day. We don't even have to think about it. Prior to having the indoor, we didn't have anywhere to go where we could practice full speed. You can go inside somewhere and walk through, but you don't get better at this game walking through, you got to practice full speed to really improve in the game of football. So it has been tremendous. Then you get into your summer when the skills and drills are going on with your players. What people don't realize, it's not like you can say, Okay, let's come back in three hours. These guys' schedules are so structured, there's very little flexibility, so you have a window of time when you can practice or they can do their skills and drills in the summer. All of a sudden you have lightning or whatever, you can miss it. I think we were averaging 14 days a year we were missing training or whatever. We don't worry about that anymore. We don't worry about any of that. We have great flexibility. I'll tell you another effect of it is, we take them out of the heat sometimes. Sometimes on Thursdays, you're trying to bring their legs back. So to be able to take them out of that direct sun, be able to help them with that recovery process to get them ready for that game, it's been a real blessing. Really, really, we have gotten a ton of use. Also for our fields. We do our walk‑throughs, we do our flex every single day. To take that off of our grass fields helps us maintain those surfaces. Towards the end of the season, we've got great practice surfaces still. So it's just been a great, great blessing for us. I don't have any doubt it's impacted our program. Q. From the intangible side, does the message of commitment by the administration and the athletic department, does that resonate with prospects as you tour them around the facility? COACH SWINNEY: Oh, absolutely. There's no question about that. It's a huge commitment from our administration. We talk about being the best that we can be. It just kind of furthers that commitment that we want to provide them with the best resources from a facility standpoint that you can possibly have in college football. So absolutely. When you're at our level and you're competing with the upper‑tier BCS programs from a recruiting standpoint, those things matter. You're trying to level the playing field as much as possible. Facilities is a big part of that. Q. Just from the games you've seen, do you think the targeting penalty instituted this year has reached its desired effect? COACH SWINNEY: I don't know. Obviously, I haven't seen a lot of games other than our games, just film study. I think it's still to be determined. I think it's too early. I know there's been a few, but I haven't really seen them. I really can't answer that at this point. Q. Do you think there's a general mentality that's been changed about it? COACH SWINNEY: From my standpoint, because we've only had two games, it really hasn't been an issue. We don't coach anything different here. As I said earlier, my biggest concern is those unintentional collisions and guys getting thrown out, where it's bang, bang, obviously no intent, guys getting ejected. That's the biggest thing to me. The obvious ones, I'm glad to see they're enforcing those. That's the biggest change. The rule hasn't changed; it's just how they're enforcing the rule. I think we'll see more as we go. From our standpoint, it hasn't been a factor these first couple games. We'll see as we keep moving forward. MIKE FINN: Coach, we're out of time. Enjoy the bye week and we'll talk to you next Wednesday. COACH SWINNEY: Good to be with you. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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