|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF SEMIFINAL AT THE CAPITAL ONE ORANGE BOWL: CLEMSON VS OKLAHOMADecember 31, 2015Dabo SwinneyDeshaun WatsonWayne GallmanBen BoulwareEric Mac LainMiami Gardens, Florida Clemson - 37, Oklahoma - 17. DABO SWINNEY: Well, you know, first of all, congratulate Oklahoma on a great year. Man, they were a heck of a team. We were just a better team tonight. But what a year they had, and they've been a great champion. They're a champion in their own right. So congratulate them for their accomplishments this year. I also want to thank the Orange Bowl and Capital One for just an awesome week. I mean, and all the volunteers that worked so hard to make this a great event. Our players, they loved coming here. I thought we had a good balance as far as trying -- when we worked, we worked, but we really tried to enjoy the journey and the moment and being a part of the Orange Bowl. Again, so many people work so hard to make it a great event. The police, the bus drivers, I mean, everything was just phenomenal. It really was. And I appreciate all those people who made it a smooth week for us. You know, that's 17 in a row for us. You know, it's the longest winning streak in the country, and we've played a lot of good teams in those 17 games. I'm just so proud of our team for just their willingness to be coached, their willingness to prepare each and every week, each and every game, the mindset and the mentality that they come to work with because it's just special. It's uncommon. That's what I tell them all the time, when you do the common things in an uncommon way, you command the attention of the world, and this team is uncommon in everything that they do. It's just a blessing to be a part of it. It's our fourth bowl win in a row, and more importantly we're 14-0. It's just awesome to be in the National Championship, to represent the ACC, and I think this is two out of the last three years our conference has been in the National Championship Game, and hopefully we can hold our end of the deal up. But it's just a lot of fun. It really is, and I'm just proud to be a part of it. This team, this program has become incredibly consistent. They really have just an unbelievable heart. We didn't play a bad first half, we just weren't as clean as I would have liked for us to be. We moved the ball a lot, had 300-something yards at the half, we were just kicking field goals, so we needed to convert those to touchdowns, and I was really disappointed with a couple competitive plays that we didn't make on the back end because we were doing a great job against the run in the first half, but in the second half we put it all together, and we dominated the third quarter and just put it away in the fourth quarter. Hats off to our guys. It's a special time right now. It's been 34 years since Clemson had a chance to win a National Championship. Seven years ago when I got this job, I knew that we would be here. It was just a matter of when. This is year seven, and we were able to kind of knock the roof off of it, win another ACC Championship, and when you win our league, you've got a chance to play for it all, and so here we are. But all the glory goes to God, and I mean that. And to these players, because these guys are amazing. I mean, again, it's one thing to have a talented team. It's another thing to have a talented group of guys who care about each other and want to serve each other and will let you coach them, and these guys are amazing. These young men sitting up here, Mac Lain and Gallman and Boulware, Deshaun, I mean, they were amazing tonight, and this is the heart and soul of our team. I mean, great leadership, Mac and what he's been able to do, Wayne Gallman was relentless in the second half, and that's how we played -- I don't even know, what did you end up with, man? 156 yards? Are you kidding me? The guy had 156 yards. He's got over 1,500 yards this year, and he's just a sophomore, you know? He's just a guy that's still really, to be honest with you, learning how to play. But people are sooner or later going to realize that Wayne Gallman is pretty dang special. And then Ben Boulware, ugly mustache and all, he is -- when you talk about heart, when you talk about guts, he's the epitome of that, and he really is kind of the heart over there defensively. What an unbelievable play. Two years in a row he's had an amazing interception in the bowl game, and I'm just so proud of him and how they finished the game, and then Deshaun Watson, he's the best player in the country. It's just that simple. You know, people can have their own opinions or whatever, but there ain't a better one than No. 4. This guy is special in every regard, and tonight he just did an amazing job of playing one play at a time and just leading this team to another great victory. Q. Deshaun, Coach just talked about you guys care about each other so much and you're an uncommon team. Why do you care about your teammates so much? DESHAUN WATSON: It's a family here. You know, all the hard work, especially over the summer and spring, just putting in the grind and waking up at 5:30 in the morning to go to the weight room and just go out there and sweat and put in the time to get to moments like this. We just serve each other, support each other, and just really love each other, and you know, if we do that, no one can break through us. As a unit, it's tough to beat us when we're all on the same page and have each other's back. Q. Eric, Striker was over here earlier and he said that the team that had more will in the second half was you guys. ERIC MAC LAIN: Really it started with Wayne had a 12-yard run to open it up. We could tell at that moment that they were done, physically, maybe even a little bit mentally. We were just running all over them, and thankfully Wayne and Deshaun I think both were over 100 yards and just really dominated. Q. Dabo, can you talk about this is obviously a first time you've all been in this spot, and there was a lot of celebrating out there and justifiably so. It's a great win for the program. But at the same time you're trying to balance everything that you've got another big game coming up 10 days from now. How do you balance all that, celebrating the moment but yet trying to remind everybody -- DABO SWINNEY: We ain't trying to balance nothing. We're trying to enjoy today. We ain't worried about next week. We'll worry about Monday when it gets here. We're worried about enjoying the moment, ringing in the new year, celebrating this win, and we've got -- what's it like January the 11th? We've got 11 days, and as coaches we'll start that process tomorrow. These guys are going to take a couple days off and hopefully forget about football for a couple days, kind of heal up, get some rest. We've got to get back home and all that. But as a staff we'll get going on Sunday. We don't even know who we're going to play yet, so we ain't worried about none of that. And then we'll start on Monday. We'll enjoy this but then we'll fix our eyes on what's next. Shouldn't be real hard to get guys ready to play for the National Championship. This is it. This is it. This is truly the biggest game of the year. We've got four quarters left or however many it takes, and so we'll be ready. But we're not trying to balance anything. Right now we're just trying to enjoy this, enjoy being 14-0, sit back and see how it shakes out tonight, see who we're going to play, get home, and then we'll flip the script and go back to work. We'll have our normal Monday type of meeting. Normally we meet on Monday and we play on Saturday, whereas we'll meet on Monday and we'll play on Monday, so we've got a couple extra days of preparation, which will be great, but we'll come back in, we'll put this game to bed. We'll grade it. We'll learn from it just like it's a normal game, but there's really not much to balance. We had to balance some things for this game because you've got a lot of time. You're trying to work your young guys. You've got a longer time to prepare for the game. You've got a bowl trip. To me there was a little bit more to balance in this game. Next week will be just kind of like another game. Q. Wayne, you started out with 39 yards in the first half but ended with 156 and two touchdowns. At the ACC Championship Game you had a similar performance where you exploded in the second half. What is it about you and second halves? WAYNE GALLMAN: I don't really think there's anything different other than really wanting to close out the game, really wanting to make an impact, and to be able to finish the game is always something special. Q. Ben, I guess we can put the term Clemsoning to -- DABO SWINNEY: Next question. Good idea. I'll answer it for him. Q. For both Deshaun and Wayne, you had the turnover at the end of the half, you're down a point, and then you just came out and dominated on that first drive. How much was the effectiveness of both of you running helping each other do you think? WAYNE GALLMAN: I'd say as a team we feed off each other offensively and defensively, also special teams. It's really been -- coming into it, they were up by one point coming into the half, and it's kind of time to empty the tank, and that was the whole thought. DESHAUN WATSON: Yeah, just like he said, we just feed off each other. We motivate each other, and starting with the offensive line, Mac can tell you, we get in the huddle and we tell each other let's go dominate. Whoever is sharing the ball, let's get four yards a play and move on from there, and sooner or later it's going to bust open. He had some big runs and I had some big runs and it started off on the offensive line. The first half we didn't finish drives off and we were down a point, but that still wasn't going to stop us regardless of the situation. At halftime it was 0-0 and anything can happen in that second half. We just had to flip the script, went down and scored, and we kept the momentum on our side. Q. Can you comment on the fake punt there and the completion to your defensive tackle and the impact that that had moving forward? DABO SWINNEY: We shocked them, didn't we? Ain't nobody covering that big ol' guy. (Laughter.) Yeah, these guys can tell you, every Wednesday we've got an inventory of plays that we work, and put that in -- actually put it in last year, and it was to Josh Watson, and big Josh is no longer with us, so kept it in the library, and once we kind of got our punt team settled in, I changed the name up, called it UConn because Christian Wilkins is from Connecticut, so I told him don't be shocked now because we just practice them all the time and we don't always call those things, but I just -- I felt like that it was the right time. I thought that we had a chance -- I thought it really had a chance to hit, first of all, because we've put enough roll-out punting on tape so I knew that they had prepared for that and would probably roll. I thought Cordrea did a good job backside of executing the technique that we coached him with, and then more importantly, Christian did a great job. He did a great job of getting small and skinny and kind of hiding for a 330 pounder can do that. He's an athletic dude, and Teasdall did an awesome job. He sold it perfectly, set it up just the way it needed to be. We caught them in safe punt, so I knew they weren't going to be rushing to block the punt, and it was -- he just kind of put it up there just enough, and you saw the athleticism of that big ol' No. 42 because he kind of had to find the ball in the air and get himself in position to finish it. But it was a great play, and I thought a spark that we needed. I felt like we were a little stagnant right there, a little tight, and we needed -- I wanted to send a message to the guys, listen, we're here to play, and let's cut it loose. So it worked out. If it hadn't, probably would have been a bad call. But it went our way, and I'm glad it did. Q. Ben and Deshaun, Ben, from you guys' perspective it seemed like OU kind of became one-sided, Perine gets hurt, Mixon gets hurt, it falls on Mayfield's shoulders and you guys punt, and you guys having the pass and the run at your disposal, it seemed like it overwhelmed them. Did you feel that swinging for you on both sides of the ball? BEN BOULWARE: I think defensively we really didn't worry about it. I think if we focus on us and focus on Clemson and play to the standard Clemson has set, we can beat anybody, so we don't really worry about who's in front of us. There's going to be 11 guys in front of us. We don't care what the name is on the back of their jersey. Our goal is to beat them every snap. So I think we did that tonight. DESHAUN WATSON: On the offense, we were pretty balanced. We have a great rushing game and a great passing game, so if you want to stop the passing game, then we can pass the ball. You want to stop the pass, then we can rush the ball. It doesn't really matter what the defense does. We just focus on us and our job and just really just focus on that one play, and if it's a run play, we dominate the line of scrimmage, and if it's a pass play, the receivers get open and make competitive plays. That's our mentality regardless of the situation. We still have a chance to make that big play. Q. Coach, you went to Alabama, you said yesterday how much you loved working there. How special would it be playing Alabama for a National Championship? DABO SWINNEY: Well, I mean, you know, I'm friends with Coach Saban, I'm friends with Coach Dantonio. I have great respect for both those guys and it would be an honor to compete against either one of them. Certainly would be pretty neat to play Alabama, but we're really not worried about it. I mean, it's two great teams. Whoever wins the game, we're going to be excited to play them. But we'll see how that one goes. Q. Dabo, do you have any initial reports on Shaq and the injury and possible status for the next game? DABO SWINNEY: I don't have a status for the next game. I don't think it's too serious. He tried to go back in and go. They were calling it like a sprained MCL I think is what they were saying, but he just couldn't quite push off on it like he needed to, so I don't know. We'll see how he is in the next few days. Q. Eric and Wayne, just kind of how satisfying that second-half performance was from an offensive line perspective to be able to do really anything you wanted, and from a running back's perspective to have such a great second half and set the tempo to finish the came out? ERIC MAC LAIN: Well, I think when you have guys executing on such a high level like Wayne and Deshaun were, it just makes our job a heck of a lot easier. We know with them back there we don't have to block perfectly on every single play because they're going to make the right cuts and the right reads to get us in the best position to one, but definitely when they're running like that and we can get a lot of movement like we were, it makes the game a lot easier. Q. Eric, the other day Brent was talking about how going into the preseason, you were basically the only true carryover on either side of the line, and he was saying it's just sort of remarkable to him what both these lines have become over the last three months. I just wondered if you'd kind of reflect on that. ERIC MAC LAIN: Yeah, and really I was just a role player last year. I only had one start under my belt until the season, but I think it's been awesome to be able to replace essentially every single person on the offensive and defensive side of the ball, and to have zero dropoff if not be even better, maybe statistically, on both sides, and just really to be able to take over games. We really understand that it all starts in the trenches, no matter who we're playing, no matter where we're playing. If we can dominate on both sides of the ball up front, it's going to be a very easy game for us. DABO SWINNEY: I'll add to that because you talk about the guys left, that's what everybody wanted to talk about, last year's game against the same team. We had 10 guys off of that defense go on to the NFL, and we talked about we weren't as good. They rushed the ball for 67 yards. Last year we only rushed the ball for I think 67 yards. ERIC MAC LAIN: On 40 attempts. DABO SWINNEY: We did not run the ball against Oklahoma very well last year, and I just looked at this, and we rushed the ball for 312 yards, and they had nine of their 11 starters back. Just incredible. You can't state enough the job that that offensive line has done. All five of them made all-conference. Robbie Caldwell and the job he's done, and Eric has been an unbelievable leader. He took Mitch Hyatt under his wing, a true freshman left tackle, getting Guillermo back, Ryan Norton battling through injuries, Joe Gore, Maverick stepping in, Crowder, all those guys, they've been incredible. It doesn't matter who we've played, they have been incredibly consistent. I don't know how many sacks they had tonight, but -- one sack? I think that's the first sack we've given up in six games. I think we went five straight games with no sack on the offensive lineman. Now, Deshaun gets a little credit for that. He makes us all look good. But you don't luck up and rush the ball for 312 yards, and that's a defensive front that's built to stop the run. Again, if you just look from last year to this year, because we lost all the guys in the trenches on both sides but yet we were able to stop the run and we were able to run the ball at an incredible pace. So I'm really proud of those guys up front, and Eric has been the cog in the wheel for sure. Q. Did you anticipate this kind of depth? DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, because we recruited well, and we saw them in the spring. Everybody wants to talk about who's left and what you don't have. Sometimes you have addition by subtraction. I mean, I don't get caught up in all that. I worry about who we've got. Vic Beasley is the eighth pick in the draft, and oh, my God, what are we going to do? And I'm like, we've got a guy named Shaq Lawson, he's pretty good, we're going to be okay. And you go and recruit some of these other guys, that's what makes college football so much fun. Yeah, as coaches we were very confident that we had a chance to have a really good football team. I felt like we were one of the 10 or 12 teams that had a chance to be here, and you've got to get a little lucky along the way. We've been able to stay relatively healthy, and that's always a key part of a season like this. So it's been a lot of fun to be a part of it, and again, the staff and these players deserve the credit. Q. Deshaun, at this time last year obviously you first had the surgery and you were recovering and then you go through the rehab. At that point how sure were you that not only would you have the season that you would have but that this team could be here on the cusp of a National Championship? DESHAUN WATSON: Just first off, it's a blessing to come back as fast as I did. Just really thank the training staff, Danny Poole and all those guys for getting me ready and preparing me. Just really my teammates and my family supporting me and pushing me through the whole recovery. I knew from the get-go that's the reason why I came here. I committed to Coach Swinney and the Clemson Tigers as a sophomore for moments like this. From the get-go I knew that if we put the work in and the grind, we'd be at this point, and now we're here. We're taking advantage of it and having fun with it at the same time. Q. To follow up on the fake punt there, how proud are you of Andy Teasdall after the blunder in Charlotte to be able to put that behind him and execute on that, making such a good throw, and I'm assuming that in Charlotte it wasn't part of some elaborate plot to give Oklahoma a false sense of security on punts? DABO SWINNEY: No (laughter.) No. That's for sure. But no, I mean, he's just been a great punter for us all year. He's really done a nice job. It's unfortunate -- I coach these guys hard, but I love them hard, too, and that's what people don't want to talk about. Andy has been very solid and consistent for us all year, and that was tremendous execution, and we actually called a fake. That was the best part. We called a fake, and he executed it very, very well. I'm really proud of him. Q. Clemson basically painted the Orange Bowl orange. Can you talk a little bit about the support, and along with the team and the coaches, kind of the fans being able to celebrate this, as well? DABO SWINNEY: Yeah. I'm going to tell you what, and these guys probably can second this: When we came in, I mean, it was unbelievable. From the time we turned off the road into I guess whatever the inner workings of this facility, it was just a sea of orange. The buses had to go really slow because there were so many people and they were hitting the buses. It was unbelievable. In fact Brent and I were talking on the bus, I was like, man, somebody is robbing a bank in South Carolina today because there ain't nobody there. They're all here. It was amazing. Our fans are incredible. I mean, this is a special place for Clemson. It really is, with the tradition that we have here. But it was powerful. I mean, it really was. We do a Tiger Walk, and this was kind of the bus ride, I mean, almost a bus walk, because we were so slow trying to get through all these sea of orange. So I thought that kind of set the tempo when we were coming in. I think it was very evident that this was going to be a great crowd for Clemson. Q. Coach Swinney, your team had an incredible second half of the game. What was your message to them at halftime? DABO SWINNEY: The message at halftime, I didn't really -- we didn't play a bad first half, I just didn't think we were as clean as we needed to be. We had had five straight drives offensively, but we had kicked three field goals, one touchdown, and an interception right before the half. So we just weren't finishing in the red zone with touchdowns, and we needed -- field goals weren't going to get it done, not with the type of offense that they have. So that was the biggest thing on offense. Defensively we were doing a great job stopping the run. I was real disappointed in that one-minute drive that they had, and I thought we were not playing on the back end like we were playing on the front end. We weren't making some of the competitive plays. We cleaned that up, and special teams was incredibly solid and consistent for four quarters. That was really it. I mean, 0-0, you've got two quarters, let's go -- we're going to get the ball, let's go score, which we did. Let's go score, we are going to get on top, and we ain't going to look back, and we're going to take the lead in the fourth quarter, and my message to them is you know what happens when we take the lead in the fourth quarter. Since 2010 we're 51-0. These guys finish. We know how to finish. We're 51-0 when we take the lead going into the fourth quarter. That's incredible consistency, and that really was the message. Let's just go get on top in the third and let's put it away in the fourth, and that's exactly what happened. It was a very, very good second half, and just some critical plays. I mean, the play by B.J., the play by Ben, the stop on fourth-and-1, the play by Renfrow, some huge plays by Deshaun, we're backed up down there, we moved the ball out. I thought our kickoff coverage was great. Just a complete performance in the second half, and it was very clean, not a lot of mistakes in the second half. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|