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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

December 4, 2009

Dabo Swinney

TAMPA, FLORIDA

COACH SWINNEY: Good to be with you all. This is a great honor to be here in Tampa with you and have the opportunity to play for a championship. This is what you do it for, and hopefully we can represent our division the right way tomorrow night.
We just finished a really first-class luncheon, and that's really what it's all about. I enjoy that because it's about the players. We've got a lot of great players in this conference, and it was really good to see those guys get some recognition. You can tell there's a lot of excitement in the air for this ballgame.
You know, it's our first appearance in the game. I think it's Georgia Tech's second appearance. It's also unique in that we played in a shootout earlier in the year, and that was pretty exhausting for everybody, playing in it and watching it probably, so it should be a lot of fun. But appreciate you all being here today, and again, we're just awful excited and very humbled that we have this opportunity.
With that I'll take some questions.

Q. Dabo, do you like having the ACC Championship Game in Tampa or would you rather have it in Charlotte or do you like that it moves around? What do you think?
COACH SWINNEY: Yeah, I've never -- this is the first one I've ever been to, so Tampa suits me just fine. I've only been here for a couple hours. It seems great to me. Maybe ask me that tomorrow night.
You know, I know it was in Jacksonville a couple years, and then I guess they moved it down here last year. I'm not really sure, I think goes to Charlotte next year for a couple years, and then after that I'm not real sure how that process works.
But I just want to be in it. Wherever they have it, I just want to be in it. I'm happy.

Q. After the Maryland game, Michael Palmer was one that I remember, and some other guys said, a lot of the seniors said, this team needs to grow up. You were 2 and 3, tough loss. Do you think you're now over the stretch of getting to this point you've seen the team grow up, or is it just simply a matter of playing better?
COACH SWINNEY: We definitely -- we certainly have played better, but we definitely have grown up and matured in a lot of areas. We went 6 and 1 down the stretch here to finish the year, and we got a freshman quarterback that in particular when we played these guys, it was his first ever road game and only his second ballgame. I think everybody who's followed us this year will certainly agree that he's definitely matured as a player. He's not near as good as he'll be next year or two years from now. But he has really improved and grown.
We've gotten better offensively from an execution standpoint, and a lot of that comes from maturing and understanding the importance of execution, attention to detail, those type of things.
So yeah, we've definitely matured.

Q. What do you feel about the weather being a factor? It's pretty wet outside today and looks like there's about a 70 percent chance it'll be a gloomy, nasty night tomorrow night, too?
COACH SWINNEY: I'd say that's par for the course if you've been a Clemson fan this year. We've played in just about everything you can think of from torrential downpours to extreme heat down in Miami. It just doesn't matter. That's our -- we don't really pay any attention to it. We're going to line up and play in whatever the weather is.

Q. Both these teams are coming off losses to your rival schools. I'm sure it hadn't affected your team's excitement heading into this game, but I'm just wondering if you get the sense it's affected the excitement level from maybe your fan base or around the country toward this game one way or the other.
COACH SWINNEY: You know, I would think this place will have a ton of orange in it tomorrow night. I'd be very surprised if the Clemson fans don't show up. I think we sold all of our tickets, and Georgia Tech probably sold theirs, as well. You can't let one game determine your happiness as far as being excited about playing in a championship game. You know, I made the analogy earlier this year, or earlier this week in a press conference, you only get so many opportunities to play for a championship.
You know, when it's all said and done, nobody really cares what your record is. There's one champion. Whoever wins the Super Bowl this year, nobody is going to say, oh, but they lost four games. It doesn't matter. It's about earning the right for postseason play, which both of these teams earn that on the field. You can sit here, yeah, we're disappointed we didn't win our rival games, but both teams have to quickly refocus because this is what you start the season wanting to do is to be the champion of your conference, and that's what we both have the opportunity to play for.
I'm sure their kids got refocused, and ours did, had a great week of practice. We're excited about it.

Q. They say expect the unexpected, but nobody expects a low scoring game here tomorrow night.
COACH SWINNEY: I would be surprised. I mean, you never know. It could be 9 to 6. I doubt it. But in college football, you never say never. Anything is capable. I'll take 2-0 right now, and we'll just call it quits.

Q. How much does it help, if at all, because I know September was a long time ago, that your defense is now getting two shots at defending the triple option?
COACH SWINNEY: Well, I think it helps you in that most of the time when you're game planning for an opponent, especially a conference opponent, typically you've played them the year before and you can look at some film and maybe see how they played you and what was good, what was bad. You always make those mental notes, preparation errors, things like that that you learn in a ballgame. But it's usually you put that in the file for next year. And the personnel changes at both places.
This is unique in that we're studying ourselves playing the people that we're going to play from a personnel standpoint. So that's an advantage for both sides because your kids have a good feel for the guy that they're going to line up and play, and so do they. You can see your success and your failure, but in particular their style of offense. I think it helps you in that these guys hopefully will have some recall, even though it's been a while, they'll have some recall of how you have to play and defend this offense.

Q. Dabo, what kind of asset has Coach Ford been to you since your time as head coach?
COACH SWINNEY: He's been great. I've visited with him on several occasions. He's just -- he's got a lot of wisdom, a lot of common sense, and you know, especially early on when I first got this job, just bouncing some things off of him. You know, he doesn't say a whole lot unless you ask him something. But he's been very helpful. He's spoken at our clinic. He's come over for our camps and visited with our high school coaches. He participated in our fantasy camp. I mean, he's been really good, and I -- in fact, one of the things I kind of talked to him about before the year was -- that was one of my goals, I really wanted to win our division and be in this game; that's our goal every year, we want to be here. But in particular I thought it would be great this year if we could figure out a way to get it done because we knew that they were honoring Coach Ford. So I think that's a special opportunity for Coach Ford and for Clemson.

Q. Can you expound on what your mission last night, kind of the idea of packaging this game and the SEC game in Atlanta, even though you said you don't have a vote?
COACH SWINNEY: Oh, yeah. Was it you that asked me that? Yeah, I think that would be a great idea, some entrepreneur or something got ahold of that. We've been doing the ACC/SEC kickoff here the last couple years, and I think that would be an easy venue, and obviously you don't have to worry about weather and things like that. Got plenty of hotels. It would be something that might get discussed somewhere along the way, I don't know. I don't know how those decisions are made.
All I know is wherever they have it, Clemson wants to be there.

Q. The temperature, the pulse of your team right now, anything unique this week with this game, or is it pretty much business as usual?
COACH SWINNEY: Well, we've tried to keep it business as usual. They understand what's at stake. I mean, everybody else is done, and there's been a little bit more media. There's been not your normal type of week from a coverage standpoint. Newspapers have more and things like that. I mean, this is one of their goals. This is what they've worked all year for.
I think they have an understanding of the magnitude of the game, but we really try to focus -- try to get them focused more on their performance and doing the things that it takes to win a ballgame, regardless of the magnitude. Just focus on how you're doing your job, knowing what to do, what kind of effort you're going to play with. That's the best way, I think, to go about it, and we've tried to do that.
But there's been a little different spirit I would say, because there's no next week. It's not like you're going to be in there Monday preparing for another opponent; this is it. So it's kind of the end of the road for the season, and in particular your seniors and things like that. Obviously we'll have a Bowl game, but it'll be a while before we play.

End of FastScripts

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