CLEMSON -- Sunday evening Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney again addressed members of the media, this time in his weekly teleconference following his staff's Sunday tape review of Saturday night's game between the Tigers and Florida State.
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The following is an abbreviated transcript of Sunday night's teleconference.
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OPENING STATEMENTS: "Great trip for us. It's fun to win but really special when you can do it on the road. I'm really proud of our team and our staff for getting it done. A lot of good things and a lot of things we need to do better. I'm really proud of our team. Winning four in a row down there is really hard to do. We took some steps forward in finding different ways to win. We have to keep growing and learning and improving in a lot of areas.
"Special teams, we continue to do a lot of good things. The punt returns, the five field goals, especially with two blocks, to see Nolan Hauser not be affected by that ... I was impressed with his poise. I wish we could have finished a few of those in the red zone, but last night will serve him well. We only punted twice in the game. Kickoff ... Robert Gunn continues to be a weapon there.
"Defensively, 22 yards rushing. That's the story of the game. Almost 40 yards negative. A couple of sacks. We won the line of scrimmage. We had a season high six three-and-outs. For five games straight we have shut them out in the first quarter. So a lot of good things from that standpoint. I was disappointed on fourth down. We had a couple of missed tackles. I felt like we had a couple more sacks there. We were fortunate, too. There were a couple of things discipline-wise where we have to do a better job with our eyes. It's the best game we've had as far as giving up big plays. Bottom line, we really controlled the line of scrimmage.
"Offensively, 500 yards. We had 6.6 yards a carry. We had 12.4 yards per completion. A lot of big plays. I was pleased with our twist pickup and our pass blocking. Not as good on third down as we needed to be. We left a lot out there. We had too many wasted plays which negated some good drives. I knew we were going to lean on Phil Mafah and it was good to see him take it over late.
"It was another hard-fought game, a great win.
"Injury-wise, we came through it pretty good. Always at this time of year you have some guys banged up. Overall, pretty good shape."
Q: Now that you've seen the film, what happened on the two blocked field goals?
SWINNEY: "We didn't do our job. There's a certain technique that you have to execute and we have to coach it better and we have to look at our personnel. Give them credit, too. But we did a poor job on our end."
Q: Looking back at the red zone offense, what prevented you from cashing in on a couple more scores?
SWINNEY: "We just missed on a couple of plays. There was probably three or four wasted plays that we'd like to have back where we could have put them in a better spot. We got ourselves in a bad situation ... some execution and some plays (calls) we'd like to have back as coaches."
Q: Barrett Carter and Wade Woodaz both had 10 tackles. Your thoughts on both coming on of late?
SWINNEY: "Just like we expected them to. We've been talking about them since the spring. They're great players and great leaders. They're committed to their team and to Clemson. They're not perfect. They have to do things better too but they're playing at a high level of winning football for us. I'm really proud of them."
Q: What was it like to have Peter back out there as he tries to work his way into the rotation again?
SWINNEY: "It was big. We limited his snaps. I think he played about 20 snaps. We progressed him last week but he didn't get all the good-on-good (in practice). He took all the reps on Thursday from a team script standpoint. He felt really good after the game. I think him just getting back out there playing was the biggest thing. He told me after the game that he was really looking forward to getting back into his routine and having a full week of practice. He's still a young player and needs reps and practice. When you've been on the shelf for a few weeks, it's good to get back out there."
Q: Lawson played a good number of snaps and you moved Peter inside some. Is this something you may do more of in the coming weeks?
SWINNEY: "We'll put our best players on the field. The plan hasn't changed since the first game. We haven't done anything different than we have from the beginning. Peter will play inside and outside.
"I'm really pleased with the progress Jaheim has made. He is playing with a lot of juice and confidence. It was good to see Denhoff get back on track. Hoffler is a guy who just needs to keep getting a bunch of reps. I think we have a nice little group. Jaheim, again, is playing with a lot of confidence and you see it growing every week. He's doing some good stuff on every down and from a pass-rush standpoint. Hopefully we'll get Stephiylan back this week."
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Q: It was one of those games where you didn't really have to push things offensively. What's it like to not have to throw a pass in the fourth quarter?
SWINNEY: "We've had a lot of games like that. The objective is to win the game. You have to manage games as you go through the course and flow of them. You don't really go into the game thinking some of those things. I thought the last drive was just awesome. That last drive was really awesome ... especially taking over up front. We knew we needed to run the ball on these guys and we just had to stick with it. It was good to be able to do it when we had to have it."
Q: You had mentioned last week that Khalil Barnes was day to day. Was there a thought of him not playing going in? And how do you think he played last night?
SWINNEY: "He was good to go all along. He graded 85-percent and played 66 snaps. I think he had four tackles and graded a winner for us."
Q: Where is Tyler Brown at in terms of working his way back into the lineup?
SWINNEY: "We worked him in there like Peter last night. He's progressing back in practice. He has yet to be able to have a full-go week. He has been on a progression and has made a ton of improvement. Hopefully he'll continue to heal up. It was a pretty bad high ankle sprain that he had. I think he got 17 plays last night. He just has to get back into a spot where he can get all the reps in practice. Same thing with Adam and Sadler. They were ready to go if needed. We wanted to hold them, so that worked out well."
Q: There were a few times where Ashton Hampton was on the field and flashed some. What has he shown you lately?
SWINNEY: "We're confident in him. That's why we're playing him in critical situations. He's still a young guy. I'm proud of him. He had some good poise to him last night. He made a big tackle and played the technique the way we wanted him to play it. I'm really excited about his progress. He's going to be a really good player."
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