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Published Oct 20, 2019
Swinney on Booth, Clemson's drop in AP Poll
Tigerillustrated.com
Tigerillustrated.com

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CLEMSON -- Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney addressed reporters Sunday evening during his weekly teleconference, this time to look back on his team's 35-point win over Louisville while also looking ahead to the Tigers' next opponent, Boston College (4-3, 2-2).

The Tigers (7-0, 5-0) will host the Eagles next Saturday in a game televised by The ACC Network. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Clemson opened Sunday as a 35-point favorite.

ALSO SEE: The latest on 5-star Clemson recruiting target Justin Flowe | Clemson's verbal commitments | Clemson's junior commitments

The following is an edited, condensed transcript of Swinney's Sunday evening teleconference.

OPENING STATEMENTS: "I'm really proud of our guys. An awesome job. They were incredibly focused, ready and played hard. All across the board, the offensive line, Travis Etienne, just settled us. Trevor didn't have a good first quarter, but wow what a tremendous finish for him. He had a really bad first quarter, some bad decisions and missed opportunities. But ...

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"That's back to back great games from our offense. A bunch of guys touched the football. Six different guys scored touchdowns. Travis had 18 rushes and didn't play in the fourth quarter. The biggest thing was back to back weeks of a lot of yards after contact for Travis. I'm so proud of him. Same with Trevor. He averaged almost five yards a carry. We didn't have any drops. Our offensive line was physical; 17 knockdowns.

"Still, a lot of things we can do better. On the outside it looks good, but for us we have a lot of details that we can improve on. We have some individuals who can get better. We didn't execute at wideout very well in our screen game. We mishandled a clock situation right there before the half. But ... all in all, just a great job. Trevor, his leadership, toughness and response to adversity, just really good things.

"Defensively, a great effort. Tremendous effort. We held them to 263 yards. That's seven in a row where we've held teams to under 300 yards. First time that has been done here since 1956. The stat of the game was 8-of-22 in passing. We had six sacks on them. We played the stretch well on the backside. Nyles Pinckney probably played his best game. We missed a bunch of tackles yesterday, 20-something tackles. Our alignments and fundamentals ... we're fast and athletic and overcome some of it but we have to improve in our discipline. We let the quarterback outside too many times. Too many mental errors.

"I just loved everyone's effort. We had a lot of production plays. We have to be relentless about improving. I was happy for B.T. Potter to make a big kick. Ngata did a great job on kick returns.

"We're 7-0. I think our best football is still ahead of us. We have a chance to close out October at home. We're looking forward to Homecoming and a good Boston College team. A huge challenge."

Q: Several guys left with injuries yesterday. Any updates on injuries tonight?

SWINNEY: "Not today. It's just too early. We'll assess them tomorrow. We will look at Xavier Thomas, too. We had just some little things here and there. I think for the most part we are in good shape."

Q: Can you talk about where Xavier's progress is and also Andrew Booth's status?

SWINNEY: "Xavier is just going through protocol. We'll wait and see what the doctors say. Booth will be out for the first half Saturday per the rules of the league. For sure."

Q: What are some things you're seeing from the offensive line, particularly communication?

SWINNEY: "We should be playing well and we are. They're talented, strong and they care. It matters to them. They've played a lot of football. This bunch really cares about their jobs, their team and Robbie Caldwell does an awesome job with them. They take pride in protecting our quarterback. You can't survive on our practice field without being smart. Our line has done a good job of leading us. We're right about on track. We're a top 10 offense and one of the better rush and pass teams in the country."

Q: Have you mapped out what Booth's consequences are going to be?

SWINNEY: "Started with making him ride the bus home last night. He rode back on our manager bus. That's where it started. The rest of it will be handled in-house. And he has responded well. He is disappointed in himself, embarrassed. He has apologized to our team and our AD. He's been extremely remorseful. What happened is way out of character for who he is. Very pleased with how he has taken ownership. He had a long bus ride home last night and plenty of time to think about it."

Q: Travis said after the game that he had to get back at some things he might have gotten away from. What have you seen from him lately in practice?

SWINNEY: "Making your practice reps game reps. He's only had one bad game. He did not play well at North Carolina. He has gotten back to those strong daily habits and it starts with game reps in practice. You have to understand that every play might be the play that wins the game. I knew he would respond. He was player of the year last year in this league. Every now and then everyone needs a kick in the tail and he has responded. I don't see that slowing down."

Q: You said Nyles probably had his best game. Your thoughts on Justin Foster as well?

SWINNEY: "Justin made a lot of plays. His production was good but he didn't grade well ... too many mistakes. I used to have that problem at wideout a lot. A guy would have three catches and two touchdowns. I'd grade the tape and he would play terrible without the ball. That's not the case with Justin. He made plays. He was just too inconsistent with the little things. But he's so tough and he cares. He'll be disappointed with some things that he left on the table. He'll get better. Definitely Nyles' best game."

Q: Do you know how many snaps Foster played yesterday?

SWINNEY: "He played 29 snaps."

Q: Can you expand on what you meant by wideouts not doing great in the screen game?

SWINNEY: "Just details. We probably would have had a touchdown on a screen with Travis but did not block the guy well at all on what was kind of a crack. You can't have a better call, a better design, but we didn't execute on that one play. Travis would have creased it. It would have been a huge play. We should have had a good one with Justyn Ross, but his technique was poor. He was way too deep. It threw the timing off. We just have to clean that up. We had another one where the tight end didn't do well at blocking the spot. We'll go back and coach that up this week. The margin for error gets smaller as we get on down the road. We need to be more precise in some of these details."

Q: Were the missed tackles on all three levels?

SWINNEY: "Oh yeah. We had six sacks. Probably should have 10. We had a bunch that we missed. We just had a lot of missed tackles ... all three levels. The guys will be disappointed when they see their grades and the tape. It's not just about what happens on the scoreboard. They'll see some mistakes as a group and it'll help create that accountability. Right now we're not anywhere close to what we can be but we are improving. We have won by an average of 28 points per game. This time last year that margin was 28.7 points a game."

Q: Venables has done an excellent job a long time, but might this be his best coaching job?

SWINNEY: "I think he has done a great job every year. This is the best back seven we've had. He has had a lot to work with. We're so much better on that back end from a consistency standpoint and knowledge. He has played to that strength very well. Our whole defensive staff has done just an awesome job. And we've recruited well, too. All those guys up front, it's next man up. That's the way it has been at Clemson. For us right now it starts with that back seven ... how smart they are, their preparation week in and week out. Brent has done a nice job of utilizing our personnel week in and week out."

Q: You've won by 31 and 35 points over the last two weeks yet you have fallen twice in the AP Poll. I know you don't care, but do you have any reaction to that? Does that surprise you?

SWINNEY: "No. Nothing surprises me. We won by 28.7 points per game last year after seven games. This year it's 28 points a game. That .7 is elusive. We're chasing that. We'll keep working. I don't really worry about any of that stuff. We just try to work our tails off to get better. Everybody can have whatever opinions they want. It doesn't matter. What matters is us closing out October in a strong way. We want to win this division and win this league. What happens after that, hopefully we will be positioned well."

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