Swinney weighs in on camp, team speed, improvement, injuries, Duke
CLEMSON -- In his first news conference of the season, Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney met with members of the media Thursday to preview the Tigers' season-opener versus Duke.
The No. 9-ranked Tigers will face the Blue Devils in Durham on Labor Day night. Clemson is a 13-point favorite.
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The following is an abbreviated transcript of Swinney's comments Thursday.
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Q: Is it a good thing for your secondary to get a test such as this one this early?
SWINNEY: "Absolutely. We need to see where we are. It's one of the more experienced groups we've had. We're built well in the trenches, but yes, our secondary will get tested. They've got a good group of receivers. It's a great opportunity for us to see where we are as a team. No matter what happens in the game, how do we get better? It's a big challenge. Duke is a complete team."
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Q: What have you seen from Tyler Brown that warrants the opportunity he has at this early stage?
SWINNEY: "He's just a really good football player. He can really run. I'm surprised because we hadn't coached him yet but he's picked things up quickly. Really, really good ball skills. Strong hands. He's got some compact power to him, which I didn't expect this early. He plays bigger than he is, with length and extension. He's done a great job, he and Tink Kelley. We are trying to hold Tink if we can. He's ready to play, too. There's just so many snaps. Tyler has just competed with everyone out there, including Antonio. And here's a kid who came in during the summer. He's got a bright future.
"You have to go play. From what we've seen in practice, he's going against some dudes. It's not like he's going against chopped liver. He never hit the wall in camp, which is unusual for freshmen. He's got some joy and confidence, a great spirit to him. He's a fearless player."
Q: Anything in particular that gets you excited about this team coming out of camp?
SWINNEY: "Honestly, we had one bad day out of the whole camp. There was one day where I just didn't feel like we were where we needed to be. It had to be kind of coach-led and I'm happy to do it if I need to. Some teams you have to do that more than others and that's just part of coaching. These guys showed up everyday aside from that day. It was a very competitive camp. I thought they had a lot of fun. None of the older guys hit a wall. We showed up everyday and battled. It's a close group. We have to go play the game, but I like where we are. I see a team. Camp is where that really has to come together. This team has good chemistry.
"Openers, you know you'll have some mistakes. Let's just go play a clean game where you don't lose to Clemson. Let's not have stupid turnovers and crazy after-the-whistle penalties. I just want us to be a team that looks like we're confident, tough, physical and fast. If we can do that, you can live with the results."
Q: What are you most excited about seeing Monday night? Anything specific?
SWINNEY: "I want to see our offensive line. I think these guys are excited to go play. I want us to win because of them. I hope that's what I see. They have put in a lot of work. They're a tough, close, group. We have some depth and some guys who deserve to play. Expectations are high for our defensive line, but I don't think people expect much from our OL for whatever reason."
Q: Can you talk more about the battle at tackle between Tristan Leigh and Collin Sadler?
SWINNEY: "We've got some position flexibility there. I think we have seven starters on the offensive line. If we could run seven out there, we would. We really see Collin and Mitchell Mayes as starters. I look at Mafah and Shipley as starters. We have really good depth up front. We have eight, nine, ten who can play and will play. The competition goes from there. We have taken things as far as we can go in practice. Now you have to go play in a game. Hopefully it'll keep rolling. We have six tackles in this rotation who can play winning football for us ... six, legitimate, tackles who can play at a high level. My expectation is that both Tristan and Collin will play really well."
Q: Tristan is a guy who didn't really show up ready to play. He seems to have made quite a transformation.
SWINNEY: "He has self-awareness and humility. You don't see that a lot sometimes with five-star recruits who have been told how great they are for a long time. Next thing you know some of those guys forget that they have to work. Tristan's situation was unique. He didn't have a (senior) season. It's easy to see why he was rated so high, but that wasn't the guy who showed up here. I went back and watched the tape and wondered how could I have been so wrong. He was so far from being able to play. Physically he was weak and his body was in a bad spot. Mentally he wasn't where he needed to be. And Ryan Linthicum was right there. He wasn't ready. He didn't have a senior season either.
"Tristan wants to be coached. He wants feedback, criticism. Early on, honestly, my mindset was, 'How did we miss on this kid?' He didn't look like he looked on tape. His confidence wasn't what it needed to be. But he went to work. Now he's strong. Now his body is in a great spot and he's not even as good as he will be. He's a work-in-progress and has learned the game. He's such a sponge. His effort has been phenomenal. He gets after it in the film room, extras in practice, working with coach Hogan in the weight room and doing everything he's needed to do.
"He didn't run from anything. A lot of kids don't want to hear the truth but he did. This kid has worked his tail off to become the player he is right now. No one has given him anything. He is one of the most respected guys on this team. He'll have some ups and downs.
"I'll go to battle with Tristan Leigh any day. He's ready to play. I don't expect him to play perfect but I expect him to be consistent. I'm excited to see him get his opportunity. He's what it's all about."
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Q: What's the difference between this team and the team you had last year at this stage?
SWINNEY: "This is the most accountable team we've had. It's a metric that we have with our accountability teams. You have positive and negative points. This team, collectively, has had the fewest negative points of any team we have had. Coming into the first game, we don't have many negative points with this team. This team has done what it needed to do. That's a sign of leadership. We'll see if it translates to wins."
Q: You have talked about so many unknowns in college football. You still have a lot of unknowns with this team yourself.
SWINNEY: "I just think it's fun to go play. It's a new team every year. They probably know more about us up at Duke. We don't have a bunch of guys in our two-deep who haven't played but we have a few, so they probably have more info on us. There are always new players, newcomers. The year I got the job, Roll Tide, we played them in the opener and they had a big guy on defense we didn't know much about. By the end of the first quarter he destroyed us - Terrance Cody. We knew who he was pretty quickly."
Q: Do you have an update on Tre' Williams?
SWINNEY: "He's doing well. He's not ready to play. We'll see how it goes. He's had both shoulders and knees, everything, that he's dealt with. We're trying to take it slow with him. We could get a year back with him. If we can stay healthy at defensive tackle, we have some flexibility. He'll play, but we're going to kind of see where he is. If we can, maybe we hold him as long as we can. Let's fortify his body. If we could steal a year back, that would be great for us and for him. And we've talked about that. He's trending in the right direction. He's back in green."
Q: An update on Troy Stellato?
SWINNEY: "Hey man he missed all of camp basically but he's ready to roll. He has practiced for the past week. He looks good. He was having a great summer and everything was going well and he just pulled his hamstring during skills and drills. He's looked really good for a guy who hasn't played in two years and a guy who has missed all of camp. He has flashed for sure. No question. He could help us if he'll just stay available."
Q: How do you capitalize on Cade's running ability while protecting his health?
SWINNEY: "He's got to be smart. He doesn't have to be a hero. He'll have to run at times. Maybe he extends a play or gets five or six yards. There are times when it's fourth and gritty and he has to go get it. It's just the nature of the game. There are no purple jerseys when the lights go on. You can't play in fear. Just go play. He'll run some by design, which is something they'll have to defend, but it doesn't mean he's running quarterback-power 15 times a game. He's different than Tajh."
Q: Adam Randall said last week what stuck out to him was the speed of this team. How does this team compare to others in that area?
SWINNEY: "I think this is the fastest team we've had. Hopefully it will translate to game day. We have receivers and tight ends who can really run. We have backs who can run. Our linemen can move and they're athletic. We have length and speed all over the defense. I think we've got speed across the board. Our linebackers run well. We feel good about where we are athletically."
Q: What was your thinking with limiting coordinator access to the media?
SWINNEY: "It was just one of those things I hadn't looked at in a long time. The last time we had a media change around here was 2011. I just looked at it and it was eye-opening to me. We were very different than a lot of our peers. It was a way to take some things off of our staff, not take some time away from our staff. That's really it. I think we're still more accessible than most."
Q: You've always talked about winning the opener first and foremost. When Eric Thomas was here, you talked about winning a national title and your players being on the clock. How often have you been direct with your teams like that in the preseason?
SWINNEY: "I'm always transparent and direct with every team. I'm very transparent with our players. If we hit all of our goals, we will win the national championship. That's a fact. I'm the reason we lost the national championship in 2015. It was all on me. I told our staff that. You can have a great year and not win the national championship. We hit all of our goals in 2015 and I came back the next spring and I apologized to the team. Instead of winning the bowl game, I changed the end goal to win the closer. Our goals are the same. Nothing has changed. I just made a comment to challenge some of our guys. It's why a lot of them came back. They got their masters and wanted an opportunity. That class of 2019 ... this is their last opportunity. Nothing is different. That was just a clip of a moment."
Q: Are you fully healthy up front on offense?
SWINNEY: "Yes. Everyone is ready to go. We feel good about the big boys in the trenches. I like our depth. We've got some competition that will continue throughout the season. We have some guys who can play multiple positions. We have seven guys that I consider a starter. We'll see how it goes."
Q: You have talked about Cade as a runner, but how has his pocket presence improved?
SWINNEY: "It's been a growth part for him for sure. It's an area where he needed to get better. He needed to improve in his adjustment to the speed of the game. He has so much condience in his ability to escape but that can be a detriment at times, too. He is a decisive dude whether he is right or wrong. He'll pull the trigger. But he's been awesome in camp and has improved there."
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