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Dabo Swinney postgame following Clemson's 49-14 win over Wake Forest
All right. Well, really proud of our guys. Back to back, you know, conference road wins. It's not easy to win ever. It's not easy to win on the road. This is always a tough place to play. We were up here two years ago and we were in, you know, double over time. And, you know, we had a, we didn't have our normal fast start, kind of had a slow start. And really just missed some opportunities early. We missed a big play on the road just high. And then we fumbled a snap the next drive, but then we just settled in. And then we had four straight touchdowns and really, you know, offensively played with a lot of rhythm from this, from that point on. And then defensively, it got a couple scores in the first half. Just too many penalties. You know, let's the quarterback run one time, let him get outside of us one time. Amanda, I think they had 195 at half to finish with 233. So really proud of our defense and how they, how they shut them out in the second half. The two turnovers were huge because they created, you know, scoring opportunities for us and we capitalized. So I'm just proud of how the guys competed and, you know, handled their business today. So great opportunity for them. But offensively, again, a lot of balance, season high 85 plays. And this is how they make you play. This is where we weren't very good last year. And, you know, they, they will make you move the chains, you know, they just force you to have to, you know, be satisfied with getting the first down. And I think we had a, the third most first downs in Clemson history, you know, 37 first downs. So, I mean, that's a, that's a lot of execution. That's, and didn't turn the ball. So I'm really proud of, of, of that. And then it's again, first time we've been down in a while. First time we've kind of been in that, you know, moment where you're like, ah, you got the momentum against you. And I loved how our guys responded. They showed a lot of maturity today. They showed a lot of mental toughness today. And didn't flinch. And that, that's really good to see. And there was a couple of times in the first half, especially offensively, to see us respond and put drives together and really take the momentum back. Because we lost it a couple of times in that first half. So I'm just really proud of that. Again, I think we took another step forward there. But offensively, man, just a lot of good stuff. Kate was awesome. You know, three touchdowns, 309 pass in 30 Russian. We were really, really good on third down. Last week, we couldn't score in the red zone. We had to kick much field goals, which also was good to see. In this week, we were five, five in the red zone. And that's kind of how we were able to stretch the game away, because we finished in the red zone instead of having to settle for the field goals, like last week. So I'm really proud of that. Mafa, a couple touchdowns, another 100-plus yard game, Brini. I think he's an all-time career leader in 100-yard games for a tight end now. Had a big game, some big, big, tough plays. A tight and stallion showed up, made some really, really tough contested plays. Gritty, you know, nice little, tough little dirt ball for a touchdown that he scooped up. But just a lot of good things, man, zero, another really good game. That little fun in the locker room. He's the first guy since Spiller to catch a touchdown and throw from one in the same game. So heck of a pass. It was a really good execution right there. I thought TJ and Adam, good to see Adam getting in zone again. TJ do some good things. Special teams that we were really concerned about. They're a punter. They're a pumper turner, and we did a nice job there, tackling him and getting him on the ground. And then again, defensively, shot him out in the second half, 3-11 on third down. So a lot of good things, the two takeaways, three sacks. It was a good, complete game. And that's something that we needed. You know, we played a nice, complete game. And the best part, when we subbed, and we put a lot of guys in, as you all had followed us this year, we've given up a million yards, become a track meet. And to see those guys go out there and continue to, you know, show that they've improved, that was good to see. So got a chance to see a few young guys make some plays. Team had to step up for us today. Our intention was, you know, Tyler Brown was ready to play, if we needed him to win the game. But, you know, we're going to probably shutting him down tomorrow. And he'll probably be, instead of day to day, chat, well, he's probably going to be week to week. All right, we got an open day coming up, so we're going to probably, you know, he's just been kind of, he's kind of plateaued and we just, we just need to try to try to see if we can get him over the hump with one game left in an open day. So good to see Team step up and make some plays today. And obviously, Salado as well. West go, y'all noticed probably early he wasn't here, he rolled his ankle, so he wasn't able to go either, he is day to day. So, you know, hopefully we'll get him back next week. But a lot of good things in the game, I think we came through it pretty healthy, but just really proud of our staff too, because, you know, back-to-back road trips, an early game, you know, a tough, gritty team in Wake Forest, and I thought our staff did a great job of preparing, got a lot of respect for Wake Forest and Coach Colson and, man, how they compete, they came back last last last week in the fourth quarter. So, you know, it's good to see us be able to put him away in that second half like we needed to. Well, somebody who asked me for an intellectual property was a chapter, so a chapter was always one step ahead. So, there you go, we got it. Who we roll out there? Did you get the personnel? K-part? Yeah, Peyton Page, I believe, was in that mix as well. He's one of our, so we got a, we got us a big, big, big package. So, you know, and then listen, you know, those are tough calls as a head coach when it's, when it's a, you know, you got a chance to make it a, a three-score game. I think, well, we were up two touchdowns right there. You know, you got a chance to make it a three-score game right there, and those are kind of tough calls. It's not fourth in one. It was like fourth in two, and, you know, they, they bailed me out right there, and then a heck of a job of executing, but I was happy to see them get in there and, and have a chance to, to put it on tape. So, hopefully that's something we can grow from. In the game, in the game last week, he rolled it really on the, I think it was on the, I think it was on that two-minute drive where he tried to run to the sideline, instead of just getting up the field. I believe it was on that play. He played the whole game. He finished, like, he just, he was, he was pretty sore in the next day. Like you said, it was slow start-off, and so we, how big were those in two interceptions? Quarterback had just two interceptions coming in the game. Massive team game, complimentary football. You know, it's a team game. That's one thing we talked about. We needed to, we needed to fuel each other in this game. You know, we needed to throw, fuel on that fire, the offense is fired, defense is so fuel on the, on the offense is fired, and offense is so fuel on the defensive fire. Special teams, you got to bring it to both, both groups, but it was big, it was big. I mean, that was a great job. Good to see Colin, you know. Good to see him get back in there, and he's a guy that, that actually started for us at the beginning of the year, but really wasn't playing well. You know, just not playing like we know we can play, but it's good to see him get in there and respond and be ready. So, hopefully that'll be great for his confidence. And, and then, you know, we did some good things, but we had some bad stuff too. I mean, we had some misplays early that we need to make, a couple of missed touchdowns, down opportunities that we were just off on, that we need to be a little more precise with. We had too many penalties, we had some bad PIs, and so there's still, still a lot of room for improvement, but I would say in totality, this was probably our best game, as far as the four quarters, you know, really putting it together as a team. Yeah, another touchdown. I mean, he's just playing with incredible confidence, and just great technique. It's such a good understanding of how to play. The position, but how to play the position versus the type of defense coverage, you know, that he's seeing, you know, play by play. He's just, he's just really a smart, you know, experienced player that plays fast. He's incredibly confident with his hands. He plays bigger and longer than he is, because he's a, he's an extension guy. You know, you don't see him body many balls. I mean, he's a, he's a guy that's always, always playing with, with a great range in his game. So they got great chemistry. They've worked really, really hard on that, and something we didn't have last year, you know, honestly, you know, we are, our guys, we started last year, we were done by game three. You're throwing, you don't have a lot of chemistry, you guys. And so those guys have a lot of chemistry, and then K, man, K, just, he just continues to, you know, play quarterback at a high level, and he's not perfect. I mean, I'd say that first play to Salado is probably going to go a while, and he's just airballed it, and you know, missed a player here or there, but man, he's just making great decisions. Again, last year, just so many negative plays that could be avoided. Some can, and he's just not doing that, and really proud of these impacting the game with his legs, another 30 yards rushing today, and 31 to 41. I mean, he's just, he's very confident, and the guys, he's making everybody else around them better, and they're all just, you know, doing it, you know, as one unit. That's good to see. And then offensive line wise, man, we're just, we're just playing really, really well. I mean, you know, they had a nice little, little inside stunt game that kind of got us on some of our zone stuff. They were coming around backboard, tacklers, we made a couple adjustments there, but overall, again, a slow start for us, which we haven't had, but really, man, once they got it going, it was fun to watch. That double pass work, that we're on practice. Does it look good? Look back at the advantage that he was having. Yeah, actually it did. You know, we only ran it a couple times. We put him in late in the week, but, you know, we just ran it on the scouts. So we did, we did, that was our first live rep. It was awesome. It was good to see the execution. Really, really good. Oh, I don't know. I don't know. We'll see. We didn't even keep toting it. Man, he's a load. God, Lee, he's a load. Good to see, you know, Hammerhead got in there. I thought he, he showed, you know, y'all got to see a lot of what we see at practice. I mean, he's a business decision guy. I mean, he's a, he's a, he is, he's a hard dude to tackle. And, and then Jarvis got in there and did some good stuff. So good to see all those guys have a chance to play a little bit. Just, which one? Yeah, yeah. Well, we just, we just didn't do our job. We didn't have our eyes on the right thing. I mean, they got around us on the one, and we should attack with him. You know, we got to get him down right there. But, we'll watch the tape and see exactly, you know, what the technique was and what we got to clean up there. You always thought about the middle leg, 14-0 today. Came up just short there before halftime, but it's a really good block management again before halftime. Really good. You know, we were trying, I mean, we were close. We were just, you know, probably just a few seconds. And we were, we were trying to throw just Hail Mary. And, you know, they brought a lot of pressure off the side. And that's, that's, that's one where I think Cade can, can learn from. He really, he really needs to just step up right there. And if he can get it off, get it off, otherwise just run it and take, take a knee. It's not like it's the last play of the game, you know, so that's something that we'll be able to coach all. But, you know, good job managing a very small clock to give ourselves a chance. If we could have had probably five more yards, probably would have kicked it. But just, you know, it was a little long, you know, to take a unnecessary risk of a block or something like that. But, you know, nice job really managing, you know, that situation. Another five yards, would that have been Robert, or would he have sent Nolan out there? Oh, honestly, no one out there. As you talk to the top two on Cade and Peter, just talked about the first quarter, was kind of off-kilter a little bit, they just got their composure, got their drive going. And what I'm going to success with, school things, second quarter, is a few scenes so far. Describe the first to send quarter conversations in the, in the huddles, that just kind of, they just kept the focus going. Yeah, I mean, you know, those guys, those guys were, I mean, they didn't flinch. I mean, again, we missed a wide open play on the first drive that's going to go away. And then the very next drive, we got a bad snap. So we just had some miscues, you know, they just settled in, they didn't panic, and they just went back to work and put a bunch of touchdowns together. And again, they made a couple, you know, the, the, I guess it was the, it was the first one, the wheel, where the wheel route on, with the PIs and with the one on Coble, big play on Coble, you know, it was just a competitive play. You know, they made a couple of nice plays on us, but, you know, it, you felt a little bit of tension, but offensively, man, they responded, it was, it was good to see that. They just kept playing at 37 first downs, they just kept taking what was there. And we had a lot of RPOs built into what we were doing today, a bunch of them, by the nature of how they were playing. And so Kade did a nice job of making decisions post-snap. I mean, I mean, I mean, y'all, I'm telling y'all it was unbelievable. He literally had two screws put in his feet, the same foot. And again, I'm thinking he's going to be back open date. And, you know, they come back and say, hey, we think he's got a chance to play against Florida State. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. And so our goal last, and he was ready to play, but we were like, we don't have to play him. And so, and then he was able to practice this week. We put him on kind of a pitch count this week at practice just to, you know, not having he set back. I mean, to be able to see him go out, that way he had three catches, I think he had about three catches today, maybe, and a touchdown just shows that kids. I mean, that kid just, he's unbelievably committed and he loves to play. And, you know, he played the, the, who was before, was a stamp, who was before Florida State Stanford. He was MVP of the game for us in that game. And he going into that game, we knew we were going to do surgery on Monday. You know, and so just, he's really proud of him. I mean, he's one of the best leaders we have on this team. And I asked him, how do you feel? He said he feels great. I mean, he just said he's just one of them. I mean, we should, we should probably put him in a lab and study him. There's something he's got, he's got some great, great DNA on that, I can say. It seems like the two biggest differences between this season last, I was in case why he had been obviously turnovers, but also the depth you have in the game. Yeah, we went from no depth to just like we got dudes, you know. We got a lot of guys, we got a lot of competition. They all want to play. And, you know, some guys just having to be patient, you know, tinks the guys just got to be patient. Tinks gonna be a good player. He just, you know, he's got, he's got stilato and, and Tyler Brown, you know, and he just got to be, he didn't get to really play last year. He's heard, had surgery, so he was a little behind. Same thing with Noble. Noble will be a good player. If he just stays patient, keeps coming, you know, everybody develops at different stages and he'll end up being a good player for us. And so we've just, I mean, we got, I mean, yeah, you don't have Westco out there and your guys are making plays at a high level. And it's all across the board. So we're a tough team, we're a tough team. When your quarterback's playing well, your OLS playing well, and you, and you can spread the ball around to a lot of different guys, you're getting impacts at every position, receiver, tight end, running back, you got a chance to be a good offense. I pulled Jay in a little bit in the second half last week, how'd you think he responded to that? Much better. I was really proud of him. It was great to see him. And I think, I actually told him, on the side of him, I mean, the next step for him is really creating the consistency weekend and week out, you know, and that, and that, part of that I think just comes to challenging him on just how you get yourself ready each week, really having a true routine and process individually on how you get yourself ready. I think that's just a kind of step in the direction of becoming a more mature player and understanding that, man, you got to pay the price every week. But he was locked in, he was not happy with how he played last week, and it was good to see him respond. Coach, Jay had a pretty good game in the San Antonio Ole Miss who picked 100% of his passes and they're falling a bunch down. Yeah, man, start it right now. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, we've got a controversy. Yeah, he'll probably have a comment or two to say about that. They all want to throw the ball now. Everybody wants to throw the ball. All the defensive guys want to score a touchdown. They're having fun. It's good to see, you know, we just got to continue and listen, talk about the middle eight. This is kind of the middle eight of our season. You know, there's four parts of our journey that we break the year down in, and there's also four quarters in your season. You get 12 games. This was the end of the second quarter for us, kind of the middle eight. Now, we start the third quarter this week, and we end what we call the primetime phase of our season. It's our last game in October, coming up this week. And these guys have battled their butts off, and they put themselves in position to stay in control, you know, and not have to sit around and wait on this and wait on that, and that's not many teams that are in that position. So we've got to have a great, great week. You know, Virginia's having a heck of a year. I mean, you know, listen, Tony, Tony's what a job he's done. He'll have them guys ready. You best believe he'll have them ready. So we'll have a huge battle. We're going to need our fans next week. We're going to need our crowd to show up. We need to have that place rocking at noon, rocking at 10 a.m. All right, because this is the biggest game of the year for us coming up. And again, an opportunity to really kick off the third quarter, you know, and keep momentum and stay in control of our destiny. And then when we get to, you know, they remember November, right? So we got a chance to go into November, where we hope to be. But it's all about how we play this week and just continuing to build. But I think our team took a step forward today. Again, just maturity, responding to a little bit of, you know, just tension, if you will. I was really proud of that. Yeah, Colin is day to day. He made it last week. Had a little setback. But we're hoping he'll be much better by Monday. Same with stuff. Yeah, he played, he played, he played Center Angar. We put, we got, we had three guys get to snap today. So it was good. Trent actually finished the game snap. And we actually put Trent right tackle for a little bit of a drive. So we were trying to hold Mason Wade today because, you know, we're managing a few of these guys games, kind of some of them are like easy. He's at two games. We held him today. So just trying to postpone having to make a few decisions on some guys as long as we can. But Harris did a heck of a job. It's good to get him back. He was in there. I think he went in third series. I think he was in the game at guard. Yeah. Yeah, we just felt like that, you know, they're very reactive to the screen game. And, you know, they're kind of, you know, they've been and they give up a lot of things underneath. And so one of the ways we thought we could maybe forgot the right situation, you know, you can't be too close. So we were right about you got to get the right hash. It's got to be the right kind of plus the area that you wanted on the field. And we they're very aggressive when the ball gets out of the quarterback's hands and especially in the screen game. So we see the ball. They're really good at playing the double moves and all that stuff. Screening goes. But when the ball comes out of the quarterback's hands are very aggressive. And so we felt like we'd have an opportunity maybe to slip in behind them with Brenny and we were able to do it. It's good like you should be in that close to film off of when he runs it and then they're over like that. How loud is it? I mean, how does it make you feel? Man, he's just, you know, he plays so low behind his pads. It's hard to get into his legs. I mean, it's really, you know, he runs like that and it's just hard to get to get under it. And he's just so low and powerful. It's it's fun to watch. I'm glad he's on our team. He's a great, great player. That's what I think that's maybe is that his 400 yard plus game in six games. So I mean, he's really doing some good stuff for us. A couple more for coach. Oh, man. I spent going a long time. I don't know. I don't know how long I've been. I mean, times I've been up here, but we started it when I was the head coach when it so whenever we would have been my first time up here. So 10 that would have been my I would have been when we started. I told Dooley and I'm a huge Krispy Kreme fan. Shout out hot now. But I know that Winston Salem is the home of Krispy Kreme. I know that. So we just kind of started that you did. I told Dooley. I said, hey, we win. Man, let's have some let's have some hot now. Let's get let's let's have some Krispy Kreme's and don't tell our nutritionists. But let's bring them in. And so that's kind of where it started. So we've kind of carried that tradition on whenever we've come up here and it's it's they never disappoint. They're always really, really, really good. Can't beat them. Take one more for coach feedback. As one. Coach, kind of the fans were kind of not going to go to last few years about passes over the middle. Seeing a lot of that this year is the play of Jake Burtick School playing like an old school play in. Just catching, didn't really embrace it for him back. Just thinking of being yards after cash. Yeah, he had to touch that. Really should have had two more. We missed him down the middle by that much. You know, I mean, Kay was just off. We had him split and then we ran a little, you know, a little, little just play action called Pike. And that was and it was just that it was that much too high. You know, the right type of throw, just that much too high, or he makes a touchdown there. But he made some really tough plays, some contested plays, a lot of yards after catch and contact. It was really good to see him. He's again set the school record for 100 yards, receiving for tight ends. And he's, I think he's the second all time in receptions. He's got, who's he chasing? Leg it. He's chasing leg it. And, you know, chipping away at the touchdown record too. He's still got a chance of that. But he's just a great player. I mean, he's probably, I mean, he's probably the most complete tight end we've had. And I mean, like, you know, just like can do everything. He's become a physical player. He wasn't when he got here. He's a very willing blocker. He's a very athletic route runner. He's a finisher on the ball. He's a really tough minded kid. And I'm just really proud of him. Loves to compete. He loves to compete. And he's, he came back to do what he's doing. And I'm really happy to see it.