After a dominant win over rival NC State, Dabo Swinney held his weekly teleconference call this past Sunday evening and had a lot of great things to say about the team, offensively and defensively.
He emphasized on the growth in play and confidence he’s seen throughout a multitude of players on the team.
Swinney opened up the teleconference by explaining how important the defensive play and energy right out of the gate was; and also how well the offense took that momentum and ran with it. The offensive line also played great against the Wolfpack; and in general so far, as they haven’t been attributed a singular sack in the three games Clemson has played this season.
“I think we created two turnovers in the first 13 defensive plays of the game and that really set the tone us — and the offense capitalized on it.”
Dabo Swinney
“Offensively, we ID’d these guys pretty well, great communication… guys are playing with confidence.”
Dabo Swinney
Swinney also touched on the “great opportunity,” for the offense to use tempo play against the Wolfpack. Cade Klubnik passed for 209 yards and 3 touchdowns while Myrtle Beach native, Adam Randall, led the team in receiving yards with 69 yards and caught his first collegiate touchdown.
“We’re hitting big plays and its hot, so it was a great opportunity to lean on without subbing and just playing fast when we got some rhythm…”
Dabo Swinney
The most interesting part of the teleconference was how proud Swinney sounded about his QB1 Cade Klubnik and the growth in confidence he’s had from last season to this season.
“He’s playing well and hopefully he’ll just continue to build the momentum because again, momentum leads to confidence…We got a bunch of guys that are capable of having a big day but it all starts with the QB.”
Dabo Swinney
I then asked if there was any specific moment that Swinney saw out of Klubnik that led to his confidence boost to start this season.
“I think just how he finished last year. 5 straight wins to finish the year; 2 minute drive to go win the bowl game. I think he really just fueled his offseason by studying attacking what he needed to get better.”
Dabo Swinney
Swinney ended the teleconference by speaking on Jay Haynes possibly emerging as the RB2 behind Phil Mafah and how he feels about performances by the defensive backups as there was a good bit of controversy surrounding them after letting up three touchdowns in the fourth quarter of the blowout.
“[On Haynes separating himself] I would say so, now that we’ve got a couple games down… definitely gives us something different.”
Dabo Swinney
After showing potential in his true-freshmen season, recording two touchdowns in just two games played, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see him rise to the role.
Going into the fourth quarter, the Tigers were up 59-14; however within the span of just one quarter, the backups that were put into the game let up 21 points. It caused a little bit of controversy and worry among the fans but experience is a huge part of the game for coach Swinney.
“Its frustrating as a coach you want to put starters back in there but these guys [backups] need to play and the standard doesn’t change… The positive is it creates urgency out of these guys.”
Dabo Swinney
However there was still positive spotlight on backup defensive players like A.J. Hoffler, Sammy Brown, Dee Crayton, and Jaheim Lawson; who all combined for 15 tackles, 4.5 tackles for a loss and a pass deflection.
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“Hoffler is really starting to play fast, you can really see his confidence growing. He has a little bit of violence to him, he’s got a lot of twitch.”
Dabo Swinney
“They’re improving… they’re getting better every single rep. I’m really pleased with where they are right now.”
Dabo Swinney
