Swinney Updates Key Injuries, Addresses Roster Spending Ahead of Charleston Southern

Q: How has Kourtney Kelly looked the last few days? Do you still think he's trending toward playing on Saturday?

Dabo Swinney: I do. I do. He's had two good days, so we've been encouraged. He's getting himself back into football shape and all that stuff, but he's been able to hold up and do what he needs to do, so I look forward to getting him some action.

Q: I know you have some guys on this team who are on that 2023 team where Charleston Southern went up 10-7 on you guys in the first quarter. Is that just a reminder that's been shared this week to not be able to take anybody lightly, even if it's, per se, an FCS team?

Dabo Swinney: Yeah, you got to show up ready to play. I mean, I think we had, I guess it was a pick-six or fumble or whatever it was early in that game.

But, I mean, again, it's not about—I say it all the time—it's not who you play, it's how you play.

So let's focus on how we play, and that's why you play to a standard, prepare to a standard, so that you can create consistency in your performance and not up and down based on who you're playing.

Q: According to some estimates of roster budgets from The Athletic, just kind of how much they spend on their team, Clemson is 2-0, I guess not 3-0, but they didn't count Georgia Southern, I guess, against teams with a budget that Clemson has spent more than $5 million more than the other team, but 0-2 against teams that Clemson spent $5 million less than.

Do you feel like Clemson is spending enough on its team right now?

Dabo Swinney: We spend what we got. I mean, can't spend more than you got.

So we try to make every penny that we have, use it to our very best. That's what we do. It ain't like we holding anything back.

We spend everything we got. We maximize our resources, but, I mean, that ain't got nothing to...

We got to play better. We got to coach better.

We got to do a lot better. We've had plenty of opportunities, and we just got to continue to put in the work and get better and better each and every game, and hopefully we'll have some more opportunities down the road to play better.

Q: Is there a way you feel like you guys can increase those resources down the road in future seasons?

Dabo Swinney: You would have to talk to the athletic department about all that stuff.

I mean, we got what we got, and we use every bit of it, and we got a team that's getting better, and we're going to continue to get better.

But we've got to be able to certainly compete and retain and acquire, all those things. It's all part of it.

And we've gotten a little bit better each year as far as what we've had available from a revenue-sharing standpoint and all that, and that will hopefully continue.

Q: Given the need for continuity with the starting five on the offensive line, is there maybe an extra urgency in this game to keep this starting five intact maybe longer than they would ordinarily be?

Dabo Swinney: Just want to play well. I mean, I don't have any agenda other than let's go win this game.

Win the game. Let's play well. Let's execute at a high level.

Let's do some of the routine stuff better than we've done. That's really the main agenda here. Win the game.

Q: How are Christopher Vizzina and Jay Haynes progressing in practice this week? Are they still on track to play?

Dabo Swinney: Yeah, Jay's been great. So he's had a good week, and it's been good to see him be able to get a whole week and get all the work.

And CV is still not 100 percent, but this has been the best week he's had since before he got hurt.

Q: When Vizzina got hurt, did you anticipate him being out as long as he's been or, I guess, unavailable or whatever?

Dabo Swinney: No, I mean, he was completely out the next game. We thought it would be close, and he was completely out.

And then whatever, what was the game after that? Cal, I think. Was it Cal? So he was out of North Carolina, then Cal, he was available, but really only if we had to have him. It would have been like we would have had to get through Trent and probably even through Brock before we got to him.

So he was just still really, really sore.

Obviously on game day, he's got a little medicine to help with the pain, but we would have only played him if we had to. He was available if needed.

He's just gotten better and better. I mean, it's just a—we thought it would bounce back a little bit quicker. It's just been hard for him, but he's gotten better. He's had a really good week. And it's just one of those things that's been day-to-day.

Like I said, this is the first week he's been out of the brace. He's just got a sleeve and a pad now, as opposed to that big brace. He's still getting his full range of motion back.