Clemson coaches discuss rout of Louisville

Co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott

On calling plays for so many players:

“First of all, the guys have to take care of business and put themselves in a position where they can call a bunch of plays. Coming out of the gate with five plays and 14 points...we’ve really challenged our guys to let that become a part of our identity and not wait until the third drive, so we took care of business. Dexter [Lawrence] is in there...everybody talks about Christian [Wilkins], but [Dexter] is lead blocking every time Christian touches the ball, so we wanted to reward [Dexter] as well.”

On Mitch Hyatt’s catch:

“Mitch has been our left tackle for four years, and for just about every snap, has been reliable. We never had to worry about the backside of the quarterback, so having the opportunity there…didn’t go as we had planned. Obviously, we were hoping they were going to pursue a little bit harder, but he got his catch...and he’s got his play count and his career starts, and he did get a catch in his career.”

On calling games high-scoring games:

“It’s still stressful. You’re always sitting up there wondering, ‘What’s the adjustment going to be? What’s going to be different?’ The biggest joy is when we walk into the locker room and you hear those names called...coach [Swinney] calls out the superlatives and you hear them chant for Big Dexter [Lawrence] for getting a touchdown. That’s what’s really cool. During the game, you’re focused on the next play and just not taking your foot off the gas, because playing against Coach Petrino and knowing what they can do on offense, you know they can score points at any moment in the football game.”

Co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott

Opening thoughts:

“We’ve been talking about offensively that even though we played well the last few weeks, there’s even another step we can take and I felt like we got closer to that today, really good to see. 492 yards rushing, we kind of had some of those early games where we were able to run the ball, we went throwing the ball really well. I think we averaged 13.3 yards per rush, which was a Clemson record, having three backs over 100 yards was awesome to see. We had 10 different guys score a touchdown. I think nine of them were on offense and then obviously Isaiah had the pick six but I think that really speaks to what we’ve been talking about with our depth about being able to score with a lot of different people and also, the last four games, I believe we’ve scored more points in the history of the school for four consecutive games together so really proud of how we’re playing and our goal this time of year is to continue to improve and get better each week as we start this championship phase and I felt like we did that today.

Tavien Feaster/run game:

“That was important to us. Really, our running game getting back going. Feaster’s a guy that’s been practicing really well and was not a surprise to us at all to see him go score on that play he did because he’s been running that way in practice. I really like where we are from a depth standpoint, getting ready here in November.”

Defensive coordinator Brent Venables

On the game:

“It was good. Personally, the expectation isn’t to stop every single play. Sometimes, the other team has a good play call or they execute. I think, as much as anything, there were three third downs early in the game that we were just too casual in a spot or two on the field. We said going in that Louisville is a team that can expose you and execute, particularly in the throwing game. We’ve been pretty good in recent years on third downs, but on those, we were just a little bit sloppy. I was really pleased with the overall effort, but there are still some things that we can coach the guys on.”

On the ceiling of the defense:

“I don’t think that we are dominant in every aspect yet. There are a whole lot of little things that are still there for us to keep getting better at. What I love, with us playing for a division championship this week, is that there are a lot of places for us to improve. Our guys have a great sense of humility, and we are in a good place mentally and physically. I’m proud of of guys like Mario Goodrich, who got in there, played against some good receivers and played well.”