Dabo Swinney on Khalil Barnes: 'Excited about where he's at and what he's doing.'

Opening Statement: "All right, good evening, everybody. Well, another good win for us. Proud of our team. That was just what I thought the tape would show: a very tough, gritty, physical game. Stanford played really, really hard. Did some things on both sides of the ball that created some challenges and some conflict for us, and it's good to see us get better throughout the course of the game. Again, some things that I think will really help us continue to improve and get better.”

On special teams play: “Special teams—we've been really, truly pleased with the consistency there. You know, all areas, we're doing some really positive things, and, you know, that continued to be the case in the game.”

On the defense: “ Defensively to me, it's all about the second half. We really shut them down in the second half. Did a lot of good stuff. I was very disappointed in how we played the first half, and I give them some credit for that with some of the schematic things that they did. Red zone defense was awesome the whole game. We've got three games in a row now that we've been turning the opponent over, and then some huge stops on fourth down.”

On the offense: “After I watched the tape, we actually played a little better than I felt, like, on the field. But still, probably of the last three games—definitely the worst of those three from just an overall precision standpoint. A lot of good things, 17 yards per completion that speaks to the explosiveness that we've had.”

On LB Barrett Carter’s play: “Man, he's played well all year, but he was everywhere, especially in that second half. I mean, a career-high, I think, three-and-a-half tackles for loss and the sack. I mean, just some extra-effort plays that didn't always show up on the stat line, but I think he's played well all year. I think he's just getting better and better, and that was definitely a great game for him.”

On WR T.J. Moore: “Yeah, I mean, he looked like a freshman from a technical standpoint, just some things that he's got to work on. He had some missed opportunities, and he's got to use all the tools that he's equipped with—and that we coach him with. I thought as he got into the game, he kind of reverted back to some stuff that he could get away with in high school.”

On if they thought about canceling the Stanford game: “It never came up to me. I mean, maybe it did with the administration. Nobody ever brought anything to me. My job is to get the team ready, so that's what we focused on, and if there was any of that going on, I didn't know about it.”

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