“We’re Going to Have to Be a Lot Better”: Swinney on Stopping the Run vs. Virginia Tech

Dabo Swinney met with the media earlier today to discuss the Tigers' upcoming matchup with Virginia Tech. We will have more from his press conference later this week, but here are a few quick notes.

Opening Statement: “Okay, I appreciate everybody being here today. Excited to have another opportunity this week, coming off, obviously, a very disappointing performance this past week. Got another tough challenge. Going to be on the road here for the next couple weeks.”

On Virginia Tech: “Another really good football team—very similar to the team we just played in so many ways. They've got four losses by a total of 21 points. I think they've had the lead in every single one of those games. It's a really tough team to beat. Really talented across the board. Probably one of the most experienced teams in the country in all of college football coming into the season.”

On the message to the team after losing to Louisville: “Yeah, I mean, I said it last night. You know, life is hard. Football's hard. Failure's hard. Disappointment's hard. You know, it takes courage to continue to keep going, you know, when something doesn't go your way. You got to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and go. I wish, you know, we never lost a game in the history. How many undefeated teams are there in the Power Four? How many? Probably not many. Is Oregon undefeated? Anybody else? Miami? Not many. I mean, it's hard—and it's going to get harder. By the end of the year, it probably won't be any undefeated teams.”

On stopping the run this weekend: “We're going to have to be a lot better at doing what it takes to stop the run. To stop the run, you’ve got to set the edge. You’ve got to be gap sound. You’ve got to defeat blocks. You’ve got to be relentless. You’ve got to trigger and fill gaps when you're filling it from second and third level. You’ve got to tackle well. It's not complicated, and so we got to do those little things better.”