Swinney: "We’ve played two games and given up three touchdowns — sign me up for that”

Editor’s note: Rough transcript of Dabo Swinney’s Sunday Teleconference. Light edits for clarity and flow. The full audio is also provided here.

Opening Statement

Just a little recap of the game. A lot of good things in the game, but a lot of things we’ve got to learn from as well.

First of all, the biggest thing is just really proud of the resilience of our team. It was a really weird game with a lot of adversity to overcome early. But the guys stayed together and really proud of them for battling and putting a good second half together offensively to get it going.

Two games in a row, I think our special teams have done a lot of good things. Two good games in a row for Jack Smith. Average 45 and had a 50-plus yarder. Also had a sky punt to the seven-yard line. As I said last night, Robert Gunn — that was a huge, well-executed deep onside to the five. A couple of field goals. Protection has been good to this point as well. Really pleased with that.

Defensively, I thought we had more mistakes in this game than in our first game. But the name of the game is points. And defensively, we’ve played two games now and given up three touchdowns. Sign me up for that. These guys are keeping them out of the end zone. If we continue to do that, we're going to come together as a nice team.

Turning the ball over — I think that's five in two games. Really pleased that we got three interceptions yesterday. Good to see us get some pressure on the quarterback and create some negative yards. That was a big part of the game.

We’re a little soft on the perimeter. We’ve got to clean some things up there technique-wise. The first touchdown was more on us as coaches. I didn’t think we did a good job on third down. Too many third-and-longs. We’re doing a good job of creating those situations, but too many third-and-longs — especially third-and-seven, third-and-ten.

Offensively, the biggest thing is they hung in there. A lot of mental toughness. They responded. We start out the first five drives — we get a drop, then another drop, then a fumble on fourth-and-two that goes 50 yards. Their effort to get the guy down was awesome. Fourth drive, we get a penalty, a sack, then we punt, then a pick six. Really hard deal to overcome. But they did. They hung in there and responded. Went right back after that pick six with five straight scoring drives and 27 unanswered points.

As I said last night, the four-and-a-half-minute drive to finish the game was probably my favorite part. Guys stepped up as we get into the rhythm of the season. I thought Cade responded well. Good to get Adam going. That’s the most he’s ever played at running back. He just needs to play.

Injury-wise, it was a pretty clean game for us. Good to get Walker Parks back in there. I think he played maybe about nine snaps. Good to get him rolling and re-establishing his confidence.

Q: With Tristan Leigh out, there was some shuffling. What did you like from the guys who played in his place or in different spots?

Swinney: Early in the season, that’s really good. You hate for a guy to be out, but hopefully that’s going to pay off for us because now you’ve got stuff on tape and guys have in-game work. We bumped Collin Sadler out there to get him some work. We wish we’d have gone back to Brayden Jacobs. I know we had a couple of mistakes, but would have liked to get him another series.

Brayden just needs experience and play. He’s going to be a great one. He’ll learn from that, the speed of the game. 

Q: You mentioned the drops. On TJ Moore’s, it seemed like he broke open earlier. Is Cade a little late on some of these?

Swinney: Yeah, he was late on that one. He thought it was cover zero, but they really played zone and voided the flats. He was definitely a little late. Still, we’ve got to make the play. You’re going to get hit no matter what. That’s a play we need to make to keep a drive alive.

The other one we gave a drop to TJ was on the conversion route, the go ball. Same thing — Cade flushed it, threw on the run, didn’t have to. That was a clean pocket. He had a couple of those early, but settled down in the second half. That was a play we’ve got to make too, and we will.

Q: Adam Randall looked like he was running harder. What changed, and how do you take that second-half start into Georgia Tech?

Swinney: Honestly, it’s the first real opportunity Adam’s had. We didn’t get much opportunity in the first game. First two drives were three-and-outs. Then we put a nine-play drive together, didn’t finish. 

Biggest thing was just possessing the ball and putting drives together. We made good adjustments at halftime. Put a good drive together before the half, even though the touchdown got called back. The response — getting the field goal — that carried into the locker room.

Coming out, we played with more precision and did some of the basic stuff well. Timing wasn’t great on some counter stuff, but we need that on tape to teach. Adam hasn’t played much RB in games. Getting that tape is critical.

They were twisting inside, so we went more gap-scheme to catch the movement. They hung in there mentally. When you get battle-tested early, that can be a positive.

Q: How did Gideon Davis do in his first carries?

Swinney: First one, we had a communication problem. Second was a nice run — six yards. Stayed in phase with the puller, read it right, nice run. Wish we could’ve gotten him more playing time. He did a good job.

Q: They did a good job hiding their tight end. With Georgia Tech coming, how big is keeping track of those?

Swinney: It’s huge. Good game to prepare us. Different because Georgia Tech runs the QB more, but similar discipline-wise with misdirection. They got us on the throwback. We’ve got to do a better job not getting lulled to sleep. They kept tight ends in, extra protection. Got outside of us a couple times on boots. We turned the QB loose once.

We’ve got to always be aware of the threat of a throwback. Aggressive defenses like ours can get caught if not disciplined backside. We’ve got to learn from that.

Q: Tristan Smith had the touchdown called back. How do you feel about his rhythm with the first team?

Swinney: He just needs more plays. Two games in a row we haven’t had many. He’s a guy we want to get more, along with Cole Turner. We had Cole for a TD and missed him. Hated it for Tristan. You saw his explosiveness. Big target. Ball was low—he was down. Hated that he missed that opportunity, but good for him to get that first touch experience.

Q: Anything more on Antonio and Khalil?

Swinney: No, nothing more right now.

Q: Was it disappointing that they possessed the ball so long?

Swinney: Yeah. We’ve got to get off the field on third-and-longs. They converted a few second-and-longs into third-and-mediums. Even though they didn’t score, it hurt the time of possession and created field position.

I’d like a few more three-and-outs, but we played a lot of guys. That was good. 

Q: The play where Christopher Vizzina came in for QB power — was that a package for him?

Swinney: We just wanted to get him into the game. Critical situation, thought it’d be good for him. We just missed the block. Ran right by the guy we needed to block. If we block it, he gets the first down.

Hated that. But we wanted to get him in. Wish we’d been able to do it more.

Q: What did you like from Jamal Anderson?

Swinney: Jamal’s been that SAM guy. Just the style of play and their personnel meant we needed a bigger guy at TIGER. He did some good things, some bad. Needs to be more physical on the perimeter. He’s important, works hard, and it was a good opportunity for him.