Editor’s Note: Light clean-up has been made for clarity, but all phrasing and meaning remain exactly as spoken.
Q: How much has Cade been able to practice the last two nights?
DABO SWINNEY: A good amount. He's getting better each day. Proud of him. Again, we'll put out a report tomorrow night, but he's had a good week.
Our team's had a great week. I mean, these guys have really, you know, practiced with just a ton of focus, a ton of energy. It's been a really, really good Tuesday, Wednesday.
So everybody's done what they need to do to get ready.
Q: On Vizzina’s confidence being impacted since that SMU game.
SWINNEY: Yeah, I mean, you know, again, he was confident before. But, again, as I said the other day, there's just nothing like experience. Not only experience, but positive experience to reinforce what you've been doing and what you think you can do.
We've seen that in practice. He's had a good skip in his step, but it's one game. He's got to create consistency and all that stuff with more opportunity as it comes.
But it's been really good. I mean, he's had a really good just focus to him at practice. He's been that way and that's one of the reasons that he played well, is because he's really shown up each week and prepared to go play. That's not always easy to do when you're not getting the opportunity. So, he deserves a lot of credit for that.
So he's had a good week as well.
Q: With Cade trying to get back and play Saturday, how many reps is Christopher getting with first-team reps and stuff like that?
SWINNEY: Yeah, well, our first two quarterbacks, they get the same reps. Our first and second group, we rep two groups, and sometimes we will interchange guys accordingly and get some crossover with the ones and the twos. He's gotten a lot of reps.
Q: Your thoughts on the challenge of facing Duke's defense.
SWINNEY: Honestly, it's very similar to what we do — very similar. There's a lot of carryover. They do a lot of similar things that we do from a disguise standpoint, and they do a nice job with it. So from that standpoint, I think there's some good carryover as we prepare for them.
Q: You mentioned earlier that kind of the preseason expectations kind of weighed on the team earlier in the season. With those expectations kind of gone, have you seen the team kind of play more loosely leading up to this Duke game?
SWINNEY: I think there are a couple of lessons. I think one is, again, you can't let the expectations become greater than your process of what you do — your daily focus, your joy in what you do, your love of what you do, your purpose and why of what you do.
Sometimes when that happens, you can kind of get off track and vice versa. You can't let disappointment or perceived failure — because, again, failure is a part of success — but you can't let disappointment or any type of failure become greater than your process or your love of what you do, your joy of what you do. Same thing — your daily focus and purpose and why in what you do.
I think those are two great lessons that come from both of those scenarios.
But, hey, look, we've played seven games. They've got a lot of experience to draw upon. They've got some disappointment. They've had a little bit of success, too. They know what it looks like.
The biggest thing is, this is a very committed group that wants to finish well. They've got five more opportunities to go play, Lord willing, and they've got to earn the right to win by how they prepare and practice, and they're doing that.
But then you've got to show up on game day and do what it takes to win. You can't just be talented. You've got to, you know, do what winning requires on game day.
Q: You all had two players decommit from your 2026 class. Just your thoughts on those departures — and I know this was something that happened last year as well. Just kind of that trend and how you navigate that in current college football.
SWINNEY: Got no thoughts. Just onward we go. Onward we go.
Q: I think you said last week after SMU that there were things offensively you either never got to or things that worked early but you didn’t come back to. Is that just a feel thing as an OC that you’d like to maybe see improve? How would you maybe explain how that happens?
SWINNEY: There are also several things there that we just didn't execute well. Starting with the short yardage. We had a couple of short yardages and then we had a missed blitz pickup that put us in a bind.
Those things can get you out of rhythm a little bit. We've got to make the plays that are there, and that leads to more. So we've got five more opportunities to go and see if we can be the best version of ourselves and be the team that I know we can be — be the offense that I know we can be.
We've had some moments, we've had some glimpses, but just not enough consistency with it.
