Swinney on facing South Carolina: "Everybody wants to win. It's a rivalry game."

Opening Statement: Good morning, everybody, and Happy Thanksgiving. Hope everybody's ready for a great week. Hopefully, everybody has some time with your families or significant others.

We’ve all got a lot to be thankful for, that's for sure. You don't have to look very far, probably around all of our circle to know how blessed we are and how thankful we are. All that we have to be thankful for, so looking for a great week with our team.

Always enjoy this week, it's different with school. Technically, I guess they have classes today, but I don't know how many actually have classes today. They're out on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

So it's a little different schedule, and obviously Thanksgiving, and we have a lot of families that come into town and so forth. But it's just fun, it's fun being a part of a rivalry game. It's even more fun when you win, that's for sure.

On the South Carolina Rivalry: It’s a blessing to be a part of a historic game. And this is kind of my norm in life for a long time, 13 Alabama-Auburn games. Then just growing up, kind of being a fan, and then 23 years here.

It's just fun to be in the fight, if you will, fun to be a part of it. I look forward to a great game on Saturday against a really good football team. I have a lot of respect for Shane [Beamer] and how he does things.

On the 2025 Gamecocks: I know their record's not what they wanted it to be, just like ours isn't what we want it to be, but they're a really good football team.

Very talented, a lot of really, really good players on both sides of the ball. Offensively, it starts with their quarterback. I mean, he is an elite player.
He's a great football player, and he can change the game on one play. And you see that in him all the time. So big task there, and obviously, we did a poor job with him last year.

I think all their backs are good players, they're all powerful runners. No. 8 is a guy that's probably the most improved player on their team. He is a take-the-top-off-of-the-defense type of guy.

On how Stephiylan Green has progressed this week: Yeah, better and better every day.

On the senior class losing two of three against South Carolina. It would be three of four if they were to lose. Is that an extra motivation for that group, just considering that hasn't happened here for a while: We've also won two of four. So you can do the math however you want. We've won eight out of ten. However, you wanna make the math work to make the story, you can spin it however you want. So I think nobody needs extra motivation to win this game. Game means a lot. You win, it's a great day.
You lose, it's a really bad day in your life. You gotta move on either way, but it's a rivalry game. It means a lot to a lot of people. Everybody wants to win because it's a rivalry game. It's a huge game. It's a state championship.
That's why you wanna win. I don't think anybody needs any extra motivation in this game.

On LaNorris Sellers’ play last season vs. Clemson: Yeah, all you gotta do is watch the tape. I mean, we had him tackled about 50 times. I don't know how many missed tackles we had, but it was unbelievable.
I mean, it was crazy. They all know what to expect. The good thing is, at least they've got that in their head. I mean, he's hard to get down. He's strong. You have to do a great job of staying in front of him and trying to keep him in the pocket. You’ve gotta get 11 guys to the ball. And when somebody gets to him, you gotta find a way to wrap up and hold on. Cuz he's strong and he can break tackles. That was the difference in the game last year. 

On winning and losing with class and why that’s important: Well, I mean, we should be better. Both sides should be better. I mean, it's just the right thing to do. I mean, that's not, again, been a part of these games for a long time. I just don't think it leads to anything good. Win the game, celebrate, all that stuff. But the extracurricular stuff on people's fields, we need to be better. On both sides, celebrate with your fans and all that stuff. But disrespecting the logo, things like that. We all should be better in that regard. Bad things come from that. We almost had a fight last year that was nasty. We don't need that, and I've been a part of that. I mean, it was ‘04, I mean, that was a bad, bad scene. Compete your butt off, dislike each other, whatever, but we need to win with class and lose with class.”

Catch all of today’s press conference with Dabo Swinney in the cleaned-up audio above. If you like content like this, consider subscribing to support our efforts to give you the most efficient versions possible each week.