Swinney: Clemson Played Its Best Game, But Passing Offense Still Leaving Points Behind

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Opening Statement

Dabo Swinney: Kind of what I thought I saw yesterday during the game was confirmed on tape. Definitely played our best game and did a lot of good things. Good to see us play well in a lot of areas, get to play a lot of guys, come out of it healthy and have a chance to develop our team a little bit.

Good to see a bunch of guys get an opportunity to play. I think we played 90 players. For the most part, especially with the first groups, we played a lot of complementary football.

We just got to keep emphasizing the things we did good and keep working on the things that we didn't do as well. Still a lot of room for improvement. We're at the halfway point of the season, and I think we're a better football team than the team that started. A lot of opportunity for this team.

We just got to continue to reset each week and go coach with a great mindset and create that mindset and habits that our players need to win on Saturdays.

A lot of good on tape and plenty to improve on. But overall, pleased with the performance.

Defensively, just a dominant performance. To shut anybody out is hard to do. Really proud of how they competed. Zero of 13 on third and fourth down. I think only six yards total in the second half.

The best part is we subbed a lot of guys and continued to play with a real hard edge and keep the shutout. A lot of good stuff on tape. Probably the worst thing we did was just the first two or three plays of the game.

But we settled in. Didn't get a takeaway. I was disappointed with that, but a lot of good things defensively.

Same thing with special teams. Field goal has been a great unit for us. We only had one punt, but we punted inside the 10.

Big play on kickoff return, a 40-plus yarder. Averaged 12 yards per return on punt return, and then we scored on the kickoff coverage.

That's two scores on special teams this year on our kicking units. A lot of good stuff in special teams.

Offensively, as I said last night, a good start. Five consecutive scoring drives. Good balance. Five yards a carry. 231 rushing, 207 passing. Had 28 first downs and only three negative yards. No sacks.

We had a ton of plays. I think we had like 96 gradable plays for us offensively. Defensively, they only had 46 snaps, so not a lot of snaps.

Thought our tempo was good for the most part, and good job on third and fourth down.

I feel like Tait [Reynolds] has a few plays we want to see him make, but overall, his best game just from a quarterback standpoint. Running backs did a lot of good things.

A lot of guys got to play, but still felt like we left a lot out there. Missed a couple of red zone opportunities. Still some routine stuff we need to improve upon. Had some drops and some plays we need to make.

Had some penalties we need to eliminate. But overall, did what we needed to do. From playing a dominant game, staying healthy and developing our team, we were able to get all that done.

Back in conference play this week. Much, much bigger challenge with Virginia Tech. They're playing really, really well. They've got some explosive players.

Obviously, the quarterback is a really good player. We've seen him. A great, great player.

Got to have a great week and another great opportunity this week in the Valley. Looking forward to it.

Questions and Answers

Q: You guys are last in the country in passing touchdowns, just two in six games. What's your reaction to a stat like that?

Dabo Swinney: I’m just focused on beating Virginia Tech, man. That's all I'm trying to do. Just go 1-0 this week. That's all I'm worried about.

Q: For the passing offense, I know you highlighted drops in this game, but across the board, what do you feel is the biggest improvement you need to make with that unit?

Dabo Swinney: Yeah, it's the ball. It's a combination of things. Obviously, we're developing our quarterback.

We threw for 300 yards against a team that might be ranked number one in the country right now. We know it's there. We've seen it in bits and pieces, but not in totality enough where all 11 guys are doing what they need to do and finishing the plays that are there.

There's lots of ways we've got to improve, but we're just trying to have great weeks. If we can find a way to win this game, keep going.

Q: Staying on the topic of the passing offense and catching the ball, are the receivers getting adequate separation as much as you would like, just big picture?

Dabo Swinney: Yeah, there were several plays where guys were wide open. Again, I'd say we dropped four touchdown opportunities Saturday. The ball was put right there.

You're going to have some plays where you're not going to have guys running wide open. You're going to have some body-on-body, and we've got to finish some of those.

But we also had some guys wide open that we did not throw the ball to. We had one play in particular. T.J. Moore was wide open for a touchdown. Wide open.

It's one of the few negatives for Tait [Reynolds]. He took off and scrambled, and the protection was there. He's just got to sit in there, step up and throw the post for the touchdown.

It was right down there in the red zone, probably would've been about a 35-yard touchdown.

There are several things that are there, but we're just not executing at a really high level right now.

At the end of the day, we achieved the goal Saturday. We're going to keep working this week, see if we can keep improving and find a way to win the one in front of us.

Q: In terms of the tight ends being involved in the passing offense, especially with Christian [Bentancur]'s performance yesterday, is that more of what you'd want to see consistently?

Dabo Swinney: It's just execution.

It's really not about forcing things anywhere. It's about everybody doing their job, the quarterback going through his progression. The ball will go where it's supposed to go if everybody's doing their job from a protection standpoint, the quarterback is doing the right things and the receivers are all on the same page.

That's just kind of what happened Saturday, and it was good to see that for those guys. Good opportunity to see them make some plays.

Q: With Easton Ware, what did you take away from his first start at right guard? Do you think he did enough to stay at that spot moving forward?

Dabo Swinney: Yeah, we think he did a good job. He had a couple of plays, a couple of things we need to clean up, but overall, he was really good on his assignments.

I think he played 69 snaps. He had two missed assignments. For a guy that hadn't played a ton, I was pretty pleased with him there.

Got some technique things we need to clean up, but overall, a good first start for him at guard.

Q: For Donovan Starr, how did you see him against Charleston Southern? Do you feel like he did enough to be the starting nickel going forward?

Dabo Swinney: He didn't do anything to hurt himself. He went in as the starter at that position. We only had 46 snaps, but he did a good job with his opportunities, and he continues to flash.

I was super excited about another kid, Marcell Gipson Jr., getting him in there. I thought he flashed a couple of times. It's good to get some of these guys on tape.

We're excited about [Donovan] Starr. Again, we were hoping to bring him along with Corian [Gipson] and [Marcell] Gipson [Jr.]. But with Corian [Gipson] out, he's got to step up.

So far, so good.

Q: With Marcell [Gipson Jr.] now in the rotation and coming back, what do you see his role being going forward in the secondary?

Dabo Swinney: He's just got to be ready to play. He's got to be a depth guy for us.

He's one snap away from having to go in and play a lot of snaps. He's got to work his butt off Monday through Friday and make sure he's prepared.

He's a nickel and he's a corner, so he's got to be ready to help us if we need him. And then also some special teams stuff.

Q: What did you see from the penalties yesterday? There appeared to be a few procedural penalties. Is that something you're really focusing on for the rest of the year?

Dabo Swinney: I think just penalties in general, not just procedural. Penalties, period.

You're always going to have a couple where you're just kind of like, well, we don't necessarily agree with the call. That's always going to be the case.

Then you've got some others, like jumping offside when Tristan [Smith] came in on the first play of the game on a hard count. Those are things we've got to eliminate.

There were a few frustrating penalties, but then we had a couple on us as coaches, too.

We played 90 guys, so a couple of those things can get away from you. But we did cut down. I think we had a couple less than what we had in the last game.

We've got to continue to work on not beating ourselves. We're not a team right now that has a ton of room for error. We can't beat ourselves, and penalties are one of the main ways to do that.

If we're going to have the type of finish that we want, it's the turnover margin and penalties. Those are huge, huge factors. It affects field position from a good and bad standpoint.

We've got to win that penalty margin and we've got to win that turnover margin. Those are two big things for us moving forward if we want to have a great finish in the second half.

Q: Devarrick Woods couldn't go yesterday. How's he doing? What's his timeline for a potential return?

Dabo Swinney: We expect him to be back this week.

Q: How many snaps did Kourtney Kelly play, and what kind of progression do you expect to see from him over the next few weeks?

Dabo Swinney: We played about eight or nine guys. I don't think anybody played more than about 12 or 13 snaps.

I think Kourtney [Kelly] played seven, a couple of series. You don't really know how long a series will go when you've got your rotation. It could have gone four or five more plays, but it was good for him.

He knows he's got to work the rust off a little bit and get back into real football-playing shape.

He had a big smile on his face. He was happy. He's just got to keep practicing and working.

Again, that's the first live football he's been able to play since the spring.

But only 46 snaps, and we've got about nine defensive tackles that we were splitting reps with. Got a bunch of guys in there.

I think [Darien] Mayo played 12, [Andy] Burburija played 12, Amari [Adams] played nine, Vic [Burley] played 10.

Champ [Thompson], I think he was the leading guy at 13 snaps.

Not a lot of snaps. That's a good thing. I'll take that every single week from a defensive standpoint.