Swinney Says Virginia Tech Loss Will 'Leave a Scar,' Stands Behind Chad Morris
Editor’s note: This is a rough transcript. The full audio can be heard above.
Opening Statement
Dabo Swinney:
All right, everybody. Not a whole lot more to add from what I said last night. Obviously, again, just really disappointed with the outcome of the game.
It was a game that we had plenty of opportunity to win, and we did not. Been in a lot of games over the last 18 years. A bunch of good ones, but also some that had some tough losses along the way, too.
Some of those losses leave a scar. This one will leave a scar because I just feel like we were in position to win the game, and we didn't get that done. That's my responsibility. So just really a frustrating loss.
They all are, but like I said, this one was one that was really right there with a lot of opportunity to win it. I thought our kids played really hard, played tough, played physical. We just had some mistakes in some critical situations.
I did think our defense and special teams did enough to win the game. But still, we got a lead in the fourth quarter, and we had two drives in the fourth quarter. If we could get a stop on one of them, we got a chance to win the game, and we didn't get it done.
I think overall, man, they played really tough, physical. If you'd have told me going into the game that we were going to hold them to what we did, I would have signed up for that. But just didn't get it done on the offensive side to complement them.
Really disappointing in the outcome, but defensively, a lot of good things. Held them down, way down. I was really worried about the running game, and we did a great job there. They were 11th in the country in throwing the ball, 302 a game. We held them at 164 and really affected the quarterback.
Biggest thing defensively was the penalties. The late hit on the quarterback was just, it wasn't blatant, but it was just a poor decision. It just can't happen. You can't even put yourself in that situation. That would have been a first-and-20, and so that was a huge penalty.
Again, a couple of PIs, and so just a couple of missed opportunities. Two drive opportunities to win it as good as we played, but just not enough help from the offensive side of it. Too many missed opportunities on the offensive side.
The fourth-and-inches, the stop on the fake, those two were in the score zone, and we got no points. Then we needed to convert at least one of those field goals to a touchdown, and just didn't get it done.
So really disappointing outcome. Again, special teams, I think, did enough to be able to win the game as well. I thought we had good field position really all night from special teams, so there were a lot of positives in that.
But again, we'll reset, grow from it, dust off, and see if we can go find a way to win this week. Doesn't get any easier going on the road.
A really, really dangerous Florida State team that I think they're really, really talented. They've scored a bunch of points on everybody they've played. They've just somehow come out on the wrong end of it in some of these games.
This is a really dangerous team, and again, coming off an open date, it'll be a big challenge for us this week in Tallahassee.
Q: What have your conversations with Chad Morris been like today, and what were the biggest takeaways from reviewing the film?
Dabo Swinney:
We had a lot of conversation as a staff and just he and I as well, but those are conversations between us.
But yeah, we watch everything. We watch every little play, every little detail, everything that you can watch, and that's the frustrating thing.
There's just plenty of opportunity there for us, and we just can't seem to put it together, and that's a very frustrating thing.
We're nowhere near what we thought we would be or what we've worked to be or even what we've seen at practice.
So it's frustrating, but we just got to keep at it, keep working, and see if we can get it going this week.
Q: On Tait Reynolds' fourth-and-nine sack on the final drive, was that supposed to be a play-action pass? If so, what was the reasoning?
Dabo Swinney:
No, that was not a play-action pass.
I have no idea why he's P-faking [play-action faking]. Ball should have been gone, should have taken a drop, and he had the crosser, he had T.J. Moore, and they got us on a corner cat.
But really, I think if he takes his drop, there's no P-fake [play-action fake] there.
I just think sometimes he just kind of gets in a little bit of a habit, but something we got to clean up for sure.
Q: What do you need to see improve from Chad Morris in terms of play-calling or scheme going forward?
Dabo Swinney:
Yeah, points. I mean, touchdowns. Sure do. We need to convert.
I mean, heck, we're going to win the Groza Award for sure offensively. We need to convert some of these field goals to touchdowns. So we've got to get it done.
I'm not saying whether it's play calls. It's finding a way to get it put together.
I'll tell you, we do. We have great kids. They're working hard. We're talented enough. It just hasn't been able to get in sync.
So, points. That's the main thing. We need points.
Q: Are you confident Chad Morris will remain the offensive coordinator for the rest of the season?
Dabo Swinney:
Absolutely.
Q: The reason I ask is that your criticism last night seemed to leave the door open to that possibility.
Dabo Swinney:
I'm criticizing myself as well because I'm the head coach. It starts with me. Ultimately, it's my responsibility.
And so that's why this one will leave a scar for me. Again, I've lost plenty of games in an 18-plus-year head coaching career and years before that as an assistant.
But like I said, some of them will leave a scar. This one leaves a scar because I just feel like I didn't get it done. It's on me. It's my responsibility.
Those kids played their hearts out, and it just hasn't come together like we needed it to.
Nobody works harder than Chad. He's smart. He's detailed. It just hasn't come together.
We're kind of going through a little bit of transition, but we'll work our way through it. And we're going to come out. There's going to be better days ahead. There's no doubt about it for me.
And so just keep focusing on the right things and just keep doing the work.
Q: Have you and Chad identified a common issue that explains the offensive struggles and what needs to be fixed?
Dabo Swinney:
Yeah. I mean, that's the problem. We get the OL doing this right, then the tight end gets it wrong. Or we get the OL making the perfect block, and the running back doesn't run the track.
We get the quarterback right, and the receiver drops it. Or the quarterback's wrong. I mean, it's just musical chairs.
So it just hasn't been in sync. And again, that's on us as coaches to get that done. And that's the frustrating thing, is it's not what we're seeing in practice.
And we're just getting in the game, and it's like musical chairs of whose turn it is to have a mess-up. And you got to have 11 guys all on the same page, and we just haven't had that enough.
So again, just a little bit better job by us coaches last night, and we're in great position to win that game, leading in the fourth quarter.
And again, the defense had a chance to win it, but they did enough to win the game. And offensively, just not enough to help them.
Q: Given that the offense relies heavily on reads and RPOs, how much harder does that make things for the coordinator when the quarterback's processing isn't where it needs to be?
Dabo Swinney:
Yeah, well, that's part of it. Sometimes it's dead on by the quarterback, but we have a breakdown somewhere else.
And then the quarterback makes a mistake, and that something else does it right. So that makes it hard. So it's not just the quarterback.
He's a young player, and he missed a couple of things. But it's really the combination of just mistakes, really, holistically as a group.
Just a routine play by Tyler Brown, as good as he played, we don't even get to that fourth-and-inches. That's the easiest play he had all night.
And so that's my point. We do some of the easy things we don't do well.
Then he comes back the next play, and he makes one of the most unbelievable plays you've ever seen. And now we're fourth-and-one.
And so it's kind of a combination of all these things. It's really hard to just put your finger on one thing.
There were some good things in our offensive line. I thought we did some really good things.
We didn't give up any sacks in the OL. None. No sacks.
I thought Harris Sewell played really well. I thought Brayden [Jacobs] played well. I mean, those guys were physical.
We had a couple of runs that were there that we just don't run the correct track.
And then you run the right track, and maybe we miss a block. And so it's just a combination of a lot of different things that we're kind of growing through right now.
But like I said, there's better days ahead. And I haven't lost any faith in Chad. Man, that guy's smart as they come. He's an incredible worker. He's incredibly organized.
And sooner or later, this thing's going to come together.
Q: Are there any changes you can make to the offensive staff during the season, similar to the defensive adjustments you made last year?
Dabo Swinney:
No, no, no. It's a different situation than that. I mean, we're not playing very well, but it's a different situation.
Q: You knew there would be growing pains offensively this season, particularly with Tait Reynolds. What kind of progression did you expect to see by this point?
Dabo Swinney:
More precision in what we're doing. That's really what I expected.
Just more precision and just not some of the miscues that we've had, especially in the red zone. I mean, we've left a lot of points out there, and it's been frustrating.
And again, we've played, we lost to a couple good teams early. And we, like I said, had a shot in the Miami game with two red-zone opportunities back to back, got three points.
And kind of work our way. And this, like I said, this was a game, this is why this one leaves a scar for me, because I just felt like we had a great plan.
And I loved how we practiced and prepared. And it was all there for us. And this is a game that we just, it was right there to go win, but you have to go win.
And we didn't do that. And they did. So you got to give them credit.
They made some big situational plays that we didn't make, but we're a little bit of our own worst enemy right now, especially offensively.
But we are where we are right now, but we're going to work our way through it. We're going to get better. We're going to get better.
Q: Given Clemson's struggles to score and its low national offensive rankings, have you or your staff questioned your evaluation of the talent currently on the roster?
Dabo Swinney:
No, I think it's on us as coaches. I just think I've got to be better. And coaches got to be better as well. But it starts with me.
We got good players. We got good enough players.
We, in my opinion, should be five and two and with momentum, but we didn't get that done. And that's my responsibility.
But we got good players that we got to coach and we got to teach them. We got to get them playing like we're supposed to.
And again, I'm seeing that on defense. I'm seeing that on special teams, seeing a lot of great improvement in a lot of areas.
And there's been some things individually here and there on offense, but even with Tait, we finally got to see him really use how he can run. He's getting more and more comfortable there, but just putting it all together, it just hasn't come.
And we didn't anticipate maybe the situation happening the way it did either. Knowing that he was going to need to play some, but CV going out third series of the Georgia Southern game and really not being available for a while and practicing or nothing.
I mean, that's given him a lot of opportunity to grow. But we got to be better as coaches, and we got to be better around him because he's definitely grown.
He's definitely done some good things. We make a great throw and we drop it on the third down last night. What a throw that was, back-shoulder ball.
So like I said, sometimes the growth isn't really seen yet, but I'm not discouraged as far as our players are concerned.
I love these guys, and we always got to get better, but we're going to keep on keeping on and see if we can find a way to win one more game and then see if we can go win another one.
We just got to battle week in and week out.
