Swinney's Tuesday Press Conference

A few notes and quotes from Dabo Swinney's Tuesday press conference:

On Wake Forest:

• Tuesday is always a heavy workday for us and we got a lot of work to do.
• This is a very good football team. If you say anything different about Wake Forest, then you don’t know what you are talking about.
•  If you think Wake is not a legitimate contender for the division, then you don’t know what you are talking about.
• We will not see another team that fights as hard as them all year.
• They have 10 starters back on defense and nine on offense. Their quarterback is a winner.
• Their defense knows what they are doing. They have way more depth than Virginia Tech up front.
• Wake leads the nation right now in tackles for loss.
• Defense presents same problems up front as Auburn. They have the same type of depth up front.

What Swinney wants to see:

• What I am looking for in our team is maturity. I am looking for a team that matches that intensity and heart.
• We need to wake up, show up and get ready to go. For our team, fans, and students. We need a national championship environment.

Swinney on injuries:

• Marcus Edmond is a lot better, but not 100-percent. Hope to have him back by the bye week, if not next week.

Swinney on the mindset of the team:

• If you go get beat this week, then they won’t be talking about Clemson-Bama III I can promise you that.
• Told team that if we were playing in Atlanta this week for the national championship, how would you prepare? How much sleep would you get? How much film would you watch? We have that mindset every week. If we don’t have that, then we aren’t putting our best foot forward.

Swinney on the depth chart:

• The depth chart doesn’t matter, especially at cornerback. A lot of our positions are game-time decisions because everything matters.
• Xavier Kelly played his best game on Saturday.
• We don’t sign people that we don’t think can play. We evaluate and recruit the guys will be good for our program. Sometimes we miss but not a lot. Guys sometimes get here and can’t stay focused.
• We love guys that can bring that versatility and can play multiple sports.
• Ignorance to think that J.D. Davis got an offer because of his dad. There are no better winners than J.D. and Judah. They’ve been like my fourth and fifth sons.
• Dorian O’Daniel barely touched the field his third year, but in his fifth year is as good as any player in the country. He’s developed.

Swinney on Clemson's focus:

• The focus here is to build great men. That’s how we can go create change in the world.

Swinney on Deshaun Watson:

• Deshaun said he’s just trying to keep up with what Clemson does on Saturdays. Typical Deshaun response.