Postgame Notes and Quotes: Syracuse 27, Clemson 24

Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney

"Obviously, very disappointed. A lot of pain in our locker room, but listen, this is a story about Syracuse. This ain't about Clemson. This is about Syracuse. They out-played us, out-coached us and give them a ton of credit. This was a football game that they just flat out wanted more than we did; that's 100% on me."

"We just didn't do the things that you've got to do to win the game. That's my responsibility. There's plenty to correct and all of that, but it starts with being ready to play. So that's just where it is. At the same time, it's what I told them in the locker room my love for them is not conditional, it's completely unconditional. It's not based on the scoreboard. Man thises guys they lay it on the line every single week."

"We came up short. We had opportunities. Missed kicks, we didn't take advantage of opportunities they did. Give them credit. Man, I love my team, I love these guys. This is going to hurt. A lot of pain for a couple of days here but we move forward. Failure is a part of the journey, unfortunately. You win with class, you lose with class."

"We have to go back to the drawing board. The players have a couple days here and then we get back to work on Monday and get ready for our biggest game of the year. This game is behind us and all we can do is grow from it, learn from it. The only thing off the table for this team is that we’re not going to be 12-0, that’s for sure. That's not going to happen. Other than that, we still have an opportunity to win the division, every goal we have is still there for this team, but we have to make the right decisions, regroup and get better from this. If we do that and respond the right way as coaches and players, we will hopefully have the type of season we want to have. The story of the night is Syracuse. They outplayed us, outcoached us, just incredibly disappointed, but we have to move forward.”

On Kelly Bryant:

He was ready to go. Kind of tweaked it on one play a couple of plays earlier. Then he got a concussion. He got slammed into the ground. That's why he came out of the game. He put his heart into getting ready. I hate he got hurt. I'm glad we have an open date. Hopefully get him healed up and ready to go.

On Zerrick Cooper being #2:

"Zerrick is the second guy. He's been the second guy. We thought Zerrick played good. He did some good things. We didn't help him in a couple of situations. We had a couple of missed assignments, but we will watch the tape, evaluate and move forward."

On the penalties:

"That was the story of the game tonight. One of them was a very disappointing penalty. The celebration, the bad gesture, that's not who we are. That was costly."

On the fake punt:

It's my decision. Everything out there is my decision. It's a very safe play. It's a rugby punt and you only throw it if it's wide open. he felt like he could drop it in there. It was really just a "punt the ball" situation, but again that's a freshman. I put him in that situation that's on me. Obviously, I didn't do a good enough job of coaching that. That's 100% on the coach."

On the missed field goals:

We hadn't had a lot of working stats with our field goal situation. No one is more disappointed than Alex. He hasn't had a lot of experience in his time here. We get the ball down around the twenty-yard line, those are kicks we need to make. We didn't make them. It is what it is. We can't heal Greg and have him back ready for Georgia Tech. We got to get better at that, develop the confidence to make those kicks."

Syracuse Head Coach Dino Babers

Opening Statement:

“First of all my hat goes off to Coach Dabo Swinney. The Clemson Tigers are a wonderful football team, and I’m sure they will still have an opportunity, and should, to play for a National Championship. That’s a championship team, that’s not a bunch of individuals. That was a hard-fought match. They’re going to be fine, they really are."

"I’m very, very proud of the young men. That senior class, three head football coaches, all the things they've been through, to have an opportunity to have a win like that is something they will never forget for the rest of their lives. It’s something that they will tell their sons and their daughters, and then they’ll tell their grandsons and their granddaughters. It will be one of those deals where, ‘No, grandpa not the story about how you beat Clemson at the Loud House.’ And, they’ll have to sit there and listen to it again."

"It’s truly one of those moments that you coach for. I’ve had those moments but to be able to share a moment like that with these young men is really, really special and really means a lot to me. I’m really proud of them.”

On a turning point win: 
“You know, you guys called it (Virginia Tech win last season) a signature win, and I just concurred. This is big. I’ve only been a part of beating a number two team once before and that was at UCLA beating USC when they were number two. This is big. I’m excited for the players. I’m excited for the university and the community. How about the fans tonight? Are you kidding me? We have a dome. No one else does. Neener, neener, neener. We’re loud. We’re crazy up here, and that’s the atmosphere that it should be every time you come to the Carrier Dome. It should be a difficult place to play. That was a good football team, and I thought the fans were great. They were fantastic. They were the 12th man on defense and it made it very difficult for the offense to communicate, and that helped our defense and it motivated our young men to give the effort they needed to beat a fantastic Clemson team.”

On the performance: 
“From a defensive standpoint, we’re getting better. We still have our two starting defensive ends, Black and Coleman, still haven’t played in a long time. We need to get those guys back, but the other guys are rotating and they are giving a fantastic effort. There’s no rotation with the offensive line. They’re going to play every snap unless they go down, and if they go down we’re going to put another guy in. We’re just not deep enough in either one of those areas yet. For the big people, I don't know how many plays we played, but the way we were running the ball the fourth quarter, I guarantee it was a lot. It was over 80 something because you could see that they were getting a little taxed.”

On what he told his team in the locker room: 
“Basically what I’m saying right here, that I’m really proud, and really proud of them. The thing about the locker room is that you get to look into those young people’s eyes. And when you’re looking at them, and they’re looking back, there are certain things you know they will never forget. How would you like to do something positively that somebody would never forget for the rest of their lives? I’ve seen more days than I’m going to see, and to know I put a moment in time in a 124 people’s lives. They’re going to live a heck of a lot longer than me I promise you that. That’s really special. That’s what coaching is all about. I’ve never wanted to go coach professional football, it’s never been something I wanted to do, even though I’ve had opportunities. To me, the true spirit of the game is college football or Pop Warner. They're not getting paid; they’re doing it for the love of the brother next to them, for the love of the brotherhood. The band of brothers. Good stuff.”

On Kelly Bryant's injury:

"I really feel that the defense had a good handle on Bryant. The coolest thing about football is that you get to hit the best player. When Michael Jordan gets fouled, he gets the basket and he gets another one. In football, you get an opportunity to hit the best player and it changes the face of the game because sometimes the best player can keep playing and sometimes he can't. Bryant is a fantastic player and I thought we had a good gameplan for him. I thought we executed it well. Him not being in the game is definitely an advantage for us. Him not being healthy going into the game is an advantage for us. But that's what makes football the chess match that it is. Physically you get to hit each other's best players and when one of those guys goes down, it has a ripple effect throughout the entire family."

Dino Baber's Full Press Conference:

Streaks Ended:

• Clemson had won 11 consecutive games overall, the longest active streak in the nation.  South Florida now has the longest active streak with 10 in a row.
• Clemson had won 12 straight games on the opponent’s home field, a Clemson record.   The Tigers had won 18 of the last 19 games played away from home.
• The Tigers had won 15 straight in the month of October and 20 in a row against Atlantic Division teams.
• Clemson had won 12 in a row away from home against ACC teams and 21 of the last 22 against league opponents.
• Clemson had won 22 games in a row played before November 1.
• Clemson had won 13 in a row at night over the last two years.

Individual Notes:

• Travis Etienne scored on a 52-yard touchdown run on Friday night at Syracuse.  It was his fourth run of 50 yards or more this year.  Three of those 50 yard runs have gone for touchdowns.  Entering Saturday’s play, Etienne was fourth in the nation in runs of 50 yards or more and his four 50-yard runs are the most by a Clemson player since at least 2009.  Andre Ellington had three in 2010 and 2011.
• Deon Cain has now caught a pass in 30 consecutive games and Hunter Renfrow extended his straight to 21 consecutive games.
• Clemson running backs  Travis Etienne and Tavien Feaster had 12 rushes for 125 yards and two scores. That is an average of a little over 10 yards per rush. But they had 89 yards on two plays.
• Ray-Ray McCloud has caught a pass in 23 of the last 24 games.
• Clelin Ferrell had 3.5 sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss against Syracuse.  He was just half a sack off the single-game Clemson record and just half a tackle for loss off the mark for tackles for loss in a game.  He also had nine tackles, seven of which were first hits.
• Tanner Muse scored on a 63-yard fumble return at Syracuse.  It was his second career touchdown.  He had a 64-yard interception return for a score against Syracuse in 2016.   Muse is the first Clemson player to score a defensive touchdown against the same school in consecutive years since Rahim Abdullah scored on fumble returns in consecutive years against NC State in 1996 and 1997.

Team Notes:

• Clemson falls to 1-1-1 in games on Friday the 13th.  Clemson downed Presbyterian 13-0 on Friday, October 13, 1922, and tied  George Washington on Friday, October 13, 1933, 0-0 in its previous games on Friday the 13th.
• Clemson has forced seven turnovers this year, but three of the takeaways have gone for touchdowns.
• Clemson has not had a turnover on the road this year and has run 202 consecutive plays without a turnover away from home.
• Clemson won the turnover margin at Syracuse 1-0, but lost the game.  Clemson had been 50-4 under Dabo Swinney when winning the turnover margin.
• Clemson has 14 runs of at least 20 yards this year.  The Tigers had just 15 all of last year in 15 games.

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