Dabo Swinney on the Syracuse loss, "They just whipped our butt."
Today Dabo Swinney was on "Off Campus with Mark Packer" on Sirius XM. Here is what Coach Swinney had to say.
On the week off:
Looking forward to a break this week. Glad our guys will get a chance to go home. Get a little downtime, get refreshed, recharged and healthy.
On the Syracuse loss:
They just whipped our butt. We had plenty of opportunities to win the game. You gotta earn it. We didn't do it; we didn't earn it, they did. Those guys just outplayed us and outcoached us. Gave up too many big plays on defense. You're doing a good job with 10 of your guys, and one of them's not. That was kind of the story of the game defensively. Just about three or four really big plays, which has not been characteristic of us. And then special teams, pretty solid outside of...we just missed two layups, field goals. We moved the ball, get the ball on the 19, get the ball on the 20 and you miss two kicks, then you end up losing by a field goal down the stretch.
We had 120 yards in penalties. That's the most yardage in penalties we have had in ten years here. Eight of them on defense. Very disappointing unsportsmanlike on Tanner Muse. He picks the ball up and scores. Instead of scoring and handing the ball to the ref the right way, he's gonna dance and have all these crazy antics and get a penalty.
I did a poor job. I didn't do a good job making sure our offense was prepared. It was a bad night all the way around. Bad night, not a bad year. What we've got to do is grow from it, learn from it. College football is hard, that's why you hear me say all the time when you win, you better appreciate it and celebrate, because it's hard to win. Give Syracuse all the credit; they just kicked our butt. We can't be 12-0, but we can be 11-1. But you can't win 11 till you win seven.
Was there a point in time you thought I should probably take Kelly Bryant out:
No, we don't get involved in all those decisions, we just play the guys our trainers say are healthy and good to go. He was 12-16, he was playing well and managing the game the way we needed him to. He got slammed into the ground. Didn't have anything to do with his ankle. He got slammed down and got a concussion. I don't get involved in any of those medical decisions. They tell me who can and can't play.
On field goal kicking:
We actually brought a kid out who was close to making it, but we just didn't have a spot. He's an older kid; he's a senior. He is a guy we were going to add, but he had to have hernia surgery, and that's when Huegel came on board. We'll see, we're not giving up on Spence. I've seen Spence do it in practice over and over and over. It's just been a mental hurdle for him. We've got to be able to make some kicks. Those are plays we've got to make.
Parallel to last season's loss to Pitt:
I think you can definitely point to that and the parallel that they have the same opportunity. We know the rest of the story with that team, it's yet to be determined with this team. I think we have 53 or 54 freshmen ....hopefully the leadership will help us get focused and play well to give yourself the best opportunity to win. We've got the same opportunity. Do we have the same will to win? There have been very few championship teams who have gone undefeated. Sometimes you have to lose to learn what it takes to win.
On being in Alabama this past weekend:
It was just a blessing. There is nothing like being around your teammates. It was such a great day. Everybody just treated us, first class. It's amazing that it's been 25 years, but it seemed like we were just together.
You can listen to "Off Campus with Mark Packer on Sirius XM weeknights from 4-7.