They Said It: No. 2 Clemson 45, Florida State 14
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CLEMSON HEAD COACH DABO SWINNEY
Opening statement:
“I just felt like we were playing a little tight in the last game, so I just wanted our team to have an edge getting off the bus today. I thought our guys had the right tone. They were locked in and eager to get back on the field. We were also eager to get back to doing the things that we need to do in order to win, like winning the turnover margin, making big plays on both sides of the ball and having great rhythm on offense.”
On the keys to the win:
“The defense did an awesome job of getting us the ball and forced four turnovers. But the offense set the tone. Trevor Lawrence was awesome. It was a great day for Travis Etienne and the offensive line, which gave up no sacks. Overall, it was a great day and a dominant performance by our guys, and it all goes back to how we practiced this week. I knew our guys were ready to go. We also had a chance to play a lot of people and challenge our backups.”
On Clemson’s defensive performance:
“We were physical up front. Cam Akers is a great running back for Florida State, and we were able to limit him to 34 rushing yards on nine carries. We did the little things better on defense and got our hands on some passes. That set the tone for everything else.”
CLEMSON CO-OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR TONY ELLIOTT
On the game:
“We all were challenged over the last two weeks to come out and to get back to being who we are. We wanted to have an aggressive game plan. That’s when we have been at our best. The guys put in the work. They had a really, really great week of preparation. [I’m] really excited to get in and watch the film because obviously there were a lot of good things.”
On if the offense had anything to prove:
“I don’t think [we had anything to prove] to the outside, but I think all of us felt like we needed to prove to ourselves. It’s not just knowing it; we have to go be it. We feel like we’re the best offense in the country.”
On offensive performance:
“I think it was a good starting point for us, and hopefully we can continue to play well and continue to stack good performances on top of this.”
CLEMSON OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JEFF SCOTT
On the game:
“[I’m] really proud of the way our guys came out of the locker room. Any time you don’t play well, you’re always ready to go play again. To have an open week, to have two weeks to wait before you go out there, it was great to see our guys come out and really attack, be precise and execute and all the things that we want. I thought that was great momentum.”
On the quick start offensively:
“We just really wanted to send a message to our guys that we were ready to go out and attack, and we weren’t just going to sit back and wait and see how people were going to play us. We were going to attack, and that’s something Coach [Dabo] Swinney really challenged our offense with. ‘Hey, we’re going to go throw it up first play, and second play is going to be a halfback pass. Make it happen.’”
On Travis Etienne bouncing back:
“It was great. Travis is obviously a talented player, and [he’s] just trying to feel his way. Two weeks ago wasn’t his best outing, and again, every guy was challenged individually… It was great to see Travis go out and be the player we know he is.”
CLEMSON DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR BRENT VENABLES
On the game:
“I’m really pleased with [our guys]. They came out sharp, [had] great intensity, played with tremendous passion and great physical toughness. I really felt that the most physical team who can dominate the line of scrimmage would win the game. We put a lot of focus on [Cam Akers]. I felt like everything goes through him. Our guys accepted the challenge. I thought they came out and were on fire. It was fun to watch.”
On forcing four turnovers:
“It was great. We had a great streak going there for a while… We bounced back [after North Carolina] in a big way. Guys played with great effort being physical. Good things always happen playing with confidence. I thought guys were really in tune with the game plan where we played with great cohesion as a unit.”
On shutting down Florida State running back Cam Akers:
“It’s always a collective team effort. You’ve got to have good coverage. You’ve got to have great play up front, and you’ve got to be good in the second and third levels. Fitting things between our base coverages and alignments and fronts and pressures, our guys did a really good job of mixing it up. Our guys up front played really well, and that’s where it all starts.”
CLEMSON QUARTERBACK TREVOR LAWRENCE
On the game:
“I was proud of the way we responded from two weeks ago. We had a good two weeks of preparation. It was good to see, and we knew were going to play based on how we prepared.”
On first play:
“That’s something we usually work on at the end of the week as far setting in stone what we’re going to do at first. The coaches did a really good job of game-planning throws, and it worked well.”
On gameplan:
“I think it was [about] us going out and playing. [Using] fast-tempo and taking some shots, and it worked out well. Guys made plays.
On national ranking as motivation:
“[It wasn’t] necessarily just that [but] the way we played two weeks ago. We wanted to prove that we’re a better team than that and can do a lot more than we did. We have high expectations for ourselves just like a lot of people do. We just want to play well, and I think we played really, really well.”
CLEMSON RUNNING BACK TRAVIS ETIENNE
On the game:
“It was very important for us to remember who we were, come out, play football and play to the standard.”
On if No. 2 ranking was used as motivation:
“No, not at all. Coach always tells us to run the race before us which is to win. We just run our race and go out there and play to our potential.”
On the team:
“We’re a team to be reckoned with. We’re still trying to put everything together, but we’re running in the right direction.”
CLEMSON CORNERBACK DERION KENDRICK
On his interception-return touchdown:
“I was reading my keys, and I read them well, and I saw the ball leave his hand and knew I had it.”
On the fast start defensively after a tough performance in the last game:
“Well, two weeks ago y’all know we had a slow game, a bad game. We had a good week in practice. Being able to go in there, watch film and knowing what the teams were doing and just executing and just practicing complementary football.”
On play-calling versus execution:
“It’s just really about executing. It’s something we didn’t do two weeks ago. It’s just being in the right sports at the right times and making plays.”
CLEMSON SAFETY TANNER MUSE
On the defense’s strong performance:
“Coach [Dabo] Swinney challenged us to really dominate a game. It’s been a while since we’ve really dominated a game like we did today. So we just took that as a challenge from him and tried to do our best.”
On Clemson dropping from the number one ranking:
“I wasn’t surprised. It’s happened before, so it’s not really a big deal. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter to us. If you go from one to two, you’re still on the floor. At the end of the day, it’s all about how the endgame works. That doesn’t really surprise me any how they do the polls or whatever… I think we definitely showed that we are one of those teams right now, but we’ve just got to continue to keep doing it.”
On the key to a strong defensive first half:
“I think it was our preparation. We had two weeks to prepare for these guys. They did a lot of different stuff that we weren’t prepared for, but I think when you apply the concepts of what we thought they were going to do with all we have, I think it just plays out really nice. I think when you’ve got a really veteran back seven, you can do that kind of stuff… At the end of the day, you just apply concepts.”
CLEMSON LINEBACKER ISAIAH SIMMONS
On national ranking as motivation:
“I don’t really think it mattered. That preseason ranking means absolutely nothing; we got that based on last year’s team. This is a completely new team, and what ranking we get will be earned throughout the season.”
On defensive performance:
“We’re trying to open up our stride. We felt like we took a step back last game, so from here on out we just want to build on each week and get better and better as the season goes.”
On team mindset:
“We all had a complete different focus with the bye week and this week to prepare. We got a wake-up call. We knew we couldn’t make the mistakes we made last game if we wanted to come out with the win.”
CLEMSON WIDE RECEIVER JUSTYN ROSS
On the North Carolina game as motivation:
“Of course everybody was mad. They were talking bad about us, but we weren’t really worried about it because we know what we’re capable of, and we showed it tonight.”
On his two touchdowns:
“I was able to get good leverage, and then when I got to the top of my routes, I was able to break them off. Trevor [Lawrence] is going to find me every time.”
On having a good opening drive:
“It’s always important to come out and have a strong opening drive just because you want to start the game off right. You want to get a good jump on every team.”
FLORIDA STATE HEAD COACH WILLIE TAGGART
Opening Statement:
“Disappointing loss. I thought we had a good week of practice, a good game plan, we didn’t play the way we wanted to or the way we thought we should. We lost to a really good football team. Clemson is a really good football team. Like I told you guys earlier in the week, we got to play our best in order to beat them and we didn’t. It’s disappointing, like I told our guys afterwards, I loved the way they fought. We can’t let this one game cause us to lose two games. We have to get back to work. I know they will. I know they’ll fight back and we’ll get back next week.”
On carryover effect from this game:
“I think we’re mentally mature enough to get past it and they will, we have to.”
On the lack of execution:
“I mean we just didn’t make the plays, we didn’t execute. We turned the ball over, I told you all before we can’t turn the ball over and expect to win, we gave up some explosive plays there, we can’t do that and we just didn’t play well, didn’t execute at all.”
On if they are as talented as Clemson:
“I think we have the talent, if you have the talent, you can't turn the ball over four times and expect to win against a team like Clemson, they're a really good football team and you have to take care of the ball and be better on third downs and keep the ball.”
On the offense:
“I think from the offense in general, we didn't do enough. Everybody on that side of the ball, we didn’t do enough.”
On the defense:
“I thought the first half we came out, really the first quarter, we didn't come out with the same passion and energy that we did weeks before. I thought our defense settled down and after a while we started playing a lot better and unfortunately we got so far behind, we didn't have any help from the offense.”