Friday AM Notes: Sage Surratt, Wake's offense, and "Sweatshirt Dabo"
We’ve got a few notes to pass along from Dabo Swinney as Clemson will take on Wake Forest tomorrow at 3:30. The game will be televised on ABC.
Wake Forest will be without their leading receiver Sage Surratt on Saturday as he is out for the year with a shoulder injury. Surratt led the ACC in receiving yards with 1,001 yards. Dabo Swinney called Surratt a ‘great’ player.
“He is a really, really good receiver. Great ball skills, great finisher on the ball. He’s an excellent leader. That’s a tough loss for them for sure. They’ve got a good group of receivers. They’re well-coached and they’ve got solid depth but he’s definitely a difference-maker.”
Swinney was asked about the “slow ride” action Wake Forest uses on offense and how they can negate that by controlling the line of scrimmage on Saturday.
“They’re pretty good up front and they’re physical and they’re finishers. Kind of like what we like to pride ourselves on finishing but I definitely think if you can create leakage, number one, if you can win some matchups, if you can create a new line of scrimmage then that ride time has to shorten. It’s a little different method. There’s I’m sure an ideal amount of time that they would like, kind of like a quarterback, you always have an internal clock in your head as a quarterback. The clock’s ticking. You want to get that ball gone. 1.8, 2.4, you want that ball out of there and I’m sure they have a timing that’s perfect for them as far as the coordination of the routes and all that so, yeah, if you can win in the trenches, create quicker decisions, a little indecisiveness then hopefully that’s an advantage for you but it’s easier said than done. They’re very good at it and they have a lot of answers so try to light up and bring pressure, they’ve got some answers that can hurt you.
That was what we were so good at last year with Christian and Clelin, in particular, had a great game against these guys. They were disruptive and it really affected them so for sure, that’s a major goal for us.”
Dabo said the eye discipline on defense in this game is “almost like playing a triple-option.” He says the defense will have to be very gap sound because they can expose you and then find it.
We are all aware of the sweatshirts that Dabo wears on the sidelines on Saturday which has earned him the phrase "Sweatshirt Dabo” from fans. He says it’s something he’s been doing for a long time.
“I’ve always worn a sweatshirt when it got cold. I just don’t like big heavy coats and I almost broke out a heavy coat (on Saturday). I was cold but I looked around and nobody else had on a big heavy coat that 4th quarter because it was just kind of cold and I was afraid I was going to lose my man card. (Equipment manager) Abe (Reed) had it ready but I was just waiting for somebody else to get a coat but nobody else did so I was like, well, sweatshirt the whole game here so, just ‘gonna have to be cold. Then they throw Gatorade on me and it was real cold.”
That’s it for now. We hope everyone has a great weekend as Clemson suits up in Death Valley for the final time in 2019.