Jeff Scott: 'the most excited, passionate team is not always the team that wins...'
Jeff Scott sat down with the media for 20 minutes on Monday to discuss this week’s rivalry matchup with South Carolina. A full transcription and some notes from the session below:
“It was really nice to have an open week this late in the year. I can’t remember since my time at Clemson that we’ve had one of these. But to be able to go back and look at yourself 11 games in, everything that you have on tape, it was really nice for our staff. I feel like our players did a good job with the extra time, studying themselves and South Carolina. Just a good week of meetings and practice.
“Getting ready for South Carolina, this is always an exciting week for players and coaches. My time you are part of a rivalry game, I’ve been fortunate to be on the sidelines as a coach’s kid, player, and then a coach. I think this is my 26th game going into it. Always something you look forward to around the year for us. This is one of our team goals and a season of its own.
“The biggest thing that stands out watching South Carolina’s defense is their front. They played well all year long. Physical guys and they move very well. Javon Kinlaw has had an outstanding year for them and is definitely a guy that you need to know where he is at all times. I think their secondary is very active. Israel Mukuamu is a long corner that can create issues for you if you don’t use a good release technique. Playing down there is always a good environment, I know our guys will be excited about the challenge this Saturday at noon.”
– On his time in Columbia:
“Number one, that was a long time ago. I’m not going to be able to make it because that’s the night before the game, but the school that I went to, Hammond School, is actually having 20-year reunion the Friday night before the game. Unfortunately, playing the next day, won’t be able to make it. I had a great experience down there. Those are my high school years, at Hammond, playing football and baseball there. A lot of really good friends that I stay in contact with. It’s funny because it’s been so long. Literally going on 20 years since my dad moved up this way. Sometimes that reminds me that I’m not quite that young coach that I like to remember myself as.
“Always remembers the one time he had tiger paws painted on his driveway when his father, Brad Scott, was coaching at South Carolina. A year ago, someone finally fessed up to him that they were the ones that drove through the night from Clemson and did it.”
– On self-scouting the offense during the bye week:
“Number one, we are playing well. Our efficiency in a lot of areas has improved from the last open week and self-scout that we did. Biggest thing is just after 11 games, you start to have tendencies with formations with motions in certain situations, in certain third downs. It’s really kind of studying what they are looking at when they are studying us on third down. What are they looking at when they are studying us in certain formations - 10 personnel, 11 personnel, 12 personnel. Maybe taking some time to look at some plays to counter what they are going off of. That’s what was we tried to do more than anything with the self-scout this time.”
– On dominating the first four minutes of the second half and last four minutes of the first half:
“Coach Swinney definitely talks about that. We talk to our offense about that middle eight. When you can score points before you go in at half, it really is huge. Just kind of setting the scene for the second half and just the momentum that you have going into the halftime, the way your guys feel. And probably conversely how they feel on the other side giving up points before halftime. Really kind of looking at that third quarter the way we look at the beginning of a game. You want to score points, you want to make a statement, you want to get ahead. The best teams that I’ve been around, the best offenses I’ve been around, we’ve played really well in those middle eight. We’ve done that this year, especially during the second half of the year.”
“Part of it is being able to make adjustments in the first quarter and second quarter and being able to get those communicated to your guys. For them to be able to go out and act on those, and then obviously you have 20 minutes there at halftime to make more adjustments, communicate. That’s one thing our players do a really good job of. They are able to make adjustments. It’s one thing as a coach to be able to see something and all you can do is communicate it to them, but for them to be able to understand what you are saying and be able to take those words and put them into action, that doesn’t always happen. That comes from really good communication during the week, studying the opponent, and being engaged in our meetings. Each position coach does a good job with their position after we see how an opponent is going to play us in the first quarter, then our players take that information and do a good job at making adjustments.
– On Tavien Feaster going from Clemson to South Carolina and maybe having to change stuff up:
“It’s something that you think about. This day in age, it’s not something that is abnormal. It’s probably going to happen more often with the way the transfer rules are now. Also, for us, we have to think about that every week, because we are in a very similar offense for a long time here. There’s a lot of tape out there. A lot of common opponents. It’s something we always take into consideration and having an open week allowed us to make any changes that we want to make getting plays in and those types of things.”
– On no Clemson receivers on Biletnikoff award list:
“We’ve got a lot of talented players on our team offensively at quarterback, wideout, running back, you go down the list there’s a lot of guys. All I know is our guys have bought into the attitude that they are chasing these team trophies. We’ve been fortunate to win a lot of those with that being our focus. Sometimes, you can look at some of the guys that win that award and they are great rewards, but sometimes they are on teams that are 8-4 or 7-5. I’m most proud of the way our guys have not gotten caught up in their stats. A lot of those awards are based off of stats. I think it says a lot about how our defense has played. Some of those teams that have good stats from their quarterbacks and wideouts have had to play in shootouts all year long so they’ve been throwing the ball for four quarters. The way that our season has gone, we’ve been able to run the ball really well. When it’s time to throw the ball, like last week, we’ve been able to throw the ball. Proud of how our guys have performed up to this point. The big challenge is what matters most is how you finish the year. Last year we had a special year because our best players played well at the end of the year. That’s our expectation this year as well.”
– On South Carolina’s defense creating problems:
“Their defensive front is very talented and they’ve created issues for most everybody that they’ve played this year. They’re more physical and I think they play harder than they have in the past. Kinlaw has been a problem for everybody all year long. He requires a lot of double teams, which gives other guys some one-on-one matchups. We hope as our season goes we’ll be able to play teams with good defensive fronts so this is just what you come to expect this time if year as we enter championship phase.”
– Best memories from this rivalry as a player and coach:
As a coach: seeing Deshaun Watson play on a torn ACL and turn the streak that was in 2014. That was an impressive performance.
As a player: main opportunity to play was as a placeholder so being a part of Clemson’s game-winning kick in 2000.
“Biggest thing that I’ve drawn from being a part of this rivalry for 26 years is the most excited team, the most passionate team, is not always the team that wins. It’s the team that executes. I can remember when we had our spell and we weren’t winning this rivalry game like we needed to, we wanted to but we didn’t execute. We turned the ball over. It’s a good reminder for our guys because there’s no doubt there’s going to be a lot of juice in this game like there always is. Being able to channel that emotion the right way and focus on ourselves is really what is going to allow you to have success.”
Better team usually wins the game in this rivalry?
“I felt like some of those games that we lost when we were on the other side of the streak I felt like we had a better team overall, but we did not play well enough that day. They were the better team that day. A lot of that can be credited back to turnovers. There was another streak where the road team would win several years in a row. You can look at a lot of different things, but it shouldn’t be different than a lot of the games that you play. The team that performs the best that day is going to win. The rivalry part of it and all that stuff is fun but can become a distraction if you let it.”
On SEC-ACC games:
“I think that that storyline, for me, I’m over with that. I know before we won the championship in 2016 that was a heavy storyline for several years. I think what we have been able to do two of the last three yeats has kind of put that to bed. We haven’t really made it one of our goals this year to prove the ACC’s worth. I think every year you can point out teams and - all I know is every week that we come out and prepare as coaches there’s no week that we go in and say, ‘we’re guaranteeing a win. We can go home early tonight.’ We’re putting in a lot of work. The success we’ve had in our league speaks more, in my opinion, to our guys' consistency in preparation that in does to the opponents and who we are playing.
“That’s not something we spend a lot of time worrying about anymore. I think we've proven that if we just focus on ourselves and just having success each week and what is required to have success each week, then we are going to have an opportunity to prove our worth on the field against whoever we match up with as it goes down the road. Our guys have bought into that mindset and have moved past the whole conference comparison.”
On Kinlaw:
“He’s a guy we’ve spent this team studying. Teams that have had some success against them have found ways to double team him at times. There are times when you can schematically put guys in good position to block him. He’s definitely a problem and has improved from where he was a year ago.”