Ryan Day: "I'm very, very disappointed we weren't able to win this game."

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COACH DAY: Yeah, tough to go into a locker room with such a great team who played their hearts out and not be able to celebrate a victory. But our guys played hard. Certainly feeling a range of emotions right now: Proud, sad, and certainly angry. But, again, I thought our guys left it all on the field. We played hard and played bold. But certainly there were a lot of plays in that game that didn't go our way. Very hard to swallow right now. And going to have to really take a look at the film and figure out what really happened on some of those plays, because in a game like this where the margin for error is so tiny, one play can alter the game. It didn't seem like we got any of those plays. Anyways, we'll take questions from here.

Q. Ryan [Day], as a follow-up to that, there are a couple of officiating calls that went against you guys that I think could be termed controversial. What are your early thoughts on those?

COACH DAY: It is too close right now, and I'm probably too emotional to really talk about those. I'll have to look at the film and see what that was. But I know there were some plays that were called on the field and then overturned, and when they overturn it, there has to be undisputable evidence. If that's what they deemed it was, it's going to be something we'll have to take a look at. The thing about those plays were certainly that the catch that was returned for a touchdown was such a huge play in the game. The play with Shaun Wade, that was a fourth-down play. It was such a huge play in the game. That J.K. Dobbins catch, those were major plays and they didn't go our way. So not crying about it. But at the same time, those were big plays that didn't go our way. And certainly again, a range of emotions about that.

Q. Ryan [Day], on what turned out to be your last offensive play, what were you looking for there? Was it similar to what you guys had hit with Chris Olave earlier in the game from the touchdown? Obviously, he fell down trying to cut back to the outside. What were you looking for there?

COACH DAY: Chris played a great game. He's very upset in the locker room right now. He thought Justin [Fields] was scrambling. He was running a post route right there. Actually, we had exactly the call on that we wanted. He felt like Justin was in a scramble mode. Justin does a lot of creating, so they weren't on the same page. They're playing football, and they're competing. Things like that happen. Unfortunately, that happened to us on the last play of the game when we needed it the most. Chris Olave is an unbelievable competitor. He loves his teammates. Nobody feels worse than Chris right now. So when you play games like this, you put yourself out there, and that's what happened at the end of the game. Our guys were competing all the way down to the end.

Q. Ryan, I'm not really talking about the calls specifically, but just the emotion when you have things like that, that feel like they're out of your control in a game like this that is so close. Obviously you guys are frustrated and disappointed. But is this just a little bit of a different feeling when that is part of it as well, that that kind of thing is factored into how you're dealing with this loss?

COACH DAY: Yeah. Again, I think that it's a range of emotions, because even though those things were happening, we were overcoming it. We just kept fighting and kept playing. It was like, Don't worry about those; just keep playing. I think when we look back on it, it is going to be overwhelming. Those game-altering plays that happen in a game, you need those things to go beat a team like Clemson where you're playing in a Semifinal game. You need those one or two plays. Then to miss a couple of them, that hurts you. Again, a range of emotions. We'll rest on it. Watch the film, and kind of go from there.

Q. Coach [Ryan] Day, losing some momentum there right before halftime, 16-14, what was the message to your guys there at halftime in the locker room?

COACH DAY: Again, like you said, we had all of the momentum. Then when we got the sack, and then the penalty was called on Shaun [Wade]. The momentum swung right there. We thought we really were doing a great job on defense. We had almost 300 yards of offense. We got in the locker room, and we thought we had played really well. The draw that [Trevor] Lawrence hit, then that drive that got extended because of the targeting call on Shaun Wade, other than those plays, we thought we kind of dominated the first half. The one thing on offense, we didn't score touchdowns when we got in the red zone in the first half. We're looking there. It's 16-14. We had played really well on both sides of the ball. So we felt great coming out of halftime.

Q. Coach, how did you guys feel like you responded to those plays that didn't go your way? Of course, the targeting, of course the DPI. How did you feel about how your team reacted to those negative plays?

COACH DAY: Unbelievable. I'm so proud of the way our team responded like that. It didn't get us down. We kept fighting. We kept swinging all the way to the end. I couldn't be prouder of the way we responded because that was hard to swallow.

Q. Ryan, I think it was fourth and four from the 39 when you got your drive in there late and you tried to draw them off. It didn't work. Did you consider going for it? We talked with you about being aggressive all year. That seemed like a spot where obviously it is risky to do at that juncture of the game. If you thought of it, why you didn't do it?

COACH DAY: If it was a touchdown but it was a two-point game at that point. I felt like at mid-field, all we needed was a couple of touchdowns and kicked a field goal, and it wouldn't make sense. I thought the defense was playing good at the time. I felt if we could pin them inside the 10-yard line, that would give our defense a chance to get a stop. Then in a four-minute drill, we could end the game. I felt confidence in the defense. I would still make the same decision now.

Q. Ryan, do you have an update on what J.K.'s [Dobbins] status was? He was in, then he was out, he was in. It didn't look like he quite had the burst that he did , obviously, before the injury. How much did that make you more one-dimensional?

COACH DAY: Well, they made some good adjustments up front. We were throwing the ball a lot in the second half. Receivers and the protection and Justin [Fields], they made some big plays. But it was hard to run the ball. They were kind of coming at us different ways. [Brent] Venables does a good job. He made some good adjustments. He had an ankle there. He had to fight through that. He got it taped up. He came in, he came out. He was really working through that. But I think it did affect his play a little bit. He didn't have that, like I said, explosion. Couple of those first runs in the first half, he came out of the back end of those things, he looked powerful. What a gritty performance by him to come back in the game and play.

Q. Ryan, from the injuries, J.K. [Dobbins] in and out, to the calls, to Shaun Wade, have you ever been in a game this bizarre? And I'm curious as you pictured this being played 100 times in the last couple of weeks, could you ever foresee a game with that many twists and turns?

COACH DAY: I just know when two great teams get together, it comes down to a few plays, and it did again tonight. But this was a very strange game. I thought our guys played really well. I thought we played well. Clemson, give them credit. They have a really good team, and the defending national champs. They do a great job. [Trevor] Lawrence came down and had a great drive at the end of the game, and they did a good job on defense. But again, I'm very, very disappointed we weren't able to win this game.

Q. Justin [Fields], you particular, how healthy were you tonight? You ran some when you had to, et cetera. And from your vantage point, take us through that last play. You threw that ball with authority. You felt like you had the play there, it looked like. Just what were your thoughts there.

JUSTIN FIELDS: Like Coach [Ryan] Day said, it was the look we wanted. Then Chris [Olave] it was basically just a miscommunication. So that happens in life, and you really can't do anything about it now. Just have to move on. And, also, I just want to thank the seniors on the team. I really love those guys. Just proud of the team and the way we responded out there.

Q. How healthy were you tonight?

JUSTIN FIELDS: I felt pretty good going into the game. There really wasn't any pain in my knee, but it was just the knee brace actually being there. But I felt pretty good going in.

Q. Ryan [Day], when you guys got the penalty going after the punt, that call to go after that, what was your -- what were you hoping for there?

COACH DAY: We were trying to be aggressive. We thought we could get after the punt, and we've done a good job of staying off the punter and being aggressive. We did there. That was a big play in the game as well.

Q. Not to go over the same point again and again, but this is so important. Do you sit here sort of feeling like we should have won?

COACH DAY: I don't want to answer that. That's hard for me to answer. Again, I'm too close to the game right now. Proud, sad, but angry, too.

Q. That's not even -- that's not about the official's calls, just that you had a lead and you had some injuries. Do you feel you played good enough to win?

COACH DAY: Yeah, I do. I do. It wasn't good enough in the end. We were right there. It wasn't like we didn't -- our guys didn't play hard or our guys didn't execute well. We didn't make big plays. We did all of those things and we just came up short in the end. We were right there all the way to the end. That's the way it goes.

Q. Ryan [Day], you talked earlier this week about not wanting the journey with this team to end. You went into a losing locker room for the first time as a head coach. I wonder how much that was on your mind. There are a lot of things that are frustrating. But are you able to -- I don't know -- "appreciate" is the wrong word, but reflect on the journey you guys did have to get to this point?

COACH DAY: Too close to it. Just a lot of tears. A lot of disappointment. A lot of people angry in that locker room right now. There's a lot of throwing helmets. A lot of just "Can't believe it's over." So what do you say to a bunch of guys like that, other than you love them? And the older guys, the seniors have left a legacy, and the younger guys have to learn from it. Wake up in the morning, the sun will come up and we'll regroup.

Q. I've got one for Ryan [Day] and one for Tuf [Borland]. Ryan, do you feel like -- "settling" might not be the right word -- but settling for three field goals there in the first half when you all clearly had the momentum? As you look back on it now, obviously it's easy in retrospect, but how much of a killer was that in some respect?

COACH DAY: That was tough. You score touchdowns there, then it's huge. And the one to J.K. [Dobbins] that they called a touchdown first and then they overturned, that was a tough one. That was four points there. And then the one to Austin [Mack] in the back of the end zone, we just missed it. When you're playing against a good defense, things like that happen. I thought we made some good calls. The one to K.J. [Hill] there we had and Justin [Fields] got scrambled a little bit. We were just a little bit off.

Q. The screen, too.

COACH DAY: Oh, my goodness, yeah, the screen. It was that kind of game. Again, when you're playing against great teams, things like that happens.

Q. Tuf, you weren't necessarily on the field for all these plays, but you guys had kind of put the big-play bugaboo behind you this year and stuff, but they did hit some gash plays there. What do you think kind of went wrong there from a concentration standpoint? And did [Trevor] Lawrence surprise you a little bit with his running tonight?

TUF BORLAND: I give Clemson a lot of credit. They've got a lot of good players. They made plays. As far as Lawrence running, not really a huge surprise. We saw that on film, extending plays and being able to find open guys. So credit to them.