"This is what you work for all year": Dabo Swinney ready for ACC title throwdown
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Dabo Swinney just wrapped up his final media availability before Saturday’s massive ACC Championship showdown. Here are the key quotes and highlights from his press conference:
ON PLAYING IN THE ACC CHAMPIONSHIP:
“So excited to head to Charlotte. This is a great opportunity for our team, and they’re excited about it. We look forward to a great game tomorrow. And congrats to Notre Dame. What a great year they’ve had. I know it’s going to be a heck of a game tomorrow night.”
ON POTENTIALLY MOVING THE ROSE BOWL SO FANS AND FAMILIES CAN ATTEND:
“First of all, I’d like to be in the playoff. I’d like to have that issue to worry about. But I don’t think there’s any question that there are plenty of venues. If for whatever reason it doesn’t work, punt, and push it to next year where you can have that opportunity. There are plenty of stadiums where you can have fans, so you can certainly have families. At this point, it would be sad to be in a playoff game and have families that couldn’t be there.”
ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SATURDAY’S GAME:
“This is what you work for all year. This is our next goal: to win the league. It’s time to go play.”
ON THE DIFFERENCE OF PREPARATION GIVEN THIS IS NOTRE DAME’S FIRST YEAR IN A CONFERENCE:
“This is a normal Friday for us. In the past years when we were there [Notre Dame] would be out recruiting this week. But at the end of the day, it’s a football game. Just a normal Friday for us, and I’m sure it’s a normal Friday for them. Just the next game. The biggest difference is at the end of this one, they hand a trophy out.”
ON THE ROSE BOWL POTENTIALLY NOT ALLOWING FAMILIES TO ATTEND:
“It makes no sense to me to put a bunch of kids on a plane, fly them all the way to California, to play in an empty stadium. That makes zero sense when you have plenty of stadiums where you can have fans, and most importantly, you can have families. Regardless of what happens with Clemson, whether we are in [the Playoff] or not, my opinion on that won’t change.”
ON HIS LAST TRIP TO SOUTH BEND:
“It was a great trip. I was expecting snow and all that, but it was actually a beautiful day. It was special to be able to go see the church. It really is a beautiful place. Just a lot of history there. It was awesome competing in that stadium, even though things didn’t go our way.”
“Tim [Bourret] took me around, got to see the old college and went into the church and lit a candle. Even went over to Digger Phelps’ house and kind of waved to him from the porch. It really was neat.”
ON THE BIGGEST IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED FROM THE LAST MATCHUP VS. NOTRE DAME:
“We’ve got to be more precise on third down. Just disciplined with our eyes, disciplined with our leverage on defense. And a little better with our recognition. Offensively we want a little bit more precision in what we do. We’ve been a really good third-down team all year, with the exception of that game.”
