Swinney 'very thankful' that mental health is now a focus in College Football

On the players being excited to play at FSU:

“Absolutely, I think anytime you are in competition and you have a chance to go play ina great environment-- it’s fun. You love a challenge like that. We don’t have many guys who have been there, which is kind of weird. But a lot of these guys have been there at some point along the way. Should be a great game.”

On Phil Mafah’s development:

“Oh, man. It’s critical. Mafah is a special player. He’s starting to come into his own a little bit. He’s a great young talent. He’s going to have a lot of great days in front of him throughout his career.”

On Xavier Thomas’ comments on mental health:

“There is no doubt about that. We are not fully there yet, but I’m very thankful that it’s something that people are more willing to talk about. Just 10 years ago it was something people didn’t talk about-- especially in our game. Everybody is a tough guy, you push through things, but mental health is a huge thing in society. Especially this age group 18-23-year-olds. A lot of challenges that you go through (with) what comes with college, expectations, success, failure, it’s a huge thing.”

On building a program:

“One aspect is that you never stop building a program. I think once you stop building, you are going to decline quickly, so you have to have a mindset that you are always building. You have to be organized. You’ve got to have a vision for what it will look like. You’ve got to be able to instill that belief and to do that. You have to have the right people who align with what you believe. So there are a lot of decisions that have to be made. It’s all about how you manage people. As far as our program, I was an interim for seven weeks, so I had the opportunity to see some growth. I just saw guys buying into what we wanted to do that year.”

On the noise at Doak Campbell:

“Lot of noise-- for sure. That’s the best thing you can do is try to make it as unrealistic in practice as you can so that when they get there, they are not overwhelmed by that. It will be loud. That will be a great environment. You just try to prepare them for the type of focus they need to have.”

On the health of the defense:

“I’m really excited. I’m super pumped to have all hands on deck. They’ve all been there at one point or another, but having everybody available at the one time? We really haven’t had that just yet. Hopefully we will be able to play at a high level, play sharp, play smart. It’s great.”