Swinney on the rivalry with South Carolina: 'When you lose this game, it stinks.'

Opening Statement: “This has been a good team to coach. Good leadership. Just great young people who have battled their tails off all year. To be sitting here at 10-1 having the type of season that we’ve had, just really proud of them. The season is over, and now it’s South Carolina. Doesn’t matter what’s happened or what’s coming. It’s all about this week and getting ready for a good football team.”

"Shane's done a great job. What a huge win this past week. They played their best game, and we played our best game so two good teams that are coming off of big wins where they played well. Both teams have some confidence."

“They’ve got a lot of talented guys over there. A lot of guys that we recruited on that defense-- especially up front. On the offensive side-- I don't know that I've seen a team be hotter. They made a ton of plays. I thought the quarterback was outstanding."

On the noon kickoff: "I hope our crowd will show up and get behind this team. I know a lot of people don't like noon games, but we need the best noon crowd we've ever had."

On embracing the rivalry: “Because I grew up in Alabama. Where did you grow up? (Reporter says suburb of Chicago) There you go. Northwestern and Indiana probably aren’t having marriages break up over that. No offense to Northwestern and Indiana. I don’t even know if they play each other. You grow up in Alabama-- that’s it. You don’t even leave the hospital-- you’ve got to declare like right there. Which way are you going? They put it right on your birth certificate. That’s the best way I can answer it. That’s all I know. My whole life, 33 years, until I came to Clemson, that’s all I knew.”

On the 2008 game vs. South Carolina: “(I’m) probably not here if it wasn’t for the ‘08 game. I think that was a noon game. I remember it being very gloomy-- felt like six o’clock. I just remember it had been such a blur-- seven weeks, and now it’s coming to an end. I knew that if we won the game, then Terry Don (Phillips) would probably have enough clout to give me a chance. If not, he was going to have to fight a little harder. Winning that game, what was it? 31-14? Just winning that game solidified the opportunity. A special moment after the game. A special day the next day and met with Terry Don, Billy D., and President Barker, and they told me I was going to get the job.”

On South Carolina’s desperation to win after nine years: “That’s why every year, you just put everything you got into it. It doesn’t matter what the records are. It doesn’t matter if there is a streak. You’ve got to play well in this game. You are going to get their best. They’re going to get our best. At the end of the day, it comes down to execution and doing what you’ve got to do to win the football game.”

On the low point in the rivalry: “Yeah, 2013. Five in a row. Six turnovers. That was pretty low. I thought we had the better team. I think Coach Spurrier thought we had the better team. He called me the next day to almost apologize. That was probably the-- they are all bad. It doesn’t matter if you’ve lost five in a row or if you lose one in a row. You lose this game-- it stinks. Period. You can win twenty in a row. When you lose this game, it stinks. There is nothing good about it. And when you win it, it’s great. It’s been like that forever and ever in our rivalry game.”