Dabo Swinney on Khalil Barnes: 'He’s a baller. He’s a competitive dude.'

Opening Statements: "We got better as a team. We had a couple of guys out, but guys stepped up. Defensively, they set the tone. Really proud of how the guys defended. Another very efficient day. Really proud of our guys. We had zero offensive turnovers for the first time this year. We had guys making plays all over the field."

On Khalil Barnes: “He’s a baller. He’s a competitive dude. That guy competes every single day. He competes on special teams. He competes in every thing he does. He tackles well. He defends well. He’s smart and instinctive. With Mukuba out these past two weeks, it’s kind of a blessing in disguise.”

On what the offense did to prevent turnovers against Florida Atlantic: "Not really anything different. We work at it all the time. It's just one of those things that you just have to play through. We've had some funky stuff. It was just good to see us do a nice job tonight and not put the ball in jeopardy like we have. And again, when we're even, we're pretty hard to beat. When we win it, we're really hard to beat. So hopefully, that's a good sign of some things to come for us."

On having so many underclassmen contribute: "We only have one senior on offense, and that's Putnam. Beaux's our oldest receiver. He's a true Junior. We got a lot of really good young talent on this roster. I love our tight ends. We've had some success at Greenville High with [Colin] Sadler, Josh [Sapp], and TB [Tyler Brown]. So, super excited about the young talent that we have, but I think it bodes well for this year and for many years to come. There's a lot of young talent on defense, too. So, we got a lot to be excited about for a while."

On whether he was surprised Boston College took No. 3 Florida State down to the wire: "No, that's a tough place to play. I think they really had the game in control 31 to 10, and next thing you know, whether you take your foot off the gas or guys let up a little bit, it's a turnover, scoop, and score. And then they get a stop and a little momentum, and you're in a dogfight."

On what it was like to have actor Mark Wahlberg, who was once known as hip hop artist Marky Mark of the Funky Bunch (1989–1994), on campus this past weekend: "You're showing your age. You got to be over 50 to know "Good Vibrations", right? It's amazing the people who are associated with this university. His daughter obviously goes here or maybe you didn't know that --  and it's Parents Weekend. I guess that's why he was in town. It's cool to be able to meet Marky Mark. I liked him in Invincible when he was the receiver for the [Philadelphia] Eagles. That was my favorite one."