Dabo Swinney provides Sunday evening update

Olsen Patt-Henry came down with a TD grab in the win.

by Grayson Mann - Correspondent - Sun Sep 29 19:09:08 GMT-04:00 2024

Dabo Swinney spoke to the media Sunday night after assessing the game video of Clemson’s 40-14 victory over Stanford.

He spoke on several matters, including the offense's consistency, his relationship with DJ Uiagalelei, injuries, and more.

Here are some of the highlights.

ON INJURIES:

“Injury-wise, we came through the game pretty well, as always,” Swinney said. “Every game, you got some guys banged up, but nobody that we anticipate being out from the game that wasn't already out.”

Antonio Williams was the most notable absence, as he visited the medical tent various times during the game. Swinney still reiterated that he’s “day-to-day.”

ON BARRETT CARTER:

“Man, he's played well all year, but I mean he was everywhere, especially in that second half,” Swinney said. “I mean, he had a career-high in tackles, I think, three and a half tackles for loss and the sack. There were just some extra-effort plays that didn't always show up on the stat line. I think he's played well all year, but I think he's just getting better and better, and that was definitely a great game for him.”

Carter had a season-high ten tackles for Clemson against Stanford. He, along with Wade Woodaz and R.J. Mickens, tied Carter with double-digit tackles on the evening.

ON T.J. Moore:

“Yeah, I mean, he looked like a freshman from a technical standpoint,” Swinney said. “There are just some things that he's got to work on. He had some missed opportunity and just he's got to use all the tools that he's equipped with and that we coach him with. I thought as he got into the game, he reverted back to his first game, where he started and had that many plays. I felt like he reverted back to just some stuff that he could get away with high school. So I just want him to continue to take another step from a technical, fundamental standpoint, but that's what we're here for. So it was good to get it on tape, and a lot we can coach off of that will be good, but made a big third downplay drew a couple PIs, and then again, a missed opportunity that we need to finish on, but there's definitely a lot of room for improvement for it.”

Moore only hauled in one pass for 14 yards, but he received his fair share of targets, including drawing multiple interference penalties that extended drives for the Tigers.

ON KLUBNIK AND THE PASSING GAME:

“It was good,” Swinney said. “We had about four drops, at least four, maybe five that we need to finish on, but we had the one high overthrow, and that was kind of a tempo play, and I think he just kind of let it speed him up too. We had a guy open there, and he just floated it too high, and another kid made a good play, but then he had one other one he was very fortunate on their guy tipped it, and otherwise, it probably would've intercepted. And then he had kind of one high throw to Wesco down in the red zone that he could make. But other than that, he was really good. I mean he made some big-time throws and really great throw to TJ Moore on the third down, made some really good third-down throws on the money, the one a little tight out cut to Antonio that he knocked up for the first down. So I mean, again, just not perfect, but he's playing at a high level, he's seeing it, and to me, his biggest mistake was not getting the first down that's on that third down. Otherwise, we're six of 12 on third down, and that's just something that he was really frustrated with, but he's throwing at a high level. If we catch three or four more of those balls, he's in a good spot for the game.”

Klubnik completed a season-low 48 percent of his throws Saturday night, but several were due to drops.

The junior quarterback found a way to throw four touchdowns on the evening, all of which went to separate targets.

ON DEFENSE AGAINST OPTION RUNS:

“Not good enough,” Swinney said. “It's not just at end. I mean, it's not always, a lot of times sometimes, your ends are spilling things to second-level box players, but overall, we have not boxed the ball in. We need to consistently, we did a much better job in the second half, but in the first half, I mean we did not contain the football. Again, we're in position, but a couple of times, our ends, they buried themselves. Other times, we're spilling it, and our box player wasn't where he needed to be. It's across the board. And then the one big run, which was just a straight swap zone that they had early, was we just had two deep linemen in the same gap. So you could have drove a car through that hole, but that's what happens when you're not gap sound. So just when we all do our job, just like you saw in the red zone last night, the whole game when everybody's playing their gap, we're playing backside, we're leveraging the ball from the outside in, and people have to stop their feet just like you saw in the reverse. What a great play that was, man, good stuff happens, but we just, after four games, we're not, again, we've got some young players too that are playing their way into becoming good players, and they just have to grow a little bit through the fire, but we've got to be better when it comes to leveraging the ball. When people can run around you, you don't make 'em have to stop your feet. It doesn't matter what kind of pursuit you have. So definitely an area that we've got to improve in.”

Clemson gave up nearly eight yards per rush in the first half, but cut the Cardinal rushing attack in the second half, limiting the attack to only 55 yards coming out of halftime.

ON DJ UIAGALELEI:

“Well, my current relationship is that you can't have a current relationship with anyone else,” Swinney said. “You'd have tampering, and you can't communicate with players at other places. But the way our relationship ended here was great. DJ was great. I love that kid. I enjoyed him. He was 22 and six here as a starter. I know we didn't win them all, but he was 22 and six, and two of those losses were on the road in double overtime and could have gone either way. And we had one pick-six, one-play loss against Georgia, and a one-point loss here at home. So he's four plays away from being 26-2 instead of 22-6. So I mean, he did a lot of great things for us, and he's a graduate, and I'll always be thankful for that young man. I mean, he's one of the best young kids that I've ever worked with. Just enjoyed. There wasn't ever a day that I didn't enjoy being around DJ, but as far as relationships, you really can't communicate. That's one of the unfortunate things, but it just is what it is. You can't communicate with players who are at other places because that opens you up for tampering and things like that. But it'd be good to see him, and just again, he's a Clemson graduate who gave everything he had when he was here for us and won many games with us. So I’m always thankful for him.”