Sunday Night Notes: Swinney says "nothing is good enough right now" |
Clemson head coach
Dabo Swinney says nothing the Tigers are doing is good enough, and that includes both the coaches and the players.
Clemson lost 24-17 to NC State Saturday in Raleigh to fall to 4-4 on the season. It doesn’t get any easier when Notre Dame comes calling next weekend in a noon kickoff. Swinney met with the media for his Sunday evening press conference, and he said no one is good enough on his Clemson football team right now, especially on offense. "Not good enough. Nothing we're doing is good enough right now. We're not coaching good enough, especially offensively,” Swinney said. “Garrett (Riley) will get them going. We're missing some critical plays that are there. Nobody is doing anything good enough right now. We've been inconsistent. We need to improve ... in all areas." Swinney was asked his thoughts on the loss at NC State after watching film. "Not much different from what I said last night. We have to flush it and focus on the next opponent,” he said. “I know we're all frustrated, mad, disappointed, but none of that stuff matters today. The season is not over. We have to put that behind us and focus on the opportunity in front of us. Just stay together and dust ourselves off. "I went through this in 2010. We're way more equipped now than we were then, so I know we've got better days ahead. Definitely frustrating, but I don't have any doubt we're learning some valuable lessons just like in 2010.” Swinney did see a positive. "The one real positive was when it was 10-7, and we had the tipped ball, pick-six, and then the missed tackle on the slant, and it's 24-7, that could have gotten ugly,” he said. “The positive is I was really proud at how our guys fought their butts off. Same with the staff. I have been in those situations before. Back up there in 2011 we turned the ball over several times, and it got worse from there. But we fought back, so that was the real positive from yesterday. Still, incredibly disappointing yesterday. "Defensively we gave up 17 points, and that should be enough to win. They only had 202 yards, and 122 of that came on two plays. It's hard to play perfect, but outside of that a lot of three-and-outs. We did a great job on third down and had three sacks. Offensively, again, we didn't quit. Cade (Klubnik) was 65-percent. And we were 100-percent in the red zone. Just an inconsistent game. We missed several plays and had some critical penalties. We gave up two sacks and had some quarterback pressures. Just not good enough.” Next up? A Fighting Irish team that is 7-2 overall. "We have a really good Notre Dame team coming in here. I know our fans are disappointed. I hope that they will just rally behind these guys and support them. They're playing hard. Just continue to support these guys as they go compete.” Injuries “(Will) Shipley was the main guy. We got good news on him so everything checked out,” Swinney said. “He is in concussion protocol. They were worried about his neck scans, but all of that came back positive. We'll just have to see where he is. There is a protocol and how they rate all that stuff. We're just happy that everything checked out with his neck. The guys who were out, we'll see if they'll be back this week.” On why Peter Woods didn’t make the trip "Injury. He wasn't able to practice all week. We don't think it's long term. We're hopeful he'll be able to go this weekend. He's day to day." On Tré Williams getting to play “He's got three more games (to preserve the redshirt). We only had 46 defensive snaps yesterday. I think he played seven or eight snaps yesterday. It was good to get him going. We'll see how it goes this week and as far as using the remaining three games he has left." Jeadyn Lukus injury "Getting better. He wasn't able to go. We took him to Miami last week, but he didn't feel like he could play, so we shut him down this week. He has been dealing with a hip issue. I do think he has made a little bit of improvement." On the last drive "Couple of situational things. We threw the shallow to (Troy) Stellato, and there was a guy on him. You want to take what they're giving you in that situation. We ended up having some wasted time. We had to waste a timeout because Cade didn't quite get the ball off. We were in 3rd and 19 then, and we really needed to get the ball to the back or throw the curl and at least make it a fourth and shorter. We had a shot. It was a competitive play and Tyler Brown had a chance, so at least we put it in play. But there were some things where we could have done a better job. Cade is growing. He's a little inconsistent at times, but he is growing. I don't think, I know we have a lot of great days ahead with him." Tyler Brown got poked in the eye “Yep. Yep. He couldn't see. They're sending him off today to see the ophthalmologist. Everything was pretty blurry, and it was pretty swollen." More on Notre Dame “I've seen them on crossover a couple of times. Their quarterback, he's a guy who has played for 10 years. He's a good player, smart, tough, makes plays with his legs, extends plays. They're physical up front and have a fast back. A lot of leadership on defense, a lot of veteran dudes, especially at linebacker. A complete team. They've had a couple of tough breaks. We'll have our hands full with these guys. We're averaging about two turnovers a game, so that's like a broken record. Seems like every week it's something different. We just have to keep playing. Hopefully it'll turn." On Robert Gunn and the kicking competition "He's been getting a shot for three weeks, but it hasn't been close. Jonathan Weitz was 12-for-12 in practice last week with the exception of one long miss. So Robert has been getting a chance every day in practice. Weitz had probably his best week of practice. He's five out of his last seven. Not perfect, but he's still our best guy."
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