Swinney previews Georgia Tech, says he's excited to see offensive line play

With camp in the books, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney is ready to get the season going.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Sep 01 13:22:34 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON – Head coach Dabo Swinney previewed next Monday’s game against Georgia Tech during his weekly press conference, but it was a media session that was less about the Jackets and more about everything else in the program.

Clemson takes on the Jackets at 8 pm next Monday in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The game will be broadcast on ESPN. Clemson defeated Georgia Tech 14-8 last season in Death Valley, and Swinney said the Tigers have respect for all of their opponents.

“Heck yeah. We have respect for anyone we play, especially anyone in our conference. We were fortunate to win this game last year,” Swinney said. “We have to do some things better. We have some opportunities we have to capitalize on. They will be as excited as we are about this game. We have to go execute and earn it on the field.”

Swinney said he feels like his team is ready to play.

“Hopefully you are all excited just like we are. This is what we do. We get a chance to now have some games to talk about,” Swinney said. “It seems like it never ends from stories and narratives and all that stuff. And so now we get a chance to actually get to the games. But, man, everything for us builds to this. This is what it's all about. I mean, we've been going since January, so this is just kind of the next step for us in our journey of 2022. And it's finally here and we're ready to kick it off. I cannot wait to see us play. I want to see us compete against somebody else. We've competed with three weeks of camp. That's the longest camp we've had in quite a while/ For several years now, our camp has been a couple of weeks, but school starting a week later gave us an extra week of camp when you're not on the 20 hours clock and all that stuff. So it was a really good camp, but a lot of competition on our practice field.

“And I love how the guys showed up every single day and brought it. We’ve got a committed group. We've got a team that's really fun to work with, and I think that we've got excellent leadership. But probably more than anything, I just like the attitude of this team. I like their attitude. I like their work ethic, and I think there's a lot of character in this group. So those are intangibles that win. And I think this team has a lot of great intangibles to go along with the measurables that you need to be successful at this level, too. So, again, been a good camp. We're a healthy team, and that's been a blessing for us. And we're in a much better spot than we were this time last year, and hopefully that can be a trend for us this year.”

Only two players on the two-deep depth chart are out.

“We have two guys that are two-deep guys for us, Adam Randall and Xavier Thomas, that are out for this game, but both are trending in a really good direction,” Swinney said. “Adam is full speed. In fact, he's working on the scout team every day this week and next week and really just taking every rep because that's kind of really the last little check for him.

“And Xavier is doing great. So we're in a good spot there, and guys are ready to get to Atlanta and play for us.”

Swinney said openers are never easy.

“All the openers are hard always. I think for everyone, the opener is typically the toughest game to prepare for just because you've got so much time. You’ve got no tape. You look at last year's tape, but it's new coaches galore, new coordinators. Everybody's got their own thing. And then you've had forever to get ready and you don't have any video evidence kind of confirming what you think they may do. So you have to prepare for a lot in these type of games. And then you throw in the fact that, hey, this is a conference game, and it's on the road. So this is always a hard game to get ready for, but especially challenging this year because Georgia Tech, they have a bunch of new faces, a bunch of new faces across the board on the coaching staff and with their personnel in the field. So there's a lot of unknowns as we go into it. So it's really about us knowing what we need to do and knowing who we are and our plan and how to apply what we do to whatever we see and then making the right adjustments as we get into the flow of the game.

So, again, excited about getting down there. We've never played in Mercedes-Benz. I think I've been there. One time I went to a Falcons game, beautiful arena, and excited to experience that. But again, for us, conference play right out of the gate, our focus is to really just achieve our first goal. And that's win the opener. And that may seem like a simple goal, but if you look at how that applies to the championships at Clemson, there have been 26 conference championships at Clemson in all the leagues we've been in historically. And Clemson is 23-2-1 in openers. So it's a pretty significant game when it comes to a championship team. And for us, our seven ACC championship teams, we won the opener. Every single one of those teams, our six playoff teams, they all won the opener. All right? We didn't win the league last year, and we didn't win the opener. And our goal was simply to try to find a way to achieve the first goal and then we go from there. So again, side of this place, see where we are, how we can improve and go from there.”

What has allowed Blake Miller to start as a freshman like Mitch Hyatt?

“Same thing Mitch did except he’s bigger, stronger and longer. Similar demeanor. Mitch was maybe 290 when he came in. Blake is a giant and he’s one of the strongest kids on the team. It’s amazing to see a high school kid come in like that. He had the ability to go through some installation. Mentally he took to it like a fish to water, just like Mitch. He has earned it. It’s created some opportunity. He and Collin Sadler are both talented freshmen who will help us this year.”

What he can’t wait to see Monday night

Offensive line. I want to see them play. It’s a great group. It’s been a great off-season. Will Putnam, moving him in the spring was awesome. He’s 314 pounds. Walker Parks this time last year was getting ready to get his first start. He’s unbelievably committed and passionate. Marcus Tate was a freshman last year and wasn’t ready to start. J-MAC (Jordan McFadden) is J-MAC. He’s a special guy. Those two juniors in there are doing a great job in Putnam and Parks. I like the makeup of the group and then the depth that we have. We have eight or nine guys I wouldn’t have a problem playing at any point. They have to go do it. It’s hard to practice at Clemson if you’re an offensive lineman, so you better be ready.”

Dietrick Pennington

“I wouldn’t worry about all that. It’s more of a reflection of where Bryn Tucker is. We have that redshirt/sophomore group and they have all taken a big step. Dietrick just has to compete. Physically, he’s getting close. We were watching him run last night in practice. He’s going to be special. He missed all of last year and he was coming. We felt like he had a chance to be a starter. He came off an ACL, he’s a big man and missed the spring. He’s progressing very well and has a bright future.”