Swinney takes honest approach to Ohio State loss: "We got our butts kicked"

Swinney said his team is ready to charge back up the mountain. (Photo courtesy ACC)

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sat Feb 06 08:01:04 GMT-04:00 2021

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney comes under fire from the media and opposing fan bases for his honest approach with the media, with some saying that Swinney takes a page out of Steve Spurrier’s playbook of smack talk and backhanded compliments. For those that know Swinney and cover him regularly, nothing could be further from the truth – Swinney will let you know what he’s thinking and he doesn’t try to hide it or have ulterior motives.

In other words, he says what he thinks, and that was proven again this week when Swinney was asked by ACC/SiriusXM radio host Mark Packer about the Tigers’ blowout loss to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl at the end of the season. Swinney laughed and told Packer the truth as he sees it.

“I learned that we got our butts kicked,” Swinney told Packer. “We didn't play well. They played great. Offensively, especially. They played great and hit about every play. We just didn't do the little things to win football games. We probably played well enough to win on offense given a normal defensive game with some normal stops like we typically have. But they had five straight touchdowns and it got out of hand.”

Swinney said he was proud of the fact that his team competed until the final whistle.

“What I love about our team, and maybe not learned but just reinforced and that is that those guys never quit,” Swinney said. “They battled all the way to the end and they competed. To the last play, from Trevor Lawrence on down. They continued to fight and believe. They always compete until the last play….those are tough games. I felt like a basketball coach. You get into the final four, if you don't win it all, it's a very disappointing thing. Especially if you feel like you didn't play as well in some areas where we could have.”

Swinney then went on to detail just how successful his program has been over the last six seasons, and said that his team has already forgotten about the Ohio State loss in the rearview mirror and is ready to “charge back up the mountain.”

“The good news is, in the last six years, Alabama has eight wins on that stage and we have six. I think the next closest is three,” Swinney said. “We've been pretty good on the biggest stage but it's still disappointing and in the moment it hurts. But perspective is important. I loved how our guys competed. I like how they responded in the locker room and since we got back, the ownership that everybody took. And you move on. It was a bad night but it was an amazing year.

“There have been three Power 5 teams in all of football that won 10 games, and that was Clemson, Notre Dame, and Alabama. Lots of good things. The past six years, Alabama has won three National Championships and we've won two and LSU has won one. We've been pretty dadgum consistent. Disappointed in how it ended but we learn from it, move on, flush it, start over and tear it all down get ready to charge back up the mountain next year.”