Swinney responds to Dave Doeren's facilities remark: "Buildings don't win"

Swinney and Dave Doeren before last year's game at NC State (Photo by Rob Kinnan, USAT)

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Aug 05 08:01:02 GMT-04:00 2018

Dabo Swinney knows that Clemson has the best facilities in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but he isn’t shy about reminding anybody that asks that the Tigers won the National Championship before the completion of the Reeves football complex.

NC State head coach Dave Doeren told the media at the ACC Kickoff in Charlotte a few weeks ago that the Wolfpack – and every other team in the conference – have to make do with less.

“They have the best facilities, probably, in our league right now," Doeren said. "So, we’re trying to do a little bit more with less, maybe, but we look forward to that challenge every year.”

Doeren then went on to say that his team isn’t afraid to play Clemson, fantastic facilities or not.

“They’ve got a lot more things than we’ve got, I’ll tell you that. Their facilities are incredible," Doeren said. "I know our players believe we can play with Clemson. I know our players believe we need to beat Clemson to be the best, and they have done that, they’ve earned that role as the team to beat. Coach Swinney and his staff have done a tremendous job.

"But I don’t think anyone on our team will tell you they’re afraid to play them.”

Swinney was asked about Doeren’s comments during his Friday press conference, and he said there is more to winning than a building.

“We won the National Championship before we were ever in this facility. Just to make that note,” Swinney said. “We didn't move into this building until after we won it all. We brought the trophy with us and stuck it right in the lobby. We weren't sure what was going to go in the lobby. And then January 9th of 2017, I went, 'You know, I know what we are going to put in that lobby.'

“But it's a big deal. Buildings don't win. Logos don't win. At the end of the day, you can build a great building but its always the people and the culture that drives everything in that building that makes a difference. And who is coming through the doors. Those are the things that ultimately matter. You can’t just go build a building and start winning. There is more to it than that.”

Doeren and the Wolfpack visit Clemson this season on October 20th. Clemson has won 13 of the last 14 contests in the series, but Doeren feels like the Pack are just a play or two away from winning more than one of those games.

“We’re a play away in two games, and really it comes down to us executing to beat them, not them beating us," Doeren said. "A missed kick here and a penalty there, maybe we beat them two years in a row. But that didn’t happen, so we didn’t. I think that’s the best part of the story for us is we’ve got to execute, we’ve got to do a better job.”