What Dabo Swinney said about AJ Terrell’s national title game struggles
A.J. Terrell was selected No. 16 overall by the Atlanta Falcons during the first round of Thursday’s NFL Draft, a pick that was surprising to some.
Several Falcons fans voiced their displeasure with Terrell being picked that high on social media, and some draft analysts gave the pick a low grade.
For casual college football fans, all they might know about Terrell is that he struggled in the national championship game against LSU.
Ja’Marr Chase, LSU’s top receiver, caught nine passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns that night, doing much of his damage against Terrell. But Clemson coach Dabo Swinney appeared on 92.9 The Game in Atlanta Friday morning and made it clear that Terrell should be judged by his body of work, not just one game.
“You take anybody and put them in that last game and they’d have probably had the same result,” Swinney said. “Every Sunday you can turn on the TV and there’s not a great, great All-Pro corner that doesn’t get beat by a great wideout from time-to-time.”
Swinney added that he felt like Terrell was in good position on several plays against LSU, but quarterback Joe Burrow, who was the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft, simply made a perfect throw.
“One of the things in that game, I went over and told A.J. after that first play, ‘There’s nothing you could’ve done. Sometimes it’s just a perfect ball,’” Swinney said. “He did a lot of good things in the game, but obviously in a game like that you have a couple of plays that get magnified.”
Terrell finished his Clemson career with six interceptions, including a pick-six against Alabama in the 2018 national championship game.
Clemson went 29-1 in his two years as a starter, winning 29 consecutive games before falling to LSU in January.
Clemson held Alabama to 16 points in that 2018 title game, facing a Crimson Tide offense that featured Tua Tagovailoa at quarterback and Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs III at receiver. Those three all went in the first round Thursday night.
“I focus on the other 29 games that we won in a row and how he played, his career. Anybody can nitpick a play here, a play there. He’s going against the best of the best. But he was a dominant, dominant football player,” Swinney said. “He won a national championship covering Jerry Jeudy and (Henry) Ruggs and all of those guys. He’s got way, way, way, way ,way more good tape and reasons to take him than not to take him.”
