Dabo Swinney reacts: What Clemson coach said after loss to NC State
The Clemson football team is 2-2 overall (1-1 ACC) and has two two regular season losses for the first time since 2014. Here’s a first look at what coach Dabo Swinney said about Saturday’s 27-21 double overtime loss to North Carolina State:
▪ On the loss: “We’ve got a hurt bunch and a really, really hurting, hurting locker room and hurting coaches and staff who put a lot into this. This is certainly not what we intended but we’ve just got to regroup. That’s all I can say. I will say this: our kids never quit. Our staff never quit. Everybody fought to the last second, to the last play, but in the end, just too many mistakes. I mean, so many critical penalties, jumping offsides, just some critical penalties killed us. Time of possession, we just got worn down with the time of possession and amount of plays. A bunch of guys hurt and my heart just breaks for those guys. You’ve got a physically hurt team and we’ve got a mentally hurt team right now and staff. … It’s been a long time since we’ve been in this situation like this, that’s for sure. We’ve had a lot of great moments and we’ve had a lot of great times and there’s going to be a lot more to come. This is where we are right now. We’re 2-2 with two incredibly difficult losses.”
▪ On getting criticism for play calling: “We run the zone. We run the counter. We run the power. We’ve been an offense that’s been really, really good for a long, long time but the criticism is warranted because of where we are right now. That’s what we display, so with the way we’ve performed, you’re going to get criticism and you’re going to get comments and things like that and you know what? Hey, that comes with the territory because the expectation and the standard at Clemson and who we are, we’re not meeting that. It’s just that simple. People are going to say whatever they want and there’s really not anything we can say because we’re not getting it done right now.”
▪ On sticking with starting quarterback DJ Uiagalelei: “I thought DJ gave us a chance to win the game. I thought he did a lot of good things. He’s just going to continue to get better. He’s got a great, great future. Unfortunately, we thought we’d be 4-0 right now but I don’t think any less of him right now than I would if we were 4-0 because I know how hard he works. Again, he gave us a chance to win the game tonight but certainly got things that he’s got to do better as well. At this point, at 2-2, you look at everything. There’s nothing that you don’t evaluate, but I think DJ is our quarterback.”
▪ His message to the team: “You’ve got to own it. It’s where we are right now and still got eight more games on our schedule. We’ve got one this week. We need to just get back to work on Monday and continue to learn, continue to grow, continue to fight and continue to stay together. That’s the main thing. Let’s just find a way to win a game. Find a way to get on track and see if we can build some momentum in our season, but it certainly hurts. … We have a lot of guys in that locker room that had never lost a road game, a true road game, but that’s where we are. You’ve got to own it, learn from it and keep moving forward. That’s what competitors do. We’ve just got to stay together and get back at it on Monday.
▪ On the last time the Tigers have struggled this much offensively: “It’s been a long time, a long, long time. It hurt us tonight. They had 96 plays to our 49 or so and I think they had the ball 40 minutes to our 18 or 19. It just wore us down. It’s probably been 2010, maybe.That year, we weren’t very explosive. We were in transition from a personnel standpoint. We could run the ball. We were able to run the ball well. That year in ‘10, the way we were built, we were good on defense and the running game but we struggled kicking the ball that year. We were, I think, 57% on field goals. That was really something we needed, but it’s been a long time since we have just not been able to put it together offensively. That’s for sure, but that’s where we are and again, as I said earlier, we’ll try everything we can to get better. There’s no quit in us. Everybody’s disappointed. Everybody’s hurting, but we’ll show back up on Monday, go back to work and see if we can find a way to win a game. That’s really all we can focus on. That’s all we’re going to focus on.”
This story was originally published September 25, 2021 at 8:09 PM.
