Clemson, SC
Dabo Swinney welcomed the media for Clemson’s annual “Media Day”… Where he sat with the media for over an hour in his first official press conference of the 2024 season.
Coming off a 9-4 season that saw Dabo Swinney’s Clemson team win the final 5 in a row down the stretch, culminating in the last minute win over Kentucky in the Gator Bowl.. Sweeney has a lot of questions that he wants to see answers for as his squad readies to start fall camp in the next 2 weeks.
See below some of the answers Swinney gave to the media gathered there today for this presser.
On Cade and the offense as a whole: “seeing him (Klubnik) take that next step.. figuring out who our best 5-10 are on our offensive line… cutting down on the negative plays… pass offense has to take a big step forward for us.. excited about the group at running back beside Mafah… competitive group behind him.”
On the Defense: ” consistency… improve in the red zone… figuring out our best 4-8 defensive lineman, and how to use those bodies.. good mixture of savvy guys and good young talent(defensive backs)…Solidifying who the top 6 are at LB”
Special Teams.. “Kicker competition. confidence with our punt returners.. (Punter) got Aidan back..”
On Cade: “in our eyes he’s taken the next step to see at this point… we expect him to another big step for us… big thing is to physically mature… “guys get better” on his progress and expectation.. “he had too many fumbles… took too many TFL’s (tackles for losses) .. too many sacks on him.. we’re excited about where he is at this point…”
On the Passing Offense: “Our pass offense has to improve.. we have to get more explosive…..”
On Antonio Williams return from injury: “He’s been relentless.. he has grown and matured.. the practice habits, overall development…”
On the Expanded playoff :“SOS (Strength of schedule) will become a big factor as the playoff expands”..
On Georgia being the Opener: “Best team in the country the last 3 years in Georgia … it’s an opener regardless of who you play… you wanna come out of camp and put your best foot forward… You gotta be playoff ready”
On if Athletic Director Graham Neff asked his opinion after ESPN approached ACC about moving Clemson vs SC to a Friday game..
“He did ask my opinion on that and I was against it… I dont think it what’s best for Clemson.. not what’s good for this town… people in this town make their hey on those Saturdays,. What’s best for these students this town and our fans, and what’s best for recruiting… my opinion… if they wanna us to go down their on FRI night next year we’ll do it..
On Defensive Line and others on Defense: “They gotta take a mother step this year… lotta guys have a lot to prove… a bunch of them are still work in progress.. we know what we got in Barrett and Woodazz.. same thing with RJ (Mickens)….
On Wide Receivers Wesco and Moore... ” Haven’t been on the field with TJ yet… what we loved about him in High School is easy to see… Wesco.. he’s a kid that just took to it right away.. was not overwhelmed… he has made the strides he needed to make to compete .. mentally he took to it like a fish to water… can’t wait to get on the field with TJ and see where he is.. it’s a deep room.. we got 10 guys to go to battle with,. ”
On NCAA allowing analyst to become on the field coaches… “One of those rules that they (NCAA) couldn’t or wouldn’t enforce consistently so they needed to change it…”
On where he went for summer break: There were four states in the Northeast I’d never been too… So we went to Maine , New Hampshire , Vermont and Rhode Island… went to Bar Harbor,.., did the Arcadia national park… ate a bunch of lobster… went to Kennebunkport, Burlington, over to Portsmouth, NH… I really liked Newport, RI… on what he did on his Summer break …
On the ACC Expansion,… ” “I dont even pay attention anymore.. I just know we are playing Georgia”…
.
