Dabo Swinney Quotes
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Virginia vs. Clemson
Nov. 22, 2008
Clemson Interim Head Coach Dabo Swinney Quotes
Opening Statements
“What can you say? It’s a great win. It’s a tough place to come and play. I’m really proud of the players and the staff for what they did on the road. Their style of play kind of lends itself to these types of games. Like I said earlier in the week, they’d love to have a 10-7 game. Unfortunately we stumbled around and missed some key opportunities to really do some damage and maybe get some more points. So that was disappointing, and we hung in there defensively.
“Winning the turnover battle was the key for us being the more physical football team. Our defense absolutely set the tempo early and never let up. We played hard four quarters, had four interceptions. We also had two big fourth down stops. Overall I thought it was a great win offensively. I’m really proud of the guys hanging in there; they’re a good bunch. We gave up no sacks that was big concern coming into this game. When it came time to take the game over, our offensive line took the game over. I proud of the boys, we’ll have a good flight home and everyone knows what’s at stake for us next week.”
On the players’ excitement after the game
“Well, these wins are hard to come by, and you’ve got to enjoy every one of them. We enjoy every win any way we can get it. This is a group of kids who have been through a lot. It’s a very resilient team with a lot of character. I think that’s what you’re seeing. They’ve come together and they’re playing for what’s most important each other. They should be excited. That’s why you play to win the game.”
On Byron Maxwell
“Byron’s a sophomore, and he’s getting better and better and better. He playing a lot of football and he’s starting to emerge as the big, physical corner. He’ll hit you with his eyes open. We’ve got a lot of young guys playing some critical roles for us.”
On UVa
“I felt like we matched up well with them. When our motors are running, we’ve got a chance to compete with anybody. I told them this morning, over at the hotel, you know how sometimes you crank your car up when it’s cold and let it run for a while before you go hop in that thing when it’s nice and warm? Just crank that car up so that when you go and slide your uniform on, you’ve got your motor running. They blocked us pretty well. This team (Virginia) is, I think, number two in not giving up sacks, so we did a good job putting pressure on them. I think our defense did a good job of mixing the coverage.”
On the defense making plays
“You don’t have to take as many chances because you feel like you can play the field position. One time I went for it on the fourth down because I felt confident that our defense could stop them. When you’ve got that situation you can feel a little bit better about a situation like that.”