Swinney Sunday Teleconference Transcript
By: Gavin Oliver September 9, 2018

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney held his weekly teleconference Sunday and reviewed the win over Texas A&M. A transcript follows:

Opening Statement

“Really just proud of our team. Mission accomplished. Long way to go, and it truly was like another opener for us. Great environment. Texas A&M was a great opponent. Really difficult road opener for us.

“The bad news is we made a lot of mistakes that could have really cost us. The good news is we made a lot of mistakes and still won.”

Injury Update on Garrett Williams 

“They actually cleared him to go last night during pregame, but we ended up holding him. He banged his knee up last week. … And so we didn’t think he was going to be able to go, but they actually cleared him but they did not get him in the game. But hopefully he’ll be able to roll this week.”

Swinney on Kelly Bryant, Trevor Lawrence

“He and Trevor did a good job. I mean, they were both too inconsistent for sure. Lots of mistakes, lots of things we’ve got to correct consistency wise.”

Swinney on Tee Higgins

“The biggest thing was he just physically needed to develop, and that’s what’s happened. And then he’s got experience now. … He’s an explosive player and a matchup problem and a guy that’s just going to continue to make plays for us.”
Swinney on the defense’s performance
“Just really disappointed with the 430 yards passing (allowed), and most of that came in the fourth quarter. We had some guys running just wide open on some basic calls… So, that’s disappointing. We’ve got to contain the quarterback better.”

Swinney on his conversation with Jimbo Fisher before the game

“I actually had a chance to talk to him a good bit before the game. We just kind of caught up. Just told him, ‘We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.’ We just kind of laughed a little bit. I think there’s 130 Division I schools, and I’m like, ‘Hey, you couldn’t have picked one that wasn’t on our schedule for the next couple years?’

“So we just kind of joked around a little bit, then we really just talked about his move and transition and about Texas A&M and kind of what’s going on there and some of their things in place. It was good to catch up with him.”