Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney met with the media on Tuesday for his weekly press conference at the Allen Reeves Football Complex in Clemson. Swinney answered questions about his defense, his offensive line, the running game and quarterback Kelly Bryant.

Swinney on why Clemson plays teams like Texas A&M

“That’s why we schedule these games. We could’ve have played Mary Poppins last week. Alright, we’d smash them, and we’re 2-0. Everybody feels so good, but we went to College Station and we played a team who has more four and five stars than us. Just go through the roster, really talented team. We really had one good half of football, that’s really all we had. It was a tough game to get ready for.”

Swinney on John Simpson

“John did not play very well. He was disappointed in his performance. Technically, he didn’t do some things. He had some great moments too. We do a big hit video every Monday, and we do a not so great video. Then we do an extra effort video. It’s all combined when we come back here on Monday. He did some good things, but he did not have a winning performance. We have a winning grade at every position. He did not play up to his standard. I don’t have any doubt that he will bounce back this week.”

Swinney on Kelly Bryant

“Everything in life is about how you respond, and he’s responded well. Both of our quarterbacks did some good things, and both of them did some bad things. We are not quite as consistent as we need to be at that position. I thought his leadership and his toughness, his poise down the stretch is no question that is was awesome. It was exactly what we needed. He gave us a chance. We’re up 21-6, then they score in two plays. Then we go right back down the field and BAM answer, 28-13.”

Swinney on playing triple option offenses

“Three of our first four games are option-oriented teams. They are all really different. It’s not like they all do the same thing. They’re option principle team, but they all kind of have their own flare. It’s definitely not a negative that you’re having to spend three games before you get into conference play having to playing option defense. The discipline that it takes. The flip side of that is that you’re not playing a lot of base defense. That’s one negative. The other negative is that when we play Georgia Tech, they don’t have a lot of film to study us. We only play them once a year, but now they have film to study us.”

Swinney on more touches for the running backs

“He (Travis Etienne) had 11 touches. We only had 55 snaps. It was a combination of how inefficient we were, how bad on third down we were, and kind of some of the situations in the game. He’s got to touch the ball. (Tavien) Feaster’s got to touch the ball. We know that. It didn’t really work out with Feaster. A couple rotations, a couple bad plays where we got rolled over. We messed the sprint draw up. It was poor execution with not a lot of opportunity. We’re an 80/85 plus snap team. Etienne’s has to touch it, he’s got to touch the ball. He had three big plays in the passing game for us. Feaster is a guy to me that I would like to see about 35 to 40 touches…with our backs in some sort of fashion.”