Swinney meets the media on Wednesday night

CLEMSON – Dabo Swinney met the media on Wednesday night after the practice for the last time before Saturday's game at Texas A & M.

Cory Fravel of Clemson247 was on hand to collect these quotes.

The main points to remember:

– Will no longer release an injury report on Thursdays as in past years, as it is no longer necessary.

"We no longer have to report the injury – we were the only conference to do it, which I did not know." I had the habit of telling all the players who were questionable , likely, predictable, reliable, MIA, no matter But I'm going to get away from it all unless you have a clear long-term agreement.

They say that they are a "healthy football team" right now.

– I thought the practice today was really good, much better than Tuesday 's. Has seen a good advantage today of both attack and defense. Completed the full two minutes exercise.

– Dabo was asked to stop and prepare for horizontal tasks, and how long to be defensive is helpful in this regard.

"First of all, it's an excellent study and film preparation. Defensive football is recognition of the formation and the strategic situation and what follows from it. Trainings, alignments, splits – knowing your keys for guidance Trends and trends and things you learned during the week. It's not just something you do at stake and you do instinctively. departures.

"Then it comes from the experience, these defensive line players, we are one of the most difficult teams to control because our guys are well coached and they do such a good job of reconnaissance., The lineman try to put you to the test and then they come out, and the guys are doing such a good job reading themselves, feeling the screen, there are certain trends and if you really learned these things, you give a better chance, but certainly, the guys' athleticism at the front and their ability to change direction and pursuit and the length at the ends to make things a bit harder in the passing hallways.

"And then our ability to play with men.If you look at people, you have to be able to block people.And it's hard to hold a tight press conference.It's harder to pick a guy, especially our guys.

"So, we've been very good, and we're fast, sometimes it looks like it's going to fix, and the speed is coming in. It's going to open up for a second, then it's going to happen to us too. , and I'm like dad we had … no, we're not a quick team and a well trained team and that helped us.

"And then we do not have a defense to say that we do not have the upper hand – I mean, we change the question of who is responsible, but someone has put their finger on every call. That we have."

– S & he remembers the last time they fought on the screens:

"We struggled with everything in Syracuse … Not above my head, it's been a while."

– Few (least ranked) receivers can – or want – to block as well as Justyn Ross.

"It's rare." Very few people come here with the mentality of DeAndre Hopkins, who really likes the hang-up. "But Ross looked great last week." The touch, it's awesome. But the blockage … Kelly Bryant was not hit .. the racing game comes from the second level blockage, from where it comes from, and in the long run, the reason Kelly stayed intact is Ross had two guys on the field, a guy somehow hindered and the other he was our main blocker of the week, he was very impressed and encouraged by his physique, that 's great to see, most of them do a good job, but I thought it was exceptional.

"Usually, when you come out of high school, most of these guys have played in extended crimes and things like that, they want to touch the ball and they fall as if it's their measure of success." is: your value to the team's impact on the team without the ball, it's your value in my book.

"Mike Williams did not have to touch the ball and he influenced the game with his presence – just his presence, he changed the game now he's a great player and a complete player."

"It's a state of mind that a lot of times you have to train these youngsters, but I think Justyn has been ahead on that."

– In practice, Derion Kendrick shows hands on punt returns, but Dabo says he's "still a bit scattered and inconsistent with his focus from time to time."

– On the progress of Jackson Carman:

"Really good, really good, I'm really proud of him, I think it was 334 yesterday, he's really committed to what he has to do, I like his energy to practice." He's in good shape, he feels good, when I watch him run during conditioning, he's out of play, he played well on Saturday, he's still working, he's not a guy who's getting closer to his potential, but I was very encouraged, good start. "

– There is no limit to the number of people who can go to non-conference games, so they will take most fellows this week.

72 is the limit for the conference, so they will have to prepare for Georgia Tech in a few weeks.

"It will be a challenge, it will be a tight list."

– Blasting the Texas A & M war anthem at training this week in preparation for this weekend:

"I have participated in a lot of quiet football games, you talk about boring, I like noisy football, and we have a strong football at home every time, and our defense has to be able to playing, queuing, communicating, signals, and that's every week. "So now, our offensive has this opportunity and you're trying to prepare them well in practice, and we're trying to make that a bit unrealistic, to be honest with you to lock and focus. "

Said the noisiest environment of which it is part is at home in the valley of death.

– How Dabo concludes his session with the media: "Let's go to College Station, let's go!"

***** Here is a transcript of Swinney's comments from this morning's VAC coaches teleconference.

Q. How much of an advantage or help is there to have a game under your belt before having to prepare a game like this?
SWINNEY: Well, I think that no matter when, no matter who you play, every time you have a game under your belt, it's a bonus. This is an advantage. Especially in college football. I mean, we are the only football level, the only football level that does not include pre-season games, jamboree games, scrums with other teams, and so it's very difficult. Every opening is a huge challenge, whether you play with an equal team or play a team that may not fit as well. It's always a huge challenge. Whenever you can return to the rhythm of a season and have a real gaming experience, it definitely helps you prepare for the next opportunity.

Q. We have often heard coaches say that teams make the biggest jump from week 1 to week 2. Subscribe to this theory?
SWINNEY: I do not know about all that. I think you are trying to improve every week, and I think it depends on a little bit of the game. I mean, it's our first game on the road. We play a team with a lot of unknowns and there will be some adversity in the game. It's going to be a big challenge for us.

I've heard that many times. I do not know if that's right. But I hope we will make progress throughout the season, and the results, by the end of the year, we play our best football.

Q. I was curious, obviously, the fact that Jimbo is the coach at A & M attracts a lot of attention, but because of who his coordinators are, do you feel that it does not? is nothing like preparing for Florida State in the past?
SWINNEY: Yeah, I mean, it's for us, like another opener. I think the unknown is definitely a competitive advantage for them because we do not know much about these guys. And this has been a challenge because we only have one game to watch, and there is really only half of what you can really pay attention to. Instead of knowing if you have practical knowledge and video evidence of two or three games to study or if you have a staff member from the previous year, last year's movie is more relevant. But last year's movie has nothing to do with us. The only thing we could get out of the Texas A & M band last year is to give a little insight to some of their members. In preparing for this match, we spent all our time watching Notre Dame because it was from there that Coordinator D was watching Wake Forest because he was at Wake Forest before. You only watch programs and you just have to totally ignore the people you are watching. So, it's a bit of a challenge.

And then, you have to prepare for what Jimbo did at Florida State. But you do not really know. Jimbo has a lot of versatility in his system. I mean, it can be a pro set. The next thing you know, is that it's empty. So there is a lot to prepare, especially early in the season, and it's one of those games that, at the beginning of the first quarter, you have to try to get by and understand what's going on. pass exactly. their plan, contrary to what they know a lot more about us. They can somehow study our people from last year and who we are as coaches. But it makes it fun. It will be a great challenge and, as coaches, we will have to do a great job helping our guys make the right adjustments and figure out what their attack plan will be.

Q. And because of who his offensive coordinator is, do you really have to watch the Memphis movie rather than what he did at FSU?
SWINNEY: Absolutely, and when you look at things from Memphis, he did a lot of things with FSU. Many people think that Jimbo is just this pro guy, but if you really go back to study him, he has a lot of shotgun, he is very empty, he has plenty of spreads. So, they could do a lot. But I think that in the end, you are getting ready for what you think they're going to do and that you also need to prepare yourself to do what they could do, and then you'll leave from the. This is what makes these games a challenge early in the year. You do not have the identity of the team yet.

Q. Coach, it's obvious that Texas A & M is trying to get to where Clemson is; How did you turn a good program into an elite?
SWINNEY: Well, just one day at a time. One day at a time, one graduate at a time, one season at a time. That's really it. I mean, you build a program and a culture with whom you surround yourself, what kind of staff you train, who you recruit, the type of people you recruit with and how you develop your players, how you graduate. the players, how you discipline, the responsibility. I mean, it's not something you can change simply, especially where we were nine years ago. I think Texas A & M is a lot further than we were back in the fall of 2009. I think Texas A & M has great facilities. I think they have more than four and five starters on their list for the last four years, so I think they have everything they need. They have great support and I think they've hired an excellent football coach at Jimbo Fisher who has had incredible success. He has participated in many successful programs and I have no doubt that he will build something special at College Station.

Q. Obviously, last season you were really good on the road. You have played three ranked teams on the road and in prime time in a few of them and you have been able to meet these challenges. What makes this group of players so effective in these hostile road environments? I know a lot of these guys are still in the team.
SWINNEY: Yeah, this group of seniors has been very successful, but it's obviously a different team, new season. But I think it's just the culture of our program, focusing on the things you can control. We try to prepare our guys well for the environments in which we find ourselves from the point of view of noise and all the rest, because they are certainly procedural factors, et cetera. But at the end of the day, nine years ago, one of the main goals for me was to build our program – listen, the same things that win at home and win on the road. These things do not change. You will never be good for anything if you allow external factors and things you can not control to dictate your performance week after week. It's just a part of our culture, and our guys have adhered to that. So that's part of it. But the second thing is that you have to be good enough. You can have the right state of mind and you can focus on the things you can control and all of those things, but you still have to be good enough. So I think we built a talented program. That's foremost But I think that mentality and culture play an important role in the ability to create a consistent winner, whether you're on the road or at home, and that you're trying to keep the guys really tied to their ability to focus. to win in these environments. And I think our guys did a good job with that. But it's a challenge, there's no question. It's a huge challenge for every program. You do not see many programs that have good records on the road against equal teams. We managed to succeed and I think that's one of the reasons why.