NEW ORLEANS – Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney and quarterback Trevor Lawrence met with the media following the Tigers’ 49-28 loss to Ohio State.
Here’s a summary of what was said.
Dabo Swinney
+ “Well, obviously not our night. Incredibly disappointed in how we played. But, man, super proud of our fight in the second half. Obviously the game got away from us and our guys continued to compete, all the way down to the last play. And I’m really proud of that. Proud of how they battled.”
+ He thought their preparation was great but it wasn’t their night and credit to Ohio State for that. “They were awesome. They absolutely dominated the line of scrimmage.”
+ Ohio State had five straight touchdowns and they couldn’t respond like they needed to. He thought they had a chance in the third quarter. But the credit goes to Ohio State. “They just absolutely dominated the game. You’ve got to give them credit for that. They were the better team, and they earned it.”
+ Swinney said the locker room is hurting. They haven’t lost many games and this one hurt. “But nothing about that scoreboard changes how I feel about this team and about the people involved in this team, our staff, our players. Their leadership, their commitment, their sacrifice this year has been incredible. We are 10‑2. A lot of people didn’t think we would even play. And we’ve been through a lot.”
+ They fought their tails off.
+ On the seniors, Swinney said they were undefeated at home for a first time ever in school history, they won 51 games in four years, had the most graduates, the most 3.0s we’ve ever had this semester, and they are great young people, with great character and heart. Nothing about the scoreboard changes that.
+ Ohio State flat-out played a great football game.
+Swinney said they weren’t able to sustain their good start and then Ohio State went on a run and they couldn’t respond.
+ “Congratulations to Ryan [Day] and Ohio State. I thought their team – Justin Fields was awesome, his toughness, his grit, just a great competitor.”
+ When asked if his coaches poll gave them motivation and if he regrets the way he justified his ranking, Swinney said no he does not regret it and that the polls have nothing to do with motivation because both teams were highly motivated to play. He said again that he thought Ohio State was good enough to win the whole dang thing.
+ Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne have left unbelievable legacies. Swinney said it was painful hugging them and telling him how much he loves and appreciates them. He is glad he got to coach those guys. “Lawrence is a generational guy. He’s going to be a great player for a long, long time. And so is Travis Etienne. And just to know that the good Lord blessed me to be a part of their journey, I’m just thankful for that.”
+ “We’re all sad that it ended the way it ended tonight. And we wanted to end it in Miami with a victory and ride off into the sunset, but that wasn’t to be.”
+ On the targeting call, Swinney said it wasn’t anything intentional.
+ They got off to a good start but couldn’t get in a rhythm. Swinney says momentum is huge in playoff games. “It’s like our national championship game a couple years ago out there in California. We weren’t that much better than Alabama. We just ‑‑ the momentum, the big plays, the next thing you know, it just ‑‑ it gets rolling.”
+ “I’m not going to get into the woulda‑shoulda‑coulda. We had plenty of opportunity. They just kicked our butt, period.”
+ Swinney said they will learn from this ad grow from it. It hurts, but they had a heck of a year.
+ “I certainly wanted to win the game. But our guys were ready to play, and we were not the better team tonight. That’s just the way it is. And sometimes in competition you ‑‑ this is playoff football. This is four elite teams.”
Trevor Lawrence
+ On the challenges of getting into a rhythm, Lawrence said they prepared well and had good practices and were confident. But there are times where they need the defense to pick them up. “There was a few times we weren’t just playing complementary football for too long. When we’re punting and they’re scoring pretty much every drive for a quarter, it can get out of hand quick.”
+ “Just didn’t get it done tonight for a lot of reasons. I mean, you can look back at the game and pick a few things. But in games like this, you just got to play well all the way around, and we really didn’t do that tonight.”
+ On Justin Fields, Lawrence said he’s known him for a while but whoever it is on the sideline, he doesn’t want them to play great against Clemson because he wants to win. “But I’m happy for him. Happy he played a great game. Hats off to him and Ohio State in general. But he played a hell of a game for sure.”
+ Lawrence said he has no regrets on the season. There’s not much that he would go back and change. He is proud to be where he is at.
+ They never gave up or stopped believing that they had a chance to win.
+ Ohio State earned this win.
[Photo courtesy of Clemson Football Twitter]
The ejection rule changed this year. They do not have to go to the locker room.
On the targeting call, to know if it was intentional or not, just look at the reaction from his player after he saw Fields down in pain. That tells you how dirty they are and have been in our meetings.
So last year this James Skalski had a targeting call against him in the championship game against LSU. He gets another one in this game. In this game their starting safety had to sit out the first half for targeting against ND in the ACC championship game. Gee do the Clemson coaches teach their guys how to tackle correctly? The other question I have is why was Skalski on the sideline with his teammates all game after he was ejected? Wasn’t he supposed to be escorted off the field and watch the rest of the game from the locker room?