Clemson coach Dabo Swinney sees Saturday’s Homecoming opponent Boston College as a throwback to the offensive days of three yards and a cloud of dust, except that the Eagles stir up more than just dust with their powerful running back AJ Dillon. Dillon and quarterback AJ Williams formed a dangerous duo for the Eagles, but Williams was lost for the season with a leg injury two weeks ago against Louisville.

Now Swinney expects BC to put even more of the burden on Dillon who is second in the nation in rushing with 968 yards and is coming off a 223 yard, 3 touchdown rushing performance against NC State. He is 75 yards from becoming BC’s all-time leading rusher, and he needs two touchdowns to set the school record in that department. So, Swinney is building this up as a big challenge for his defense which is ranked 5th nationally and 25th against the run.

The Tigers are 35 point favorites for the 7:30 kickoff on the ACC Network. They will be looking to extend several streaks…22 game winning streak, 16 straight ACC regular season games and an 8 game winning streak against Boston College.

Some of Swinney’s other key comments previewing Boston College

• Swinney said the challenge for his team now is will it improve week by week as last year’s team, see if they make the same strides as that team.
• Swinney said Xavier Thomas will be checked further today to see if he’s cleared from his concussion.
• Swinney said Booth handled his punishment the right way for his penalty Saturday for throwing a punch at a Louisville player. The bus ride from Louisville back to Clemson, Swinney said, gave him plenty of time to think about things.
• Swinney said a lot of people “have missed the boat on our defense.” He said they’ve done a great job on that side, the strength was the back seven and that’s given the young front group a chance to develop.
• Swinney said BC doesn’t have a lot of depth up front on defense, big thing is to stay out of third and long, lot of man coverage from BC. Former Clemson DE Richard Yeargin starts for BC.
• Swinney said Boston College has two large running backs, 250 and 240 pounds, and they are just going to run the ball. Defense can’t grow weary of stopping the run.

Dabo Swinney previews Boston College

Swinney on Boston College running back AJ Dillon

Swinney talks about the progress of the defense

Swinney says freshman corner Andrew Booth took his punishment (bus ride home) like a man