All it took was one glance at his phone Saturday afternoon for Dabo Swinney’s spirits to be lifted. As he walked into his press conference following the loss to South Carolina, gloom and doom followed his every step. He had just lost the State Championship and the only trip to Charlotte in his future was possibly for the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
Then, Syracuse rallied to defeat Miami putting Clemson in the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte this Saturday night, and gloom and doom were replaced with sunshine and hope.
At his press conference Tuesday previewing the game with SMU, Swinney acknowledged, again, the loss to USC hurt and the Gamecocks deserved all the credit, but his team got a new lease on life for this season and they are excited about the opportunity to play the Mustangs for the first time.
SMU took the ACC by storm in their first season going 8-0 in conference play and 11-1 overall. They have an offense which is dynamic and ranked 5th nationally at over 39 points per game. And they are no slouches on defense ranking 19th nationally at just under 20 points per game.
Key comments from Swinney
- Proud of his program’s uncommon consistency, been in this title game for 8th time in 10 years, knows he’s got a bad program now and it’s doom and gloom, knows how he’s suppose to change be like everybody else, but here they are.
- SMU is an old team, lots of seniors and graduates, QB is super dynamic, their running back went 80 yards against Clemson last season when he was at Miami, use him in the pass game as well.
- Good offense top to bottom, elite playmaker at quarterback, excellent running back, defense is really stout, similar to what they saw last week, big defensive ends, play 6-7 guys up front, savvy on the back end.
- Status of RJ Mickens is up in the air for Saturday; Shelton Lewis is fully healthy for the first time since fall camp. WR Tyler Brown ran around some on Monday night, know more about him after practices Tuesday and Wednesday.
- It’s all about getting to the postseason for college football, and that will only be more emphasized as the field expands, nobody cared how many losses the Chiefs had last season, will be three loss teams in the playoffs.
- On all the missed tackles vs Sellers, there’s a long line of defensive players who have missed tackles on him, he’s a great player and made two of the best plays he’s ever seen. Not much to say to his defense about that, just that a great player made plays.
- Asked if he’s following up with the ACC on the call reversal on the fumble on backwards pass to Mafah, Swinney replied, “For what?” Feels this has been one of the worst seasons for officiating/reviews, a national problem.
- With reviews, not a lot of transparency, before last Saturday’s game the official came up to him and explained how they call a rule regarding linebackers that was totally different from how they’ve played all season. Would like a national officiating system
- 2025 recruiting class is pretty much complete, working on 2026, might have some backups move on, not expecting any top-line players to transfer.
- If Clemson makes the playoffs and they go on to win it all, he wants to have Syracuse coach Fran Brown join him in his convertible in the championship parade.
- All for a rematch with USC in the playoffs, even in the National Championship Game in Atlanta.