Clemson has stacked together two straight home wins, but now Dabo Swinney and his squad have to travel across the country to take on California for the first time as an ACC opponent on Friday night at 10:30 Eastern Standard Time. Outside of the long trip, many other factors are having to be considered by Clemson from a logistics standpoint.
Quarterback Tait Reynolds will be making his first career road start after getting the win in his first start over North Carolina after throwing for 215 yards and one touchdown.
This will be the second meeting all-time between Clemson and the Golden Bears. The first took place in the 1992 Citrus Bowl in which the Tigers were victorious, 37-13.
This game will be just the fourth time Clemson has played on the West Coast and the first time in the regular season since 1966. The Tigers are currently a +1.5 point underdog after opening as a -1.5 point favorite.
The most recent trip west, the Tigers struck gold with their National Championship win over Alabama in 2019.
Some of Swinney’s Key Comments
> My rhythm is all off because it is Wednesday for us and our staff.
> I want to shout out our operations people and our equipment staff. Our truck left at 1:00 Monday night. We have an advanced operations team that got out there last night.
> We are going to leave in the morning tomorrow, and we will have our normal ‘Thursday’ and ‘Friday’ practices out there.
> California plays well collectively on defense. It is a great group of linebackers, and it is easily the biggest secondary we have seen.
> California’s quarterback, Jaron Keawe-Sagapolutele, is a ‘dude.’ If you want to see what an NFL quarterback looks like, watch this guy’s tape. He can place it. He’s big and athletic. I have a lot of respect for him.
> The best player on California’s offensive line has to be Bastian Swinney. I guess I have a long-lost cousin out there. I don’t know how I didn’t recruit him.
> We are practicing at a local community college when we get out West.
> We played our best football in the last 8:11 against UNC. We stopped the run, we ran the ball, and we won the turnover margin.
> Tait Reynolds is good to go. Everybody is sore; it’s just part of it. Christopher Vizzina is better. He’s made a lot of progress. He took some reps yesterday.
> I think we have two really good players at quarterback, and I am confident in Trent Pearman. We were also able to ramp Brock Bradley’s reps up with Christopher Vizzina’s injury.
> Reynolds is on a fast track to get better. We’re going to have to grow with him. There are going to be moments when you have to take a deep breath.
> Reynolds’ ceiling is tremendous. There is really nothing he can’t do. The only difference between him and Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence is that Deshaun and Trevor had played more football up to this point.
> I hate that we cancelled the series with Georgia, but it’s the new world of College Football with the increased conference games.
> RB Chris Johnson Jr. bounced a run play outside that wasn’t supposed to go that way. I wasn’t going to watch it anymore. He’s got to do what he’s coached to do. He did help us win in the return game.
> We are still leaving a lot out there in the run game, but we got better against a really good front seven from UNC.
> There will be some other games when we are down, and that type of experience from UNC will give them confidence. I don’t think our team will ever think they are out of it.
> It is a very teachable moment with our offense to go down going forward instead of scoring the late touchdown to go up by only eight.
> I don’t think any other program’s ‘Athletic Village’ is as good as Clemson’s. The village that they’ve built is pretty. I give former AD Dan Radakovich a lot of credit for where we are now.
> Coach Bill Belichick is great. The handshake was just a drive-by moment. The game went on for 22 hours. I don’t know he was used to having a random person from the bleachers beside him postgame.
> We have to get off blocks in the run game. The opposing teams are good as well; it’s important to give them credit. Too many times we are getting cut in half on the back side. We have to win more 1-on-1 matchups.
Dabo Swinney Tuesday Press Conference Previewing California
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