Clemson vs. Georgia Tech Post-Game Coaches’ Quotes

Oct. 23, 2010

Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney

Overall impressions of the game: “This was our best day yet on both the offensive and defensive side of the football on third down. We had a great week of preparation thanks to Brad (Scott) and Danny (Pearman) and the rest of the coaching staff. I was confident coming into this game after the way we’ve been practicing.

“Overall we’re getting better as a team. We have great leadership and our team is full of determination. We’re finally getting our swagger back.”

On final drive in the fourth quarter: “It says a lot for us to have our longest drive of the year, (over 7 min), at the end of the game with everybody in the stadium knowing we’re going to run the ball. The fact that we could continuously line up and run the ball showed our dominance.”

On the play of the defense: “We only had a couple of miscues today, but for the most part we were extremely good in executing our game plan. We kept Tech off balance throughout the game. I can’t say enough about Kevin (Steele) and the defensive staff for the great job in their preparation.”

On defending quarterback Joshua Nesbitt: “We did an excellent job in stopping Nesbitt this game. Nesbitt came into the game needing only 44 yards to beat Woody Dantzler’s all time rushing record for quarterbacks in the ACC…he’ll have to get those elsewhere.”

Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Johnson

On his team’s mistakes: “I was frustrated because we’d move the ball, but then we’d kill ourselves. We would pitch it on the ground or turn somebody loose. It was just kind of a myriad of things. It wasn’t one guy or one situation. It was just one of those things. We didn’t play well enough to win, and they did.”

On Clemson’s toughness: “They’re a physical football team. Those defensive linemen are going to play in the NFL. They whacked us around. You’ve got seniors whacking around freshmen and sophomores. That’s what happened.”

On the special teams plays: “(The fake punt) was something we worked on and felt like was there. It gave us a little jolt, but we didn’t get anything out of it. We thought we had a chance to block a punt. I think when we look at the tape, we’ll see that we did. I think they turned two guys loose. When you turn your head and close your eyes, you run into the kicker.”

On the Clemson running game: “That kid, Jamie Harper, ran really hard too. They ran the ball better on us than they have on anybody in a while. I’m sure some of it was them blocking us and some of it was us getting in the wrong gaps and missing some tackles.”

On his feelings about his team’s performance: “It’s never as good or bad as it seems. We’ll look at the tape and see that it’s the same thing this time. You have to give them some credit too. They’ve got some good players, they played well, and they didn’t turn the ball over. They ran the ball and controlled the clock a little bit. To start out, we were our own worst enemy. I’m not sure we played any different than we’ve played all year, just probably against a little better competition.”

Clemson Player Quotes

Defensive End Andre Branch: “It definitely feels sweet to go out there and beat them like that. We went out there and executed to the best of our ability. Coach Swinney always talks about limiting big plays. We threw them some curve balls this week, plays they had never seen before, and it frustrated them. We were just the better team today.”

Running Back Andre Ellington: “I give my teammates the credit. Without those blockers, I wouldn’t be able to do the things I did. Today was really special after falling short last year in two games against Georgia Tech. We had good preparation. We are going to take each game at a time and try to win them all. Our defense played a great game all game. We are very confident heading into the rest of the season.”

Cornerback Marcus Gilchrist: “We went out there and executed the plan. We give full credit to the coaches. The coaching staff really prepared us for this game. We threw them a lot of different plays. We had to pay attention to detail.”

Defensive End Da’Quan Bowers: “It is all about being patient. We had to keep putting them in passing situations. Coach (Kevin) Steele changed some things up. We played technique ball. Everyone did there job and we were able to get stops. These guys gave great effort. There was a lot of emotion put into this game. We cut their offense short and gave our offense more chances to score. We all had a chip on our shoulder after the ACC Championship game last year, and it feels good to get it off.”