Clemson vs. SC State Postgame Quotes

Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney

“This was a great win and I’m proud of our team today. We had to respond after last week and I think we did, and that’s what matters. The coaches, support staff, the players – everyone put forth the effort we needed today.

“It was a long week of practice and preparation, but I think we imposed our will today. The defense did a good job standing up today and getting the shutout on their offense.

“I’m proud of our offense, too. Both our quarterbacks played well…they all did. I thought our running backs played tremendous as well. I liked what I saw from Jay Jay McCullough with his offensive contributions and big play catches, and I thought Demarre Kitt played well today.

“We were glad that Ammon Lakip could respond from last week and it was good to see his confidence build a little today. When it came to our special teams, our kickoff coverage was awesome.

“This was an excellent win for our program. But we have bigger fish to fry. We’ll regroup here for the next week, a bye week, but then we’ve got the opportunity to play the No. 1 team in the nation. It’ll be a challenge, but we’re looking forward to it. I’m excited for that opportunity.”

SC State Head Coach Buddy Pough

What do you attribute the result to?

“They were better than us, I’ll put it obviously.”

What can you take away from this game?

“Not a bunch right now. You try to figure out how you do find some silver lining in this particular dark cloud. I haven’t quite figured it out yet. I can tell you this, and that is that there are days when teams like ours don’t match up with teams like theirs. Today was one of those days. We couldn’t do much of anything from the very first play. Offensively, it was not good and through the rest of the game it was pretty much more of the same.”

Did you think that you could do some things coming in?

“I thought we could. But we didn’t play very well up front on either side of the ball. That surprised me some. I thought we were further along than that. We’ve got a couple holes in our offensive front in particular and we’re still trying to fix some of those things. But at the same time, I thought we’d be better.”

Could mental preparation be part of it?

“Mentally I didn’t think we were very good. At the same time, who’s to say why you don’t do some of the things you want to do under these circumstances.”

How do you pick the guys up and keep them positive?

“What we wanted to do was to come out in a good frame of mind and healthy. We didn’t do either one. We got beat up pretty good and we’ve got a lot of guys banged up. And our state of mind right now is not very good. So put those two together, we’ve got a lot of work before next week.”

Clemson Player Quotes

Jadar Johnson, Safety

On the defense not allowing any points:

“We were just coming off a bad fourth quarter against Georgia and that’s all we could think about is showing everyone what we could do. We had all the tools and stuff, but we weren’t mentally there in the fourth quarter, so coming out in this game, we just had to show that the defense is there.”

On not losing focus:

“We had our leaders keeping everybody up. Grady Jarrett and Deshaun Williams were just telling everybody to stay up no matter who the opponent is.”

On Florida State:

“When we play, we play against faceless opponents, so we are just going to come with a gameplan to do whatever the coaches tell us to do.”

On defensive game plan:

“It was just ‘everybody get to the ball.’ We have a little saying where we have a party at the ball every play, so if someone gets to the ball, the whole defense swarms and gets in on the tackle.”

Artavis Scott, Wide Receiver

On playing time:

“I think I’m a regular player anyway. Even though I’m a freshman, I just build and watch everyone and what they have done.  As I go in the game, I don’t think of myself as a freshman, I just think of myself as a regular player.”

On second touchdown:

“When I saw the play, I knew I had to get into the endzone. I think I might have gotten robbed on the other end, but I had to get in there, so I just lowered my shoulder and made it happen.”

On making the most of his opportunity:

“Every time I get my chance, I’m going to make the most of it. Every time my name is called, I’m going to out there and perform and do what I have to do each week.”

On first touchdown catch:

“Coach (Chad) Morris called it because I had seen the safety in busted coverage and I knew the ball was coming to me. Cole (Stoudt) made a great pass and I was so concentrated on catching the ball, and I knew this was what I wanted. I was excited for my first touchdown catch. I was blessed.”

Cole Stoudt, Quarterback

Overall thoughts:

We had the hard week of practice and then we just went out there and executed the best we could, and that’s what we did. We eliminated our mental errors and just went out there and had some fun.”

On relationship with Deshaun Watson:

“It’s kind of like me and Tajh (Boyd) were. We are just trying to get each other better and try to be the best we can be for this team.”

On being in the record books for total yards:

“It’s exciting going out there and seeing our offense get so many total yards between two quarterbacks. It’s exciting seeing that we were only two yards short of the all-time passing record. It’s exciting seeing our offense going out like that and being explosive.”

Deshaun Watson, Quarterback

On first game in Death Valley:

“It was great. Seeing all the orange in the stands and all the fans and Clemson Family support, and then running down the Hill with all my brothers for the first time was a great experience.

On quarterback system:

“I just go with the flow. I play my role and try to be the best teammates I can be. Coach (Dabo) Swinney and Coach (Chad) Morris call the shots, so whatever they want to do that’s best for the team, we are going to go with that.”