Watch Coach Swinney’s Press Conference Live on TigerCast Tuesday at 11:00 AM

Aug. 30, 2010

CLEMSON, SC – Video of Head Coach ClemsonTigers.com via TigerCast on Tuesday, August 31. The press conference will begin at 11:00 a.m.

Coach Swinney’s weekly press conference will be broadcast live on TigerCast each week throughout the 2010 season.

Click on the link below to watch the press conference on TigerCast:

Swinney Press Conference – August 31, 11:00 AM

Season and single game tickets are still available for the 2010 season and can be purchased online at ClemsonTigers.com or by phone by calling 1-800-CLEMSON. Discounted tickets (adult – $16, youth – $10) are also now available for the Tigers’ season opener against North Texas on September 4.

Click here to purchase tickets.

Press Conference Quotes

Opening Statement: “It’s great to be back with everyone. It’s finally game week and I know we’re excited and you’re all excited. We can finally start talking about other people and what we’ve been doing as a team since January. We’re anxious to see our team play. You work on a lot of things during the off-season and now it’s time to go see what we’ve got.

“I like this football team. I think we’ve had an excellent camp. We’re pretty healthy right now, which is always a great thing going into the start of the season. We’re just coming off of camp and I think we did a good job as a staff getting them some rest and keeping them healthy. Now, this is our opportunity to get on a normal game week schedule and we’re just ready to go.

“There are a lot of unknowns with North Texas. The only experience I have with them was when we played them while I was coaching at Alabama. There’s tradition there. They have a lot of junior college guys sprinkled into their roster.

“When you study them from last year, the first thing you see is their record, which wasn’t very good, but of their 10 losses, six were by a touchdown or less. They have some good players on this team, guys we’d like to have.

“But really, it’s about us, how we play and how we prepare. Over the last three years, they’ve had the most offensive production in their school’s history, so they know what they’re doing. They have some experience coming back, but the guy that jumps out at you is that #5 (North Texas running back Lance Dunbar).

“He’s a ball player. He showed his speed against Alabama last year. We have to focus on corralling him. They’ve got two returning wide outs with big numbers, too.

“Defensively, they’ve got a great returning group. They’re really good in the secondary and the guys up front are just big-bodied guys. From a scheme standpoint, they’re very sound in what they do. They play a lot of offenses. They may not always match-up well, but they’ve got good answers to everyone’s questions.

“Really, this week is about us. I’m looking for a team that’s going to show up Saturday ready to play. This is the first of 12. This is all you get. These guys are all working toward being game ready. What you really want to see is how guys carry over from the practice field. They did great in practice yesterday and hopefully we’ll see that on Saturday. We’ve told them over and over that it’s about learning your position and the technique and really being on your game and hopefully that will stick and we’ll be a smarter football team this year.”

On this year’s “team identity”: “Last year’s identity was three or four guys who were really the heart and soul of the offense; guys like Jacoby Ford, CJ Spiller, and Michael Palmer. This year, we’ll be a much more balanced team as far as production and who’s touching the ball and things like that. We have two backs in Jamie Harper and Andre Ellington who are going to put up some big, but balanced numbers.

“You could have one rush for 100 and the other guy rush for 50 and it’ll change from game to game. It’s not going to take much for our skill guys to have career games. We don’t have anyone coming back with huge numbers. Most of these guys will be guys that have been waiting on time to be the guy. We’re just going to do what we do as a team; the numbers will just be a little different from last year.”

On wide receivers: “I’m feeling good about our wide outs. It really has never been any different here, as far as I can tell. I remember when I first got here, Derrick Hamilton was leaving and people said, “oh Airese Currie can’t be the guy,” but he led the conference.

“Then when he left, we took Curtis Baham and Chansi Stuckey and they turned out to be great playmakers. Then Stuckey left and we got these guys named Aaron Kelly and Tyler Grisham. Then when they left everyone said, “Oh Jacoby can’t be the guy,” and he had a pretty good year. Seven years and we’ve had someone make first or second team All-ACC every year. I don’t know that we have done that at any other positions.

“I think that competition has made them a really solid group. We’re pretty comfortable with Xavier Dye and Terrence Ashe, but the guys that are ready to seize the moment are Brandon Clear. Both of those guys have been really consistent during camp and I think they’re ready to go. I don’t think there’s any one guy I can say right now that deserves more than another. I also think Jaron Brown, Bryce McNeal, and Nuke (DeAndre) Hopkins all are going to be special players.”

On Michael Palmer (2009 senior TE) vs. Dwayne Allen (current sophomore TE): “Dwayne is way more explosive and talented than Palmer was as a sophomore. Palmer was just a student of the game the whole time he was here and if you have the knowledge to go with your talent, you can be an effective player. As a sophomore, Dwayne is a lot bigger and more physical; he’s certainly ahead of Palmer there. He’s not as much of a cerebral player as Palmer was as a sophomore, but he’s definitely ahead as far as physical ability and talent.”

On team personality: “I just want our team to be tough, hard nosed and to do things with class. I hope they have a personality as a team of just playing hard, giving great effort and playing with passion. I just hope when people watch our team they say “wow, those guys play hard all the time.”

On center Dalton Freeman: “We’re really blessed to have a center like him. He’s kind of like Michael Palmer was, a student of the game. The center position is such a critical part of what you do offensively and to have a guy that’s so smart and has the intangibles you’d want your son to have, is amazing. For him to just be a sophomore, it’s impressive what he’s been able to do. He took advantage of every practice rep, every meeting during his red-shirt year and last year he and Kyle Parker, the red-shirt tandem, really grew up together. There’s nothing like experience. We were confident in him last year but now he’s played 14 games so we know he’s going to be great.”

On the Jamie Harper/Andre Ellington relationship: “It’s important to have unselfishness on your team. We talk about earning it, effort, accountability, doing what’s right, and nourishing the concept of team and family. That’s a HUGE component of a championship team. It’s all about team.

“These are two really good backs that support each other. They’re blue collar, they practice hard, they encourage each other, and they both know they need each other. Those days of just one guy are over; we even saw that last year with CJ Spiller. Jamie Harper and Andre Ellington had a huge impact on our season last year because usually when we rested CJ it was on offense and they both grew up from that experience.”

On Chandler Catanzaro: “He made 80-something percent of his field goals in camp. He’s kicked from everywhere and we’ve tried a lot of different things. Everybody had equal opportunity and he just flat-out won the job. Really, it wasn’t even close.

“Here’s a guy who hasn’t even played yet and I’m sure he’s going to be pretty nervous when he goes out there for the first time, but he’s a focused guy. He’s about his job all the time and very dialed in every time I see him. He really took advantage of his year as a red-shirt and got stronger physically and mentally stronger. He’s been so consistent.”

On offensive production vs. field position: “CJ Spiller and Jacoby Ford were awesome as return guys, but there were times where they weren’t even touched on returns. Somebody has to be blocking! A lot of times the other 10 guys out there don’t get any credit. We work hard in those areas and those guys take a lot of pride in it.

“I think Marcus Gilchrist is going to be outstanding as a return man. Our return game is going to be fine. I think the biggest thing we have to do offensively is wherever our field position is, we have to do a good job of moving the chains and getting first downs. We’ll just keep doing what we do.

“Instead of returning some for 50 yards this year, it might be 25 and that’s the only difference. We’ve worked a lot of guys at the return spot (Marcus Gilchrist, Andre Ellington, Roderick McDowell, and Nuke Hopkins) and they’ve all done great jobs.

“Marcus is awful excited that CJ and Jacoby are gone because he’s been chomping at the bit to be the return guy. He’s anxious to get out there and show he’s a pretty good player.”

On playing pre-season games: “I think pre-season games would be great. We know what we have on both sides of the ball and they get very smart against each other in practice. But, when you have to play an opponent, you can expose some things and find out some information that you usually don’t get until game day. That’s what NFL teams do. You’ll see them not only have pre-season games, but they’ll go practice against other teams. I think it would be a great thing. We could use it as a way to just get better. “