Swinney talks Georgia challenge, Caden Story punishment and more

being on high school recruits more so than diving into the transfer portal how much re evaluation have you done of that as a real time thing about you might want to evolve take on more transfers eventually or do you think hey this is working stick with it how do you look at it right now oh we evaluate every every year you know you you see what's leaving and you evaluate your roster and then you you know look at who's coming back on your roster as far as who your starters are projected starters are and then you also look at who you're recruiting and uh you know something we talk about every single year it's not like I walk in and go hey this is what we're doing we have a whole staff of very experienced coaches and and uh they they're they're the head coach of their position you know and so you you gather input on that and then uh so again you know it's people it's not a I'm I'm just for the guys that we have and we just haven't been put in a situation yet I said earlier today if I took a job somewhere else you know half the i' I'd be the greatest portal recruiter ever uh cuz half my roster would be gone I'd have to go put it together but we've had if you study our team our retention is you know as good as anybody in the country you know guys graduate they stay and uh and we recruit you know we've had 14 top 15 recruiting classes in a row so okay you got a linebacker that leaves early you know do you go replace that guy with a portal guy or do you here's Wade wood ass you know because if you go bring because what you don't talk about is if you bring a guy in somebody's got to leave you know when you have the type of retention that we have now it would be different if we had a bunch of guys packing up and leaving I think we've had two guys two maybe two three four guys leave in three years post spring that's really what puts a lot of people in the portal uh because you you you have to replace that on your roster we haven't had that guys that are leaving in the you already always know who your seniors are who's going pro early and then you know guys come and they articulate hey I'm you know like I knew got some guys that were gradu we're going in the portal last year we plan for that in recruiting and occasionally you have a gap but we've signed a guy out of the portal to out of the last three years and then this past year we we we had one spot that we were trying to get a couple of guys and and we didn't get them you know so uh it takes two to to get that done but we like our roster and again the portal is a great tool it's a great tool for the player it's a great tool for coaches uh but but you know for us we we just haven't been a fullblown portal recruiting team because of the type of kids we're getting and the type of retention that we've had Dave Doran is going into his 12th season and when he was high like you were the only coach in the league left that was here when he was hired um why do you think y'all have been able to sustain this longevity in such a volatile profession we've won enough uh you know if you don't win you're not going to hang around round that's just really that simple and the reason we've won is he' say the same thing as we've had you know great staffs and great young men that have bought into to you know doing what it takes to win and um so yeah I mean I'm I'm not the oldest but I'm I'm certainly the I guess I guess got the most tenure in fact I was with uh Tom O'Brien a couple nights ago and he and I were talking just about that you know when I first walked into the room it was Tom O'Brien and Beamer and frian and Al grow and and Paul Johnson and cut cliff and B Bobby Bowden um you know Grobe I mean you know was a it was it's changed a lot so it just means we've been fortunate enough to find a way to win enough games cuz you don't win enough games uh it's going to turn over quick and Dave's done an amazing job of that at NC State and speaking of turnovers that was kind of the challenge last year were you able to identify maybe some common themes as to why you had such especially yeah I mean there was just some fluky things some of it's just you know I mean a guy gets his hand up at the right second and instead of it going by it's a tip ball and it just falls into to their best player's hand and he walks in for a touchdown you know I mean there there are certainly some things that led to a turnover for example we had a turnover against Florida State we're getting ready to maybe go up put the game away there and and U you know we don't scan back on the the protection and uh they brought the guy from depth and it would have been an easy pickup and so the ball you know um that that that's what caused the turnover um and then uh but you know unfortunate that it's not just a sack fumble it's a sack scoop 70 yard you know touchdown I mean you know so we just that's football though you know we've had a ton of Good Fortune too so a little bit of it's just uh you know some tough breaks here or there but that's that's the way it is and then some of it's fundamental you know um you know not securing the ball the way we need to secure the ball um you know that's that's part of it as well um you know just we we had three fumbles on the one you know on the one going in to score uh so you know uh and you lose in double overtime and overtime you lose on a pick six um you know we had two first and goals on the one in our opener and and you know turned them both over got nothing so uh yeah fundamental stuff ball handling you know routine stuff that you do and practice every single day um so it was uh it was frustrating and um you know not all on the quarterback or the running back some them them on the receivers uh as well uh we turn one over on special teams so it's just a it's a a collective thing U certainly an area that hopefully we can we can get that behind us Co I was just asking Kate about this how how much of a benefit is the new quarterback Communications would have been more of a benefit last year saying with a you know new starting quarterback new OC um how much of a game changer is that in general uh I mean I'm looking forward to it um I think it'll I think it'll be great I think it's good for I think it's great for the quarterbacks first of all just you know especially guys that have a chance play at the next level because they they'll be ready you know it's a and we're the only level of football that didn't have technology on the sideline I mean you go to any High School game and they've got technology on the sideline so there'll be a lot more truth telling going on on the sideline uh than there's ever been in college football instead of finding out on Sunday yeah gu said no he was a three technique you get in there on Sunday no he was a freaking shade you know or whatever um I got picked and then you get in there and nobody touched him uh be a lot more truth-telling in in real time being able to fix some things in the moment I think that's great from technology standpoint but from a headset and a communication uh you know you still got to have signals and stuff you got two-minute mode and all that stuff and you got to be able to be no huddle and do stuff but I do think it'll it'll it'll be great it'll cut off 15 seconds so there might be some alerts that you can put in there you know with the quarterback hey you calling certain plays alert this you know because maybe that protection hey if it's Corner cat we're in trouble and so making sure you have some alerts built in same thing on the defensive side you know being able to communicate with your backer or some people may be the safety but whoever's calling the front setting the fronts uh you know based on being you know defensive coordinators you see the formation you see certain things hey you know alert this on this motion or whatever because coaches see things quickly uh especially you know from the box and so forth and then special teams there might be some things in special teams that um you know you may be able to execute uh because you can communicate with somebody there um so uh it it's going to be good it'll be fun and then maybe create another Tempo you might see teams do a little more sugar huddle what we call Sugar huddle uh than maybe you've seen in the past just because you you can eliminate having a signal and you can you know uh tell them what you want and boom go you've opened with games like the Georgia game in the past what what are the advantages of playing that kind of a challenging game right out of the gate as opposed to you know easing into the schedule all the advantages are when you win it uh so so the advantage is if you win it uh other than that you know uh you you I think you get exposed to you know hey like playoff football right out of the gate like that's really what it is I mean it's it's that caliber football uh you know neither team's you know both teams get better I mean you know both teams get better as you go throughout the course of a season but um there's an edge to it for sure I mean there's there's an edge I mean we've F I think we've been I mean we've opened up everywhere we've we've opened up at Auburn we've opened up in in Atlanta a couple times we obviously last year on the road I don't think we've had a home game opener maybe since about 2019 it's been a while um so opening up on the road um against I mean Georgia to me has been the best team in the country the past three years you know in totality I I don't know that anybody would argue with that they've been really really good and they'll be great again this year so um it certainly you know young players they they they I mean they all have respect for you know competition and and they all take pride in performance and so it brings it certainly brings an edge to your preparation do you think that the expanded playoff with with automatic bids now lends itself to more kind you know these kind of games yeah I think I think for sure um you know the number one thing for us is to win your league I mean I think that's for everybody I mean because if you can win your league you get a buy and I think that's huge so I think it's no different it's always gone been about our league for us we can win our league hey man you know that's that's been the Gateway for us um and now you you it puts even more empasis on that because if you win it you got a chance to get that buy that buy is huge you know having played 15 games multiple times and the toll of that now you're looking at possibly 17 games uh to be able to get a buy is I think um what it's all about but when it all comes down to to it at the end and like in basketball when they're talking about the tournament because we we've created a tournament if you will that strength and schedule will will be important and yeah you you know you maybe you play games like this and maybe another team uh they yeah maybe they beat you know um you know East aboga Community College uh and they got they're undefeated and you know you you've played you know the best of the best uh and vice versa maybe you're both undefeated but you've got to win against you know Georgia the best team in the country so all those things certainly can factor into um and and vice versa for Georgia you know for them to step out of conference and play Clemson I mean it's it works both ways so I think definitely um something that'll probably be more and more down the road with the with the committee you got a comment on Kaden's situation and what's going to happen with him after what happened other day yeah well you know first of all the you know he You Know the Way It Was Written is like he was handcuffed and taken to jail that's not accurate uh he was issued a ticket a citation and uh so he he's uh you know he'll be held accountable for that and he'll handle that in the process got to go to court for that and you know like like the ticket says and um but you know he's a great kid he's never been in trouble uh never had an issue with Kaden and you know we'll handle it within our team uh framework 16 16 of these ACC media days and I'm sure that's a big number to you but you still draw a crowd here uh regardless of the state of the conference do you enjoy this or what do you make of this experience I enjoy it because I mean I get to see a lot of you know people uh that I work with and sometimes you don't get to see them until you get back going and I get to meet some of the other players uh get to see some of the coaches um and uh and then you get a chance to get on to um you know talking about your team and you know everything builds to this every you know this this is kind of like okay and we just finished five days as a staff what we you know our program meetings and uh now this is you know kind of the when we head back home from from this it's like all right hey we're ready you know we're it's time to get on the grass um so it's fun I enjoy it um enjoy you know talking about our team talking about our kids and and talking about that never gets old coach you had a legendary rant on tiger calls last season Tyler from sparenberg if you remember that what do you think the attitude that that caller in particular had says about fan culture in general in the modern era I mean people are passionate about it fans are passionate about the game and and um you know that's part of what makes it great you know I do think sometimes we can you know lose sight that you know your people and there's people involved uh but you know I love the passion I love the the um you know the fans that we have at Clemson I mean it's amazing there's not many places that you can go to on a Saturday uh like like Clemson South Carolina so you know we're blessed to have that type of passion has Tamp gotten better is it has it stayed about the same since the portal has started I guess do you have Solutions people have gotten more creative people have gotten more more creative how they go about it do you have solutions to try to fix I got a lot of solutions uh I just don't have uh opportunity uh so but you mentioned trying to win the league you go from a four and four AC team that you were last year to two winning the League what is that Improvement have to come well I think um you know last year first of all how we finished was awesome uh I was really proud of that team you know went in five in a row and and just really grew through the adversity uh but it's winning the close games it's Tak first of all it's taking care of the ball you know we were atrocious at that last year so we got to we've got to turn that around and um and then you know we the last three years we've won 30 Games 30 and that's that's 94th percentile in college football so if you made a 94 on your paper you that's an a that's good like you think that's good and that's more wins in the last three years than 126 of the 134 teams in college football so we've been good but the reason we haven't been great you know like we were 15 to 20 when we're we making a final four um it's not very much for us it's not like we're 75th percentile we've been 94th percentile the last three years and and last year is a is a is a a microcosm of the past three years and and how close you are um I mean we again you you you you're you're losing double overtime you losing overtime you lose on a oneplay pick six in Raleigh um and I mean you lose a a game at Duke we were 200 plus 200 plus we've never lost a game in 128 years at Clemson that whatever but we did well we had about five turnovers two of them first and goals on the one and they take good team they take advantage of that and you get beat so it's just when we've been great all right as I as I said earlier today when we've been great all right we have we we have a plan to win and we have been great at executing that in particular big play margin big play margin all right uh having more big plays in the opponent so big play margin uh and then it's been Red Zone scoring we were not good last year on either side defensively we were eighth in the country but when people got to the Red Zone they scored touchdowns and then we're 15th in the country in first downs we got there a lot but we didn't finish block kicks Miss kicks turnovers you name it and and then we have won the close games when we've been great you know so uh to answer it's a long answer your question but that's just the reality I mean since 2011 we lead the nation in one score wins we lead the nation like 49 games we're 79% the next closest is like 6 all the rest of them are 60% and below 69 and Below all the other teams all right so that mean one score games down to the wire and the type of games that we've played in the last since 2011 we've been Elite at winning the close games we elad the nation but the difference in 15 to 20 when we were great 96 percentile we were number one in those close games we were 82% we're like 18 and four or something like that 21 22 and 23 we're 27th in the country 65% we haven't won the close games you go back to 21 we lose on one play to Georgia One play 10 to three pick six neither offense scored a point one play you go losing double overtime on the road um One play you know and so you you're talking a few plays and and you're and the narrative is different uh but that's how close it is when you're trying to make a final four uh it's a a few plays and when we've been great we made those few plays we won those close games we were really really good when it came to finishing and scoring in the red zone and and not letting people score so how do you how do you turn those close losses into this year yeah so it's it's just the fundamentals of what we do it's recruiting it's us coaching it's it's all of it together and guys getting better um you know some of it's just some for good luck you know sometimes we don't we don't count you know Luck's a part of it too you know I mean sometimes just things bounce your way and we've had a lot of good fortune over the years but um you know so it's not like like I said it'd be different if you were 94 and getting your teeth kicked in you know it's not been the case uh even in 22 we won this league two years ago we' won the league seven out of nine years so to get back we need to win the league all right and and so those are the things that that's how close we are uh but even that year when we won the league and two years ago we're one point away from being in the playoff fourth quarter South Carolina we fumble the punt return We fumble the kick return lose two possessions with a lead and you get beat by one point otherwise you're in the playoff so you know those are disappointing things that you you just have to you know uh coach through recruit through and U and practice through and that's what we're working on you