By Erik Slaby
With football season approaching and on the horizon, the defending National Champions Clemson University Tigers prepare to defend their Atlantic Coast Conference and National Championship titles. With a 14-1 record last season and the defending champions, Clemson must be prepared to face everyone’s best shot week in and week out. Head coach Dabo Swinney spoke about the toughness of the Atlantic division and how difficult it is to face every team in the Conference.
“In particular, if you're going to speak about our division, I have great respect for the coaches and the teams in our division. It is incredibly difficult.” said Swinney. “I guess since I've been in the league or since I've been the head coach, it's either been us or Florida State representing the Atlantic. But man, Louisville, the type of team that they are, NC State, really good, talented football team.” “I think Dave Clawson has done an incredible job at Wake Forest in rebuilding them and re-establishing their program, getting them to a bowl game last year. He's done a great job.”
“This division is tough. Boston College, man, you talk about a tough, hard-nosed, physical football team that you're going to see when you line up and play Boston College, and then Syracuse and Dino, what a great football coach he is. So good for our league. It's not going to take him long to get Syracuse where they want to be as a program” said Swinney. “It's a strong, strong division from top to bottom.”
Last season, Clemson had a loaded team with a good mix of veteran and younger players but this season they lost several experienced players to the NFL, presenting opportunities to more inexperience players. Swinney was a bit exasperated with all of the attention surrounding last year’s team and spoke about putting the attention on this year’s team.
“Everybody keeps wanting to talk about last year and what we don't have, but what I'm excited about is what we do have” said Swinney. “And we've got a football team that I think is committed, a football team that I think is focused, and a football team that I think is hungry, because we've got a lot of guys that nobody talks about. Because again, we keep talking about those guys that aren't with us anymore, which that's kind of understandable, but we've got a lot of guys that are really hungry to go prove that they can get the job done.”
After winning a national championship, there can be a bit of a tendency for teams for teams to coast, or rest on their laurels at times but Clemson does not want to do that. They know that they have the talent and the potential to repeat as champions. Defensive tackle Christian Wilkins spoke about how important it is to have the right mindset.
“In particular, if you're going to speak about our division, I have great respect for the coaches and the teams in our division. It is incredibly difficult.” said Swinney. “I guess since I've been in the league or since I've been the head coach, it's either been us or Florida State representing the Atlantic. But man, Louisville, the type of team that they are, NC State, really good, talented football team.” “I think Dave Clawson has done an incredible job at Wake Forest in rebuilding them and re-establishing their program, getting them to a bowl game last year. He's done a great job.”
“This division is tough. Boston College, man, you talk about a tough, hard-nosed, physical football team that you're going to see when you line up and play Boston College, and then Syracuse and Dino, what a great football coach he is. So good for our league. It's not going to take him long to get Syracuse where they want to be as a program” said Swinney. “It's a strong, strong division from top to bottom.”
Last season, Clemson had a loaded team with a good mix of veteran and younger players but this season they lost several experienced players to the NFL, presenting opportunities to more inexperience players. Swinney was a bit exasperated with all of the attention surrounding last year’s team and spoke about putting the attention on this year’s team.
“Everybody keeps wanting to talk about last year and what we don't have, but what I'm excited about is what we do have” said Swinney. “And we've got a football team that I think is committed, a football team that I think is focused, and a football team that I think is hungry, because we've got a lot of guys that nobody talks about. Because again, we keep talking about those guys that aren't with us anymore, which that's kind of understandable, but we've got a lot of guys that are really hungry to go prove that they can get the job done.”
After winning a national championship, there can be a bit of a tendency for teams for teams to coast, or rest on their laurels at times but Clemson does not want to do that. They know that they have the talent and the potential to repeat as champions. Defensive tackle Christian Wilkins spoke about how important it is to have the right mindset.
“What I'm trying to convey to the rest of the team and just encourage guys what to think or how to think is it was a greater accomplishment to reach one national championship and win that, but really just why not win two” said Wilkins. “We shouldn't get complacent because we won one. There's still more out there for us. If we want to be a good team, want to be good competitors, want to be good athletes, we can never get complacent and be satisfied with whatever we did, no matter how good it is. There's always room to improve.”
Clemson’s biggest problem heading into this season seems to be whether or not if they will be able to replace the production, both offensively and defensively, of the players who left and moved on to the NFL. Quarterback Deshaun Watson, wide receiver Mike Williams, running back Wayne Gallman and linebacker Ben Boulware are just some of the players they need to replace. Offensively, the players that left Clemson made up for roughly 77% of their offensive production. When asked how Clemson will replace that production, an exacerbated Swinney stated that you must recruit and develop players.
“You recruit,” said Swinney. “You go recruiting. That's what you do. You don't sit around and pout about it. That's just the nature of college football. I think that's what makes college football so exciting and so much fun. It's different. Guys, there's change every year. It's a new team. You know, when Tajh Boyd was gone, it was, how are you going to replace Tajh Boyd? Well, we went and got a guy named Deshaun Watson. He did okay. When Vic Beasley left, oh my God, how are you going to replace Vic Beasley? Well, we got a guy named Clelin Ferrell, he did all right last year. Nobody knew about him this time last year. ”
Swinney went on to say, “it's a very fair question because it's a lot of production, and I think that's the natural thing to do is you just look at a piece of paper and you say, wow, and you don't know these guys. But come mid-season, you're going to know a lot of these guys, and by the end of the season, we're not going to be talking about all those guys that aren't here anymore. If we are, we're going to be talking about how good they're doing at the next level, because we've got good players that are ready to emerge.”
The strength of the ACC as a whole has been improving the last few years and teams in both divisions but especially the Atlantic, look to be very tough. The quality of teams in the division will make it difficult for Clemson, especially if they have trouble replacing the production from last year. Clemson’s two biggest games on their schedule are against two division rivals in Louisville and Florida State.
Right now, Florida State is the favorite to with the division and the ACC title but if Clemson is able to find their groove early on, they may be able to recapture the title. Clemson looks get started off on the right foot when they take on Kent State, at Memorial Stadium on September 2nd.
Clemson’s biggest problem heading into this season seems to be whether or not if they will be able to replace the production, both offensively and defensively, of the players who left and moved on to the NFL. Quarterback Deshaun Watson, wide receiver Mike Williams, running back Wayne Gallman and linebacker Ben Boulware are just some of the players they need to replace. Offensively, the players that left Clemson made up for roughly 77% of their offensive production. When asked how Clemson will replace that production, an exacerbated Swinney stated that you must recruit and develop players.
“You recruit,” said Swinney. “You go recruiting. That's what you do. You don't sit around and pout about it. That's just the nature of college football. I think that's what makes college football so exciting and so much fun. It's different. Guys, there's change every year. It's a new team. You know, when Tajh Boyd was gone, it was, how are you going to replace Tajh Boyd? Well, we went and got a guy named Deshaun Watson. He did okay. When Vic Beasley left, oh my God, how are you going to replace Vic Beasley? Well, we got a guy named Clelin Ferrell, he did all right last year. Nobody knew about him this time last year. ”
Swinney went on to say, “it's a very fair question because it's a lot of production, and I think that's the natural thing to do is you just look at a piece of paper and you say, wow, and you don't know these guys. But come mid-season, you're going to know a lot of these guys, and by the end of the season, we're not going to be talking about all those guys that aren't here anymore. If we are, we're going to be talking about how good they're doing at the next level, because we've got good players that are ready to emerge.”
The strength of the ACC as a whole has been improving the last few years and teams in both divisions but especially the Atlantic, look to be very tough. The quality of teams in the division will make it difficult for Clemson, especially if they have trouble replacing the production from last year. Clemson’s two biggest games on their schedule are against two division rivals in Louisville and Florida State.
Right now, Florida State is the favorite to with the division and the ACC title but if Clemson is able to find their groove early on, they may be able to recapture the title. Clemson looks get started off on the right foot when they take on Kent State, at Memorial Stadium on September 2nd.