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CUTrevor
2019-10-15 08:19:07
Dabo held his weekly press conference on Tuesday, and I asked him if Potter responded the way he'd expect him to. Dabo said he did and had a good practice yesterday. They'll use him if they need a long field goal on Saturday, but for now it's Sawicki on the short ones, inside 40 yards or so. Potter, of course, will still be the starter on kickoffs. We spoke with Steven Sawicki for the first time today, and he told me he wasn't nervous at all when he lined up for the first field goal in his Clemson career on Saturday. He said it felt just like practice. We'll see if he still feels that way in front of a hostile Louisville crowd on Saturday. Sawicki said he is comfortable from up to 50 yards. It will be interesting to see if Dabo feels that way as well or if he uses Potter on an attempt from 48 to 50 yards. I also asked Dabo how much of an emphasis will be on getting the offensive line dialed in on the snap count this week. They had 5 false starts in their last road game at Chapel Hill and two more on Saturday in Death Valley. Louisville is likely to be much louder than Chapel Hill was, so the line will have to be focused on the cadence or the silent count. Dabo didn't seem concerned about it in the least, pointing out how much experience the offensive linemen have in big atmospheres, like the National Championship. He said they will be just fine. We also spoke with James Skalski, Amari Rodgers and Jordan McFadden. I asked Skalski if he felt like the defense doesn't get the credit they deserve for how well they have played in the first half of the season. All of the rhetoric coming into the season was that the Tigers lost nearly their entire front seven, including the entire starting defensive line, and may struggle on that side of the ball. That hasn't been the case at all. To the contrary, the Tigers are No.3 in total defense, No.6 in scoring defense, and they are top-10 in the Power Five for both sacks and interceptions! The only game in which the starting unit allowed more than 10 points was at UNC, and outside of one big play early and a late 4-down drive, they were suffocating in that game as well. Skalski's response? He said he wants the media to keep doubting them. Well, he may get his wish from those at ESPN, but this is one member of the media who has never doubted them. I said preseason that this would be another top-10 defense for Venables, and they are well on their way to being just that. Brent Venables had a conflict yesterday and wasn't able to meet with us today, so we won't get him again until after the game on Saturday. He probably has his hands full coming up with a game plan to stop that Louisville offense that's been rolling. Dabo's press conference and the player interviews are below! DABO: Excited about getting ready for Louisville this week. Proud of our guys again for how they competed against Florida State. That was a tremendous performance on both sides and a very clean game and something we can build on, which is what our goal is this week: build on the improvement and the momentum. Getting back into division play, going to a team, on the road, they’ve won four out of the last five games, so it’s a team that has got a lot of confidence. They just went on the road and beat an undefeated Wake Forest at their place, and a team I think is playing really well and a team that you can just see improving. I cannot say enough about the job that Scott [Satterfield] and his staff have done. I mean, it’s just incredibly obvious to watch the difference in where they are right now and what I saw last year in getting ready for Louisville. It’s polar opposite, and there are a lot of the same guys. They have got them playing with incredible belief. Their effort is tremendous. They have excellent scheme on both sides. And it’s just a different deal. They have rushed for over 200 yards on everybody they’ve played except Florida State, including Notre Dame. I think they are one of the best in the country at plays of 10 yards or more. They’ve been explosive. Everything they do offensively is built through running the football. A lot of option principles. I really like their scheme. They’re primarily a pistol team, but lots of option principles built into it and a lot of play-action off of it, so this is a team that knows what they’re doing on offense. The quarterback is outstanding. Well, actually they are playing both guys. [No.] 3 got banged up and [No.] 6 comes in and leads them to victory against Wake Forest. Both of them are very accurate passers. Wouldn’t surprise me at all to see both of them. But I’ll tell you, that No. 3 is Houdini. He just escapes. He is constantly avoiding stuff. You think you’ve got him and he eludes and extends, runs for first downs, and next thing you know he has made some really great throw. He’s a very accurate passer, so just really impressed with what they are doing. They’re good up front, probably the biggest left tackle that we’re ever going to see. He’s massive. He’s probably 6-8. I think they list him at 370. He is probably 400. He is a huge, huge [player] and really playing well for them. Their whole offensive line is playing well. [No.] 10, that back, a really, really good player. He’s made some huge plays for them, big runs. He’s caught the ball for them as well. Tight end is playing really good. All three of their receivers – [Nos.] 5, 1 and 7 – I think [No.] 7 averages 19 yards a catch, [No.] 5 is averaging 21 yards a catch, so they’ve been incredibly explosive, and that is all built through the run game. That’s just what they do. They’re going to run the ball. They stay patient. They got down against Florida State, 21-0, mixed in a little bit more of 12 personnel, and next thing you know, they got back in the game, hit a couple big plays, and it was a dogfight down at the end. Just very impressed with what I’ve seen from them. Offensively they are really going to challenge us. We’re going to have to play well, a lot of discipline, a lot of pressure on our safeties this week, the physicality up front with our D-line, linebackers communicating and fitting things properly, setting the fronts and so forth. That’s how they’re built. Schematically they really challenge you, and how hard they’re playing and their effort and they’ve got some skill who can make plays. Very impressive what they’ve been able to do especially on that side of the ball. Over on the defensive side, did not start off well, but they are really getting better. And it is the same thing that I would say watching the tape from last year compared to this year, it’s night and day. Guys are playing with great effort, they’re playing with good technique, they’re not misaligning, they’re where they’re supposed to be, and as a coach, that’s what you’re looking for. You can see they’re playing with physicality, they’re rallying to the ball, and they’re trying to get after the quarterback. So just a really good team. But probably the thing with this team that’s been the equalizer is what they’ve done in the returns. They’ve got some really dangerous returners that can change the game. We have got a three-phase challenge that we have got to be ready to accept up there at Louisville, but I’m excited about it. This is a game where control of the division is on the line. They beat us, they control their destiny, since we beat Florida State, because that was their one loss in the league. A 4-2 team, lost to Notre Dame, lost at Florida State in a game they could have won, but with them beating Wake Forest, hey, they’re in control if they can find a way to beat us. Same thing for us. We don’t want to be at the mercy of somebody losing. We want to be able to stay in control of what we we’re trying to do, which is win the division. This is division playoff football, and it’s a best of one, simple as that. It’s not a best of four, it’s a best of one, and that’s the mindset I want our guys to have and then just go play well – play well on the road. We’ve played one really good game on the road, and one we didn’t play very well, so let’s create that consistency and what it’s going to take to be able to have the type of season we want to have because you have got to play well on the road if you’re going to have a great year. Really impressed with this team and the job Scott has done and we’re excited about going up to Louisville and hopefully playing our best game of the year. On how impressed he’s been with the difference in Louisville this year: Coaching matters, coaching matters. No question about that. I know they had a coaching change not long after our game, maybe a game or so after our game, and you know, they were just kind of a team in disarray last year, a team that, for whatever reason, just wasn’t playing hard. I’m going to tell you, it’s a different deal now. They’ve got dudes. It’s not like they are playing a bunch of freshmen. They’re playing seniors and juniors and some grad guys, they’ve got several sophomores, but they don’t have many freshmen that are in starting positions for them. So, again, coaching matters, and this group has come in and you can tell that these kids believe in what they’re trying to do and what they’re trying to build and they’ve really connected with the team and doing the things you need to do as far as developing leadership and controlling the things you can control. It’s a team, again, that has won four out of the last five games, and the Notre Dame game was a tight game for a while, and then Notre Dame hit a couple big plays on them and then it’s 35-17. But they just have found ways to win. They’ve had a few games that maybe weren’t, you know, pretty, if you will, but they found ways to win them, and I think that is a definite indication of what they are doing from a coaching standpoint and the culture and the belief and hanging in there. Even being down 21-0 at Florida State, and to see them fight back, this is a team that’s not going to quit. We might get up 21-0, I have no idea, but they won’t quit. This is a team that you’re going to have to go win the game. So I’m excited about the challenge, looking forward to it. I’ve got a lot of respect for Scott and the way they do things, and no doubt that he is going to build something special there in Louisville. On how much emphasis there will be on avoiding false starts this week: Just do what we’ve always done. We don’t have inexperienced guys up front. These are some old dogs. These guys have played a million snaps. There’s no excuse. We’ve played in national championships. These guys that sit right up in here [gesturing toward front of team meeting room], I mean, they’ve played a lot of football. So, I know Jackson [Carman] is our youngest guy but he’s played a lot of football too. He played a lot last year and he’s played a lot this year, so it doesn’t matter how loud it is. We have an operation and everybody knows how to execute. On how much Louisville Head Coach Scott Satterfield’s system is accentuating their talent: They’ve just done a great job of giving their guys a chance to be successful. They’re incredibly committed to the run. They’re not a dropback, throw-it-around team. They chunk it, but most of it, they want it to come off of play-action, and so they have to be able to run the ball. That’s just how they’re built. Pistol, downhill, lots of motions, creating … tight end sometimes in the backfield sometimes and he’s going to back it or you’re going to run the counter, you’re going to run some type of zone read option, jets with the option. They’ve got a lot of stuff going on, and then they come with the stretch, and if they get you cut backside, then they’ve split you in half. Now that guy has got cutback lanes because you’ve created space. There’s just a lot of challenges by nature of what they do. They’re not an ‘option team,’ but it’s option football as far as how you have to defend it. They create some one-on-one type of tackles, but being able to leverage them is going to be huge. And then our safeties, because the safeties have a lot of conflict, being able to play, because the safeties have got to be a part of the fit. They’ve got to be able to read that play-action off of that, and that’s a real challenge for them. Corners have got to play well, have got to tackle well. And then D-linemen have got to stay on their feet, especially backside guys if they’re running that stretch, and then just eye discipline because there’s stuff going on all over the place. Then here he’s in the Pistol and it’s downhill and there’s guys going there, just having your eyes on the right things, not staring in the backfield and really doing your job, there’s lot of option principles you have to apply even though they’re a spread offense. But they play with tempo. They do a nice job. And this little back, man, he’s a player. He’s not very big but he’s a heck of a player. He’s a really good football player. He’s made a lot of big plays for them. All these receivers are confident, and the dang quarterbacks are way more accurate than you want him to be. And [No.] 3, he runs around all over the place. It’s going to be a real challenge for us. We’ve got to win the matchup up front and we’ve got to have the right mindset to stop this run, because they’re going to do what they do, we’re going to do what we do, so who can win the matchup of the trenches and who can play more disciplined. That will be critical. |
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CUTrevor
2019-10-15 12:05:17
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CUTrevor
2019-10-15 12:15:58
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CUTrevor
2019-10-15 12:19:08
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CUTrevor
2019-10-15 12:51:17
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