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CUTrevor
2019-12-23 12:48:55
DENISE SEOMIN: Good evening, everyone. On behalf of all bowl staff, volunteers, and our board of
directors, it is my pleasure to welcome Clemson University to the 49th annual PlayStation Fiesta
Bowl. Riding a school record 28-game winning streak, the second longest in ACC history, the
third-ranked Tigers finished the regular season at 13-0 overall and 8-0 in the conference.
Saturday's matchup with second-ranked Ohio State will be the fourth meeting between the two
teams, all in bowl contests, with Clemson winning all three games. In their last meeting, the Tigers
posted a 31-0 victory over the Buckeyes in the 2016 CFP Playoff Semifinal here at the PlayStation
Fiesta Bowl en route to taking the national title.
The Tigers are led by head Coach Dabo Swinney, now in his 12th season. With a 129-30 head
coaching record, he has guided the Tigers to two national championships in the last three years.
Joining him today are offensive tackle Tremayne Anchrum, who hopes to enter broadcasting
following his football career and safety K'Von Wallace, who just became the first four-year college
graduate in his family.
At this time, I will turn it over to Coach [Dabo] Swinney. DABO: Thank you. First of all, let me say, Tremayne Anchrum is going to be an
incredible broadcaster. When I first met him -- I don't know if he remembers this -- but he wanted to
be a weatherman. Now he has come full circle, and he has found his passion and purpose in life. And
that's what college is all about. So I was going to be a doctor and ended up being a football coach.
Anyway, he'll be awesome.
We're just happy to be here, just blessed to have the type of season that we had. Obviously, you got
to get picked to be here. Everybody is saying, Thank you for being here. I'm like, Shoot, thank you for
having us because you got to get picked to come here. We didn't really get a choice. We're just
thankful to be out here in Arizona.
We came out here, I guess, in '16. We are a very young team. And the majority of our team has not
been here, just our fourth-year juniors and true seniors. But most of our team has not been to
Arizona. So it's a really great trip, something we're really excited about and just very appreciative of
all the hospitality.
I was out here as a player way back in '90 as well. Just great memories, great experiences, the
hospitality. Looking forward to a great week and an incredible matchup with an awesome team in
Ohio State. So should be exciting for everybody.
K'Von over here, our safety, glad to have him. Just graduated Thursday. (Applause) How about that? Q. Dabo, just want to make sure everybody made it here, everybody safely? You got
everybody? DABO: Everybody is here. Everybody's here. Q. Ryan Day was talking earlier about, with the compressed schedule being so different from
previous years, trying to balance keeping your team fresh but also keeping them physically
ready. Can you reflect on how that process is going with you guys? DABO: It's been good. I just tried to rely on past experience, but it was very different. It
was actually something I put a lot of thought into really last May. I do a calendar every year, kind of a
13-month calendar, July through the next August. And I always plan -- I just plan like we're going to
win it all. And then if we don't get there, we'll adjust. But I just kind of plan that way.
And so I actually had to think a lot about it. In fact, I questioned Mike Dooley, my operations guy,
when we were first going through the calendar. I'm like, Wait a minute, this can't be right. I was into
December and this was last May. I was going, This isn't right, but he was right. I argued with him a
little while. He was right; I was wrong. We really lost a week this year. It was a strange deal because
the championship games were a week later. So it's very compressed.
In past years, we have been able to play the championship game, and basically give our players off a
week and a half. And then we would start bowl prep and have another week and a half in town before
we would break for Christmas.
So just different. Lost a week, but it's been great. These guys, we sat down and actually talked about
it with our seniors, what I felt like the best thing to do. Because you do have to give them some time
off. It's a long season when you play 13 games and two open dates. So there's a lot of practice.
These guys have been going since July 31st.
So having that balance of giving them a little bit of a break and also getting them physically prepared
for what they're going to see. Because in the game of football, it doesn't take long to kind of lose your
edge, if you will.
So I think we had a good balance of mental prep, conditioning, working on Clemson, fundamentals
technique, and then game plan for Ohio State and a little bit of good-on-good. Just enough full pads
work, I think, to keep us sharp.
But then we gave them three days off. So we went through Wednesday. Gave them Thursday,
Friday, Saturday. And then we came back here this morning, had meetings, kind of had a
jog-through-type practice, and here we are. We will have a normal week and excited about it. Q. Guys, you were here in '16. What do you remember about the experience and then also the
game itself and playing Ohio State? TREMAYNE ANCHRUM: What I remember most, I was a young man, so I was kind of nervous.
Didn't really know what to expect. I was just kind of thrown into it. So I remember the atmosphere
was very business-like. But we also knew how to have fun, and he kept us engaged throughout the
whole bowl prep.
It was a little different. We had more time. I remember the level of competition being high, not only in
the game, but what prepared us the most was the level of competition in the practice, and how we did
sharpen iron-on-iron. And that kind of edge that those older guys brought that taught us, that we can
carry on to the younger generations that, Hey, it's always game time. We don't just get up for games
like this. We treat games like this like we do Week 6, Week 7. The preparation may be different, but
we keep the formula for excellence. Keeping that same formula through now similar to how we were
last time. K'VON WALLACE: I was a true freshman coming in, having to play my role. I was a third-down guy,
so making sure I got everything I need to get done to play well for my team. It was a very locked-in,
focused team, didn't lose any focus. It wasn't a trip to go have fun. It was not a trip to have a
vacation. It was locked in. We knew what we wanted to do. And we came and we saw and we
conquered. Q. Dabo, how excited do you think Jackson [Carman] is right now going up against Ohio State
obviously? And then that No. 2 (Chase Young) they have? DABO: Oh, man. Jackson Carman is super excited. It's kind of neat experience when
you go against your school -- hometown school. It's a neat experience. I've experienced it in a
different way as a coach, obviously going against Alabama. But I think at the end of the day, when
the game kicks off, it's just about the game.
But Jackson is excited. And then regardless of who you're playing, as a competitor, you always get
excited to play great players. And they have a great defense. They have a great defensive line, not
just No. 2. He certainly has earned all of his recognition.
I think their entire defensive line is pretty special. They're deep. They're physical. Those guys come
off the ball, penetrate the line of scrimmage. And, again, they have a bunch of guys they roll in there.
But certainly No. 2 headlines the way.
So Tremayne [Anchrum] and Jackson, I'm sure, will have to battle him. Again, he's a great
competitor. We've got great competitors and should be a great matchup. Q. You've been in Arizona, I think, three times in the last five years for games such as these.
Can you draw on that experience at all? Is really every game independent of one another? DABO: I think that certainly experience is a great teacher, but it's a new team. Like I
said, I've got very few that have been out here. We don't have a big senior class. And that's the only
group that's been here. Most of these guys, it's a new experience for them. But we have been in a lot
of big games. All of our true juniors and true sophomores have played in big games.
As Tremayne [Anchrum] said, we really treat every game as a big game. I mean, we really do. I think
that's why we've been so consistent, is we try to put our best foot forward and we try to play Clemson
every week.
So it's exciting. This is a little different in that obviously you're away and it's a bowl site and different
logistics and things like that. So our experience hopefully will help us just kind of navigate that. But at
the end of the day, man, we got a routine that we believe in and we'll stick to it but at the same time,
also, enjoy the week and participating in all the things that are available to us. |
