Interviews with coaches and players are below, along with transcripts and the head coach press conference with Dabo and Josh Heupel! Be sure to check back on Friday for my preview and prediction!
Brandon Streeter and offensive players met with the media in Miami on Tuesday morning. Quotes are below! I'll try to get some video as well. Tomorrow will be the defense, and Thursday will be Dabo and Heupel.
Clemson Offensive Coordinator Brandon Streeter
Q. On the opportunity to play at this level…
BRANDON STREETER: “I’m very excited. Just like our team, we're super excited about being here at the
Orange Bowl. I had one opportunity to be here in the past in the 2015 playoffs and it was an awesome
experience. Just excited to be part of this thing and it's been a great week so far still early in the week but
just off to a really good start and getting ready to go on Friday.”
Q. On the expectation to be in the College Football Playoff and staying motivated…
BRANDON STREETER: “Man our guys are very motivated because we got a lot to play for no matter what
game we're in. We're always going to be very, very motivated that just kind of comes along with our
culture. Just to have an opportunity to be in a New Year’s Six bowl game and like I said, just excited
about being here and the kids have done a great job of preparing so far. Just very excited and really
taken on the challenge and we got a really good opponent that we're going against. It's going to be a fun
matchup.”
Q. On what stands out about Tennessee…
BRANDON STREETER: “They're very multiple and they're very big upfront. They do a really good job of
starting and moving around and trying to create confusion. Then on the back end, they do a really good
job of mixing up coverages and post snap recognition is going to be really important for the
quarterbacks. Very active defense - they run well, got a lot of speed, so it'll be a big challenge for us. I
mean, they're very good in tackles for loss. They're ranked very high in red zone defense, and rush
defense, so we've been talking about it all week long, just about the challenge that we have against this
Tennessee defense.”
Clemson Quarterback Cade Klubnik
Q. On how they’re staying the same without some key players…
CADE KLUBNIK: “I would say that it really starts off the field, for anything on the field. I am off the field
way more than I ever end up on the field. Just trying to be who I am and just treat everybody the same
and love on people. No matter where you are in the depth chart right, just treat everybody with kindness.
I think that's just been one of my goals since I got here in January was just treat everybody the same
whether I'm the starter or not.”
Q. On Tennessee’s defense…
CADE KLUBNIK: “Great defense, I think it'd be a great matchup for our offense. They've got a great, just a
great overall defense, great D-line, great linebackers, great DBs and it'll be a really good matchup for
us.”
Q. On where the switch is from being a polite young man to being a fiery player…
CADE KLUBNIK: “Yeah, I would just say preparation. I love the game, so when I get out there and play the
game I think another switch just kind of happens that I don't really have any control over. Just another
part of me kind of comes out and I just go out there and play.”
Clemson Running Back Will Shipley
Q. On Tennessee’s defense…
WILL SHIPLEY: “Yeah, it's a great group. It’s been fun watching them on film and just getting ready, but
you know, they’re really thick inside and they got some big boys. They like to stop the inside zone and
they're really good at it. The backers move around and you kind of see two different skill sets within.
Then you know, [Jeremy Banks] just opted out, I saw that. So, you know, we'd been planning for him,
kind of got to readjust, but now they're a great group. It's something I'm looking forward to as a
competitor.”
Q. On hearing they were going to play Tennessee…
WILL SHIPLEY: “Yeah, you know, I was pumped. Especially you know, it just being the Orange Bowl I think
it just kind of suits it really well, you know, so, yeah, I'm pumped. Pumped to be playing them – they’re a
historic program, so just to have the opportunity is a blessing.”
Q. On how interesting Tennessee’s offense is…
WILL SHIPLEY: “Yeah, you know, it's been fun to watch and you know you try to emulate in practice and
getting the defense ready. You know, they've got a ton of speed. They play with tempo and you know, it's
something that's hard to go up against, especially when they're really successful. So, you know, we got to
kind of flip it on and try to get some three and outs to get the offense on the field as much as we can and
keep the defense off.”
Clemson Wide Receiver Antonio Williams
Q: On his goals for the season…
ANTONIO WILLIAMS: “Obviously, I wanted to come here and prove myself and be a starter. That was one
of my big goals, and once that happened, make the freshman team and stuff like that really just getting
acclimated to college and having a great start to my career at Clemson.”
Q: On what Klubnik brings to the table…
ANTONIO WILLIAMS: “They both have different playing styles. Cade is a little smaller and quicker, so I
feel like he can extend the play longer when he gets in trouble and give the play a chance by scrambling.”
Q: On the chemistry between Klubnik and the receivers…
ANTONIO WILLIAMS: “We have a lot of chemistry including Cade and the freshman receivers. I think we
are going to be really good in the future. We have made a lot of plays already and as we get older and
adapt to this plan, I think we are going to do some really good things.”
Clemson Tight End Davis Allen
Q: On the buy in coming naturally from the team…
DAVIS ALLEN: “Absolutely. Yeah. No, I mean, nothing's taken for granted. Coach Swinney makes sure
that we know what it takes to win, and especially after what we went through last year and kind of went
through a little struggle. You know, there's definitely appreciation for winning just the process of every
day and not taking anything for granted.”
Q: On what’s in store for next year…
DAVIS ALLEN: “Yeah, this is going to be my last year. I just got engaged these past couple of days and I
just graduated last week. So, I think it's time for me to move on and I'm excited for the new chapter, next
chapter.”
Q: On hearing they were going to play Tennessee…
DAVIS ALLEN: “Yeah, definitely excited. Tennessee is a great team and they're loaded with talent, and
that's exciting. I like matchups like this, just two heavyweight teams going at it. But I think there's a huge
challenge there just with how good they are and how talented they are. And so that's exciting to me.”
Clemson Offensive Lineman Jordan McFadden
Q: On how to stop the Tennessee defensive line…
JORDAN McFADDEN: “We have to be physical and make sure communication is great, be on the same
page and really just trust our technique. We prepared all year and we’re not finished yet. Our coaches
have done a great job of putting us in position to win. So just trust them and trust ourselves.”
Q: On how the offense changes with Klubnik at quarterback…
JORDAN McFADDEN “Cade is a great quarterback and he’s going to be a great player. He brings a lot to
the table; he’s able to run and can obviously throw the football well. He brings more of a running aspect
to us. He’s ready for the role and he’s going to do well.”
Q: On the key to victory
JORDAN McFADDEN: “The key is winning in the trenches. As an offensive line, if you can establish the
run, that opens up a lot of other things, so I think the biggest thing for us is establishing the run because
there’s patches that can come off of that like play actions and different things like that. I would say that
us five up front getting the job done makes everything a little bit easier on offense.”
Wes Goodwin and defensive players met with the media in Miami this morning. I'll have the transcript and video posted shortly!
Clemson Defensive Coordinator Wes Goodwin
Q. On what challenges Tennessee brings offensively…
WES GOODWIN: “Preparing for the pace… (We are) trying to create stress and practice using no huddle
offense moving the ball up and down the field. (We’re) trying to create stress and make it unrealistic so
just our guys have a feel for what it's going to be like on Friday night.”
Q. On Tennessee‘s coaching ability…
WES GOODWIN: “They do an amazing job offensively as a staff of game planning, figuring out your
weakest links, who to attack and how to create matchups. That's what the game of football is all about -
players and matchups at the end of the day and they do a great job with formations and using motions
to create those matchups and give their receivers the ability to run their routes based off of leverages
and a lot of choice option routes.”
Q. On Tennessee‘s tactics…
WES GOODWIN: “They use those wide splits and try to create extra space in the seams. It's kind of
unique. You don't see it very often, but it creates a lot of stress and a multitude of problems defensively.”
Clemson Defensive End K.J. Henry
Q. On facing Tennessee in the Orange Bowl…
K.J. HENRY: “Myself, I was excited, number one. The last time I was at the Orange Bowl was when I was
like eight or nine. My dad was coaching at Wake Forest; Wake Forest played Louisville. So I've been down
here as a kid, and it was my favorite bowl I’ve ever been to the whole time he was at Wake Forest. So I
was excited to come back. But then as you know, being a player on this team and a competitor, I’m just
excited to play (with) probably one of the most, if not the most electric offense in all of college football.
They have great talent in all phases. It’s just a great challenge. They've done a lot of exceptional things
this year. (Clemson head coach Dabo) Swinney has done a great job as far as some of the younger guys.
Two years from now, this will be a playoff game, so really just understanding that's the mindset that we
need to go into this thing on top of the fact that it's a New Year’s Six bowl. It's a great opportunity to
finish the season strong. So it's so easy to get excited for this one, but those are the things that first came
to mind.”
Q. On how he got his team ready for this game…
K.J. HENRY: “This time of the year, it's not too hard. We’re 14 games in and guys know what they have to
do. When you have such a long break, you want to make sure that the energy is up still. Some of the
younger guys need the attention to detail. You come down to a new location so you have to make sure
everybody's still going through their routine to get ready for a game, and then just staying locked in on
the details. They've had a lot of time to prepare for us and we've had a lot of time to prepare for them. So
there shouldn't be a lot of mistakes being made at this point in the preparation process. Those are the
kind of things that we're trying to figure out and hone in on as we finish up, but it’s been great.”
Q. On if he made a decision on next year
K.J. HENRY: “No, I haven't. I have not. There’s a great group coming back and I could be a part of that.
I've been elbowing some of these guys around here and Coach has been teasing them all but we have
some decisions to make. If everybody on the offense were to swing this thing back and a lot of the guys
who're supposed to go out on the defense were to come back, it could be a very special year next year. So
we'll see.”
Clemson Defensive Tackle Tyler Davis
Q. On what makes Tennessee’s offense hard to defend…
TYLER DAVIS: “Tempo, the players, the fact that they get to the line very fast, and they get the ball to the
refs. Then, you have to get lined up and they snap it right in front of you as you’re getting the call. So that
makes it very difficult.”
Q. On Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton III…
TYLER DAVIS: “He has a strong arm. I played against Joe in high school so I've seen it firsthand. He has a
very strong arm. He can make any throw on the field and he's very athletic. He’s hard to bring down.”
Q. On Clemson defensive tackle, Caden Story…
TYLER DAVIS: “Caden is very athletic and very physical. He’s a hard worker. He came in, and he has
definitely gotten better. He’s going to be a great player. He’s got that dog in him.”
Clemson Defensive Tackle Bryan Bresee
Q: On getting back to 100% after health issues earlier in the season…
BRYAN BRESEE: “The issue was that getting back into practice I was so limited. They were still nervous
about everything and trying to just get me back in slowly. I think Monday I got back and we were playing
Florida State Friday and it was like maybe I could go 10 scout team reps on Monday and then 15 the next
day. I was just very limited on how much I could do and I think that was a big part of why it took me a
little while to get fully back. You know Clemson definitely had my best interest with that, you know
getting sick again would not have been good.”
Q: On facing Tennessee in the Orange Bowl…
BRYAN BRESEE: “We were just excited to have another game. Just to be able to play football again is a
special opportunity. So just being out here and being with these guys, no matter who we were playing,
we’re just excited to play again.”
Q: On how fun it’s been with this group of guys…
BRYAN BRESEE: “This is a very special team that we have here and a special brotherhood that we have. I
don't think I've been on a team like this where we're all hanging out outside of football all the time. It's
just a special team. Being out there with them and just knowing that everyone on the team has your back
is a special feeling.”
Clemson Linebacker Barrett Carter
Q: On playing in the Orange Bowl …
BARRETT CARTER: “I’m definitely excited. Any opportunity to play another game of football always brings
excitement. Whether you're playing in the Orange Bowl, National Championship, whatever the game
may be it's always an exciting opportunity just to play a football game. But, to be in the Orange Bowl, is
such a blessing. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. I’m just excited to finish strong with the guys and it
will create some momentum going into the offseason.
Q: On Tennessee’s offense…
BARRETT CARTER: “It's the fastest offense that we'll see this year. The tempo that they move at is
unbelievable. As a defense, we need to control the game. We need to slow them down and make sure
that they get uncomfortable and we should come out successful.”
Q: On being motivated for this game…
BARRETT CARTER: “We're definitely motivated. It's another opportunity to play a game that we all love.
So the motivation is always going to be there. But obviously the big emphasis has been conditioning and
just getting us in shape because we're about to play a team that's fast and moves at a very high tempo.
So, I would say the main emphasis is being in shape and being able to compete for 60 minutes or
however long the game takes.”
Clemson Linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr.
Q: On Clemson’s defensive line…
JEREMIAH TROTTER Jr.: “(Having so much talent) is pretty nice. When you have guys up front that
dominate, usually you won't get touched by offensive linemen. I really appreciate those guys. I was
worried that they put in (for the NFL Draft) and I wish them the best on going on to the next level.”
Q: On practicing at Inter Miami CF’s DRV PNK Stadium…
JEREMIAH TROTTER Jr.: “It was a really nice facility. They had a nice weight room. We really appreciate
them for allowing us to use that facility as well. I really thought it was beautiful. The one thing I noticed
when I first got on the field was that grass is very nice and soft. I hate that we have to tear it out during
practice but it was really nice.”
Q: On the Orange Bowl experience…
JEREMIAH TROTTER Jr.: “It’s been a very good experience. I'm really liking it. They're doing a great job
hosting us. We appreciate everything that they've done for us as far as just going out to dinner with the
guys or going to the beach. I just feel like it's a good time to just be able to connect with your teammates
and build those relationships."
I'll have this morning's press conference with Dabo and Josh Heupel shortly! In the meantime, the transcript is below.
THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the Capital One Orange
Bowl head coaches' press conference.
DABO SWINNEY: Well, lucky day for y'all. I lost my voice,
so I don't know where it went. Hopefully I'll find it soon.
We've had a great week. Really grateful for all the people
that work hard to put this on. It's a great experience for our
staff, our families, our players, and I'm sure for both teams
there's a lot of work that goes into it, practice areas, and
also creating opportunities and experiences, whether it's
great places to eat, being able to have a beach day and so
forth.
Got to go to a basketball game last night. Maybe I lost my
voice cheering for the Heat, I don't know. But it's been a
great trip. It's two great teams.
Tennessee is one of the best teams in the country and has
had an amazing year, so it should be a great game. We're
thankful to be here and represent the league and represent
Clemson in a place that's always been special to our fans
and to college football.
Thank you all for all that you have done to make it a great
week, as well.
JOSH HEUPEL: Just want to say thank you to the Orange
Bowl committee and South Florida. The hospitality for our
program has been absolutely fantastic. It's been a great
week.
Before we got down here, having played in it and coached
in it before, I was able to relate to our players and staff
what this week is all about and the opportunities that they
were going to have to see South Florida and have a great
week of experiences.
You guys have rolled out the orange carpet and shown us
a great week. We appreciate everything so much and are
certainly looking forward to the football game.
It's been a long time since Tennessee has been here.
Really proud of what this program has done in the last 23
months since our staff arrived. Really proud of our players.
Playing a great opponent here tomorrow, and looking
forward to that.
We've seen a lot of the VFLs, former players, starting to
make their way down here and I know our fan base is, too.
It's great to see all those former players show up, and I'm
looking forward to going out and competing with our
football team tomorrow.
Q. Dabo, I know you joked about losing your voice last
night at the Heat game, but if I'm not mistaken you and
Spo have been friends for a minute here, and I'm
wondering what the benefit is from coaches kind of
learning tricks of the trade when it's different sports
and different philosophies, and if you could share a
little bit what you've shared with Spo and what you've
learned from him.
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, he's a guy I got to know. We
have a mutual friend that connected us several years ago,
and then he reached out, I don't know, four or five years
ago or so and wanted to come to Clemson. That was a
really cool thing. He flew in for a day with one of his
assistants.
Listen, it doesn't really matter what the sport is. If you're in
leadership and you're dealing with people, there's so much
you can learn, especially when you're in a competitive
environment.
Even though he's in the pros, especially with basketball,
those guys are young guys, so we're dealing with young
guys in competitive dynamics, leadership, culture, all those
type of things. That's how we first got to know each other,
and then we stayed in touch throughout the years. I
actually came down with my son to a playoff game last
May, and that was pretty cool. I'm 2-0 in '22. I let him
know that last night. Brought some good mojo.
But it was fun. But I think that's what coaches do is
collaborate. I think our profession is really unique that way
in that like we have our AFCA convention coming up in
another week or so, and all these coaches come from all
over. I mean thousands, and we talk and we meet. We
literally played Ohio State one year, it was the craziest
thing. I think it was the game -- I don't think it was this
game. I think it was the game out in Arizona.
Not long after that game we met as a staff, their staff, our
staff, and we kind of got together and talked through the
game. It was crazy.
That's one of the cool things about our profession is we
compete, but we collaborate and always have. It's not the
case in most industries, right. Coke doesn't sit down with
Pepsi at the end of the year and say, hey, boys, what did
you think? Let's see how this goes. But football coaches
do that.
There's just so many relationships, and that's what makes
the game really unique.
Just relationships like that come through collaboration that
crosses over the sports and business world, et cetera.
Q. I have a question for you both, Coach Swinney and
Coach Heupel. What's the impact Mike Reed has had
on your staff this year, being recently elevated to
assistant head coach? And for you, Coach Heupel, for
Tim Banks, you recently added him; what's his impact
been for you this year as a defensive coordinator?
JOSH HEUPEL: Tim has been a phenomenal leader on
the defensive side of the football. When we were going
through the process of finding our defensive coordinator
two years ago, looking for somebody that had experience
that was a great leader, that was multiple in what he was
able to do, was relationship driven and had a great ability
to teach, for all the things that we encountered when we
first arrived on campus, his steadiness, his leadership, his
ability to gain buy-in from the guys around him, that's staff
members that were coming in. Not everybody had worked
together. There was some common threads where there
were some previous relationships there. But then getting
all of our players to buy in to what we're doing.
He's done nothing but do a great job of continuing to grow
what we're doing on that side of the football, and you can
see that in the way our guys play for him.
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, Mike Reed, he's just a great
leader. He's been with me since the 2013 season, so he's
just going near 10 or whatever, and has done a
phenomenal job. He's coached a bunch of great players at
Clemson. He's been a part of some of the best defenses in
college football over the last decade. He's coached
first-rounders and everything in between. He's a great
recruiter, great communicator, really knows the game, but
he's also our special teams coordinator, and he's a great
friend. Love his family. He's got a great, beautiful family,
his wife Kim and Michaela, Milan, his daughters.
Just a guy that has really grown and would be a great head
coach, as well, so it was easy. We had a lot of staff
transition last year for the first time in a while, so it was
easy to be able to promote him to assistant head coach
and lean on him in a lot of areas.
Q. Josh, you've got three players opting out, all good
players. You've got your coordinators gone and
you've recently had a quarterback change. In a regular
season you may have one of those changes in a given
week. To have all of them at once, how is the
challenge different for you as a coach, and how do you
navigate all those changes within one game?
JOSH HEUPEL: Yeah, I think at the end of the day that's
kind of the landscape of what happens at times inside your
program when you're having success and during the
course of bowl season. You can see that across the
country. The unique thing is you have a couple extra
weeks to prepare and plan for those situations. You're not
dealing with it in a seven-day span. We lost some really
good players. I think that provides unique opportunity.
That's the tough thing and the great thing about college
football is that essentially a quarter of your roster is
graduating every single year. With that provides new
opportunity to go make plays because you've got more
snaps on the football field. It provides opportunities in
leadership. It's the great thing about college football.
You're essentially building your roster and your football
team every single January, and that's always true, but I
think in the landscape of college football, it's certainly true,
and more evident and more prevalent now with the transfer
portal, too.
Q. We saw Sheridan Jones not practicing yesterday.
Just wondering if he was going to play in the Orange
Bowl and if his career is done at Clemson.
DABO SWINNEY: I'm not sure. Sheridan could come
back. He's been dealing with a hip flexor, so it's going to
be close. He's one of those guys that's played a lot. He's
got a lot of experience, but been battling a little bit. We'll
see. But as far as is he done at Clemson, he's declared
this as his senior year all year, but as you know, a lot of
these guys have -- I guess we're going to deal with it for a
couple more years, I guess, with the COVID year. I don't
know if it's his last time. A lot of guys are going to decide
that after the game.
Q. For both coaches, both of you were in a situation
with one loss at the end of the year, you probably more
likely would have been in the playoffs. In that
situation, some teams find it hard to be motivated to
be in this game because of the disappointment. How
long did it take for you guys to get over that
disappointment, and what were you able to do to keep
them motivated and make sure that this game was
important to them?
JOSH HEUPEL: Yeah, we had to reset the following week,
and I think you guys played the week after, as well.
The only reason we've gotten to this point, these players
didn't come into this and just inherit it. They've worked for
it from the moment that we got there on campus. That's
the competitive nature. It's their connection to one another.
Our players were able to reset. Was there
disappointment? Absolutely, in that moment, and you
could feel it in the building when they came in the following
day, on Monday.
But they were able to reset. This is an important game to
our football team. We talk about finishing. We talk about
legacy. This group that is graduating and heading on, this
is a way to finish it and leave a strong legacy at
Tennessee.
At the same time, I think bowl games in this era are also
about kicking off the following season. For all those things,
our kids' focus and energy out at practice has been
fantastic.
I think it's important that you enjoy the bowl experience
while you're here in South Florida, but when you're in
meetings and on the practice field, you've got to be dialed
in and locked in. I really like how our guys have handled
the week up until this point.
DABO SWINNEY: Well, I mean, we've got to manage the
disappointment. There's certainly disappointment anytime
you lose a game. We all go into the season wanting to win
every game. I think there's two teams that are undefeated
right now.
To have a great season, you have to manage success.
You've got to manage failure along the way. Yeah, when
you look back at the end, like man, there's only four teams
right now that get to go to the playoff, as you alluded to
there. So disappointing in the moment, but for us, yeah,
you go back to work.
Yeah, it hurts, but you come in on Sunday and you don't
have time to linger. We've got a championship game the
very next week to play a really good North Carolina team.
So we reset, refocus, and thankfully we had another game
to play. That certainly helps.
Then as far as being motivated, both these teams have
won 11 games. You don't go 11-2 if you're a team that
doesn't have good leadership because it's hard to win. It's
really hard to win. So to win 11 games in today's world in
college football is special. It's a great season.
Then to be able to come to the Orange Bowl and play the
sixth-ranked team in the country, you turn on the tape, you
get motivated real quick because these guys are
competitors. Both teams, you've got guys that like to play.
That's why they play football. They don't play football to
whatever -- they like to play the game. It's a chance to go
play the game, and not only that you get to do it at a venue
like this, at Hard Rock Stadium, and you're playing one of
the best teams in the country.
Turn the tape on and watch these dudes run, you'll get
motivated real quick.
Q. Coach Swinney, the NCAA rule change allows
those enrollees to get out on the field with you. What
have you seen out of those guys? I was having fun
watching Nick Eason with his guys trying to coach
them up. How has it helped them prepare for what the
season will bring?
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, it's been great. It would be even
better if they would let them play. That would be great. It's
been fun having those guys.
I think it speeds up their acclimatization process, just
getting the feel of guys. Most of the time when they get
here in January they're into school and off-season program
and drills and spring ball. To be able to have a visual even
though it's not a normal game week, to just kind of be
exposed to that a little bit, to be around some of the guys
that aren't going to be here when they get going I think is a
unique opportunity, as well.
I think it's been great. I'm glad they did that. Then to be
able to also put our eyes on them as far as having a first
opportunity to really coach them in meetings, and then part
of what we have always done in bowl prep is we get a lot of
work on Clemson fundamentals, technique, kind of back to
some basics. We get a lot of work on the opponent, and
then we do a lot of JV work. We kind of create a JV
season, create a couple scrimmages and have a lot of fun
with the young guys, a lot of individual, a lot of that, so
those guys, they couldn't scrimmage, because they
couldn't get to that point, but to be able to get to work with
them in individual drills and technique and coach them is
very beneficial for them and us and I think just, again, it's
been really fun. There were five of them that got the
opportunity to come, and I think they've really enjoyed it.
They're what we thought they were off the hoof.
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