Dabo Swinney on Clemson's 41-point loss in Baton Rouge: 'We got our a** kicked'
Summary
- Dabo Swinney called Clemson's 51-10 loss at LSU the worst of his head-coaching career and said Clemson was outplayed and outcoached in every facet. - Swinney said Clemson did not stop the run, failed to set the edge against stretch and quarterback run concepts, and allowed LSU's quarterback to rush for 113 yards. - Swinney said Christopher Vizzina's pick-six in a 10-3 game was a major momentum swing because he did not see the dropping edge defender. - Swinney said Clemson's offense did not do anything good in Chad Morris' return as coordinator and did not commit to Vizzina starting next week. - Clemson defensive tackle Markus Strong left with a lower-leg injury that Swinney said did not sound good, while Champ Thompson was banged up but returned. Comment: Saturday night's 51-10 loss to No.
Saturday night's 51-10 loss to No. 11 LSU was the worst of any in Dabo Swinney's head coaching career, which started at Clemson way back in the middle of the 2008 season.
The Tigers were merely a warmup game for the beginning of what looks like a successful partnership for Lane Kiffin and the Tigers of Baton Rouge, which hammered away at Clemson from the start of the game, outgaining Swinney's team by one shy of five hundred yards. LSU was up 44-3 with 3:24 left in the third quarter and down 51-3 with 3:13 left.
Swinney said again postgame that there aren't problems with his program currently, but plenty of 'football things' on the field that need to be, and he believes can be, corrected.
The most notable item from the availability was the not-so-good news surrounding defensive tackle Markus Strong, who suffered an injury late in the third quarter of the loss.
Here's what we gathered from Swinney's defeated postgame comments:
"Pretty self-explanatory. The best thing about that one is it's over. Just really a poor performance, not what we worked for or expected. Give credit to LSU, congratulations to them, they did a hell of a job executing their plan. We just never really gave ourself a chance to settle in. The pick six was really big, as far as momentum. At the end of the day, you're not going to win if you can't stop the run. And in particular, you've got to set the edge, especially against the stretch and the quarterback run, which really killed us."
"Whether you win the game or lose the game, you gotta go play next week. We've gotta take ownership of what happened in the game. If we'll let this develop us, then we can get better from it. Just got outplayed, outcoached in every facet tonight. Coming into this environment, you've gotta try to capture the momentum when you get an opportunity."
"You've got to be able to run the ball and stop the run."
-- Swinney says the staff wasn't concerned about the lines of scrimmage coming in, noting that Collin Sadler missing the game was 'disappointing' but he wasn't quite ready.
Swinney called it a 'fluke thing in the weight room' but that it's short-term.
He again said it starts with being able to set the edge on defense, noting that he thought they 'buried their heads' and 'didn't locate the ball' at times before 'things snowballed.'
"I think they won some matchups, too many short-yardage [situations]. The quarterback rushed for 113 yards, we didn't do a good job of affecting or containing him at all."
-- Swinney said that Christopher Vizzina throwing a pick six in a 10-3 game 'hurt' the team and was 'a killer,' saying that Vizzina didn't see the edge player dropping. He said that he thought his starter made some good throws before quickly shifting to being happy that they were able to get Tait Reynolds some playing time and 'let him get hit a little bit.'
"Whether you lose by one, or lose by whatever, it's a loss. When we lose close games, nobody gives you any credit. We got our a** kicked, but we lost the game, it counts as one. We gotta go win next week. It's an embarrassing performance, coaching and playing. We're gonna have to own that. We can't let that lead to another loss. We came on the road and made mistakes you can't make against a good team in an environment like this. We've gotta lot of work to do, so that's going to have to be a decision that everybody's gotta make."
-- Swinney said the offense 'didn't do anything good' in the return of Chad Morris as offensive coordinator. He said it's frustrating and disappointing but 'he'll get them better.'
-- Swinney didn't budge on a question about his roster compared to the mammoth on the other sideline. He said Clemson 'didn't do football stuff well' and just needs to be better.
Or did he?
"I'm not sitting around judging other people, what their resources are, what they can do, that's whatever, it is what it is. It's our job to be the best we can be with what we have."
"We were not that tonight."
-- Swinney doesn't know if Vizzina will start next week.
"We didn't want to guarantee that [Reynolds] was going to play, but we needed to go play games. I wish we had a game or two to work the kinks out but that's not the stick we drew. We've got some stuff on tape in real, live games that we can evaluate and we'll go from there. I think there will be more to come on that as we play another game or two."
-- Swinney didn't have anything confirmed but it 'unfortunately didn't sound good' on Strong, the Oklahoma transfer, after he left late in the third quarter with a lower-leg injury.
Champ Thompson got banged up but returned to the game. It could be a long season up front for a defensive tackle group that continues to get thinner by the day.
The Tigers host Georgia Southern and North Carolina the next two weeks.
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