Boston College Eagles College Football Pregame Quote, 10/27/2020

Hey, Coach. Did you do your homework and check out the history of the Clemson/BC rivalry?

I did. Jason (Baum) sent me a whole email about the helmet and the tradition. It’s pretty cool to see. Anything that revolves around tradition around here, I definitely want to stick to. There’s great tradition here, and we need to do that. So thank you for making me aware of it and thank you to J-Baum for giving me the information.

Coach Swinney’s first victory as a head coach was against Boston College in 2008. He said the O’Rourke/McFadden Trophy was the first trophy he’d ever won as a head coach so it’s very special to him.

I do believe it. I’m sure it’s one I’ll never forget. I’m sure it’s one he’ll never forget. Even though he’s one It seems like he’s won about 1000 games. But it’s cool that that was his first one. Coach Swinney has done an unbelievable job there. I got a chance to meet him last year at the bowl game. Him and his wife were really nice to me as a young coach, as a guy getting ready to try to win a game and trying to put a staff together for the first time he was awesome. So I have a ton of respect for him and the way he treated me this offseason. I just love the way he goes about everything. He’s got a great personality. He’s a football guy who cares so much about the game, you could see that. Then how he’s built it, it’s just really cool. A ton of respect for him and what he’s done at Clemson. Obviously he’s done a really nice job.

Coach, I feel like every time we talk about Clemson, we’re always talking about how good they are because they’ve got playmakers everywhere. They’re loaded. If you try to stop them, they seem to have another piece that they can just go to. So do you try to stop them? Or do you just try to react in a game with them where you’re looking for them to maybe make a mistake or to soften up one piece of their game so that then you can attack both their offense and defense?

Well, you got to try to stop them. That’s the name of the game on defense. They have great players. They’re really well coached. Coach Elliot does a good job schematically with what he has, it’s more than just the players. I think he’s a really good coach. They have the ability to run the football, run the quarterback, throw the ball down the field, their RPO game, their screen game. So they have it all and they’re actually really good at everything. The o-line is solid. Obviously the quarterback. I think the biggest thing I’ve seen from the quarterback is I think he’s greatly improved from last year. The way he plays in the pocket, I think it’s better. He sits there. He reads things. He goes back late and sees things late and makes throws. He’s got such a live body. He’s a twitched up big guy who can run and throw. He’s a really good player. I have a lot of respect for him and coming back and improving, says a lot about him. The running back is the most underrated football player in college football. The way he runs, he just looks like he’s on a mission constantly. I saw it first-hand last year while watching them on tape. Between the coaching staff, the weapons, they have the wide outs, it’s a dynamic offense. But we’re going to do our best to stop it and line up. I think Coach Tem’s put together a great plan with our defensive staff. We’re going to continue to work on doing the best we can down there. I’m excited for the challenge.

I thought the idea of bringing in pro-style passing while also maintaining the college tradition of running the ball was interesting. How do you keep that blend and that combination?

Even if you watch the NFL this year, you’re starting to see the college run game enter the National Football League, right? Whether you’re watching Arizona, whether you watch the Rams They’re all doing parts of the college run game now, it’s just in the NFL. You really can’t get your quarterback hit as much because you pay that guy so much money and there aren’t a lot of them. Those defensive ends and linebackers are very fast. You got a guy who can slide, but the college run game definitely mixes in the NFL. I don’t think there’s as much NFL pass game to college football. I think that’s what Coach Cignetti has done a really nice job conceptually, combining all those.

For Coach Cignetti, is that creativity? Or is that just foresight and bring in the passion that he has?

It’s what he knows, right? Part of the reason I hired him was because I love that aspect of it. He’s been in the National Football League for the last 10 or 11 years. That’s his baby. That’s what he knows more than anything. Then you combine that with the other guys we have on staff and who have been coordinators in college football, and guys, we’ve been around RPOs and quarterback run games, and some other stuff that maybe Frank (Cignetti) hadn’t done as much. That’s what we’re trying to piece together. I just think it’s going to take some time. That’s why I’m confident and patient at the same time. Because, in nine months that we’ve been here, we really haven’t had that much football yet to watch and digest together. We’re kind of doing everything on the run. So I think you got to give the offensive guys a ton of credit for the limited amount of time with the packages that they’ve been able to put in. I just think you’re going to see something different because of what they’ve been trying to accomplish.

Coach Swinney referred to Nolan Turner as the best defensive back he ever coached at Clemson. That’s your specialty. What have you noticed about him? He’s number 24.

He’s athletic, can run plays with really good technique. He’s physical. He’s tough. The guy is a twitched up guy who can go up and get the ball and can tackle. That’s a big compliment from Coach (Swinney). He’s been around a lot of good DBs. I start studying their defense a little later in the week. But what I have noticed, obviously coach Venables, everybody knows what a great job he’s done. I got to be around him a little bit last year in the playoff game. He’s got a ton of juice. He does a lot, down three, down blitzes, plays quarters, middle closed. They’re really good up front. The two tackles just from first glance seem like really good players. I know the rookie #11. He’s going to be a big time player. #47, the middle linebacker, just looking through and watching. He’s like your old school traditional middle linebacker, he sees it. You can tell he’s a smart kid, well coached. #13 and then the other defensive backs I think #16 and #26 are good. They’re well coached. He gets creative and has fun with them, and he lets those guys play fast, because they can hit it.

I noticed that in the Georgia Tech game, Phil (Jurkovec) and Travis (Levy) both recorded tackles. Is that something that you can show guys and prove to them that there is a true buy in on this team?

In the Virginia Tech game, when Phil made the tackle on the sideline. To me, that says it all when your quarterback runs down the field and gives up his body to make a hit like that, I think it tells the whole team what kind of buy-in we have from our quarterback. That just shows what the whole team is all about.