CLEMSON, S.C. — Following a 20-16 upset loss to Virginia Tech at Memorial Stadium, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney accepted full responsibility for offensive misfires and fourth-down management that doomed the Tigers on Saturday night.
For Swinney, the outcome hinged on a failure to capitalize in scoring territory, converting drives into field goals rather than touchdowns.
“Just story of the game, just missed opportunities on offense, critical missed opportunities on offense. Needed to convert some field goals, some touchdowns,” Swinney said, noting “some really really big penalties that were costly, and then honestly just really just really two plays on defense.”
Clemson’s defense limited a Virginia Tech team that entered averaging 37 points and over 400 yards of offense to just 20 points and 234 total yards.
“I thought our defense played the tails off, they played tough, played physical, and they were average for 37 points a game coming in,” Swinney said. “We held them at 20. Averages under 48 yards rushing. We held them at 1.9 carries. Lent up in passing in the country. Helped them to 164. They were averaging 440. We held them at 234. And so, you know, I thought we did enough on defense and special teams to win the game, you know.”
Swinney refused to let the roster shoulder the blame for the offensive stall.
“Just, you know, you win as a team, you lose as a team. There’s always a few plays that just, just, just nowhere near good enough,” Swinney said. “Really, the first half offensively, just really frustrated with missed opportunities, and so, you know, you let a team hang around like that, and, you know, again, settle for some field goals instead of touchdowns. We didn’t do a good enough job of helping them as coaches, and that’s on me. So I just, I just, I just hate it for those guys because they really play your hearts out. And again, just too many missed opportunities.”
Swinney detailed the critical sequences that swung momentum away from Clemson.
“Fourth-and-inches, third-and-1 twice. Stop them on a fake punt. We got three negative plays in a row,” Swinney said. “You know, all those times you get no points, and they caught up with us. So, you know, there were some positives. I think Tait [Reynolds] was 77% in the game. One point had 13 straight completions, and you know, did some good things here and there, but you know, I didn’t think we did enough as coaches to help him win the game. That’s our job. So really frustrated, really disappointed, and really tough loss. But we stayed together. We set. Watch this. Just keep moving. Keep moving. Signify the next. Any questions?”
Reflecting on the nature of the season before opening the floor, Swinney remarked, “That’s football; it’s the season.”
When asked about the fourth-down touchdown scored by Virginia Tech tight end Luke Reynolds (#85), Swinney pointed to eye discipline.
“No, I wasn’t surprised. That’s a call for sure. Close inches right there, inches,” Swinney said. “You know, we. I mean, he’s he’s. I mean, you know, he had two. The two biggest disappointments he had were 85 and two touchdowns. We had one complete bust on the one, but that one, I mean, we were just right there. We just didn’t have enough. We just kind of took our eyes off of it, got a little behind. But I think the quarterback there. No, I wasn’t surprised at all. It was a big win for them, and again, they made just enough plays to win a game, enough critical plays. Goodness gracious, the critical penalties were just enormous, and you know those are things we don’t control. So the things that we did control, just, you know, we had a routine drop in the first half that probably didn’t get it to fourth-and-inches, and then fourth-and-inches just a lot of disappointment in myself right there in how we handled the first half.”
Elaborating on his halftime comments regarding adjustments, Swinney pointed to short-yardage execution.
“Yeah, I just, I mean, I thought we should have sneaked the ball, and I didn’t like the call. I should have called timeout,” Swinney said. “You know, we put it on the quarterback to make a read. He misses the read, and you know, he’s a young player, and I just feel like we miss where you have to be better to help. I mean, it’s just you know I could have stopped and called timeout. I didn’t do that, so it’s my fault. But I just there was a couple of those in the first half where you know I just felt like we could could help him, and we came out the second half and we took some of those things away. Took the reads away.”
Asked about late pass interference flags on Virginia Tech’s final drive, Swinney remained focused internally.
“I mean, listen, we don’t control it. You know, all I can tell you is if we’d have done what we needed to do that was within our control, then we’d have had great chances in that game,” Swinney said. “We didn’t. We didn’t. There were some critical calls and some missed calls, to be honest. But again, you don’t control that. But things that we do control, I just, especially in the first half, I thought we did a really poor job.”
Swinney added: “Came out second half, and it was scored three straight possessions, but we needed to convert another one of those field goals, and it’s a different deal. But we didn’t do that. Give them some credit. They just kind of hung in there again defensively, and we just didn’t do enough to help defense and special teams again. I thought they did enough. There’s certainly some things that could have happened there that could have made a difference in the game too on that side. Take one of those touchdowns, you know. But I mean, they’re a good team, and again, we held them below everything. I mean, whatever statistic they had, we held them way below. So we did enough there. I’m just really disappointed, frustrated. Again, we’re going to flush it. We’ll reset. We’ll get back to work, and all we can do is try to go win the next and keep moving forward. So that’s what we’re going. That’s what we’re going to focus on. Again, there were some positives in the game. We’ll see that. We watch the tape. I think we had six sacks, 10 TFLs. I thought we did a lot of really good things.”
Swinney noted the defense mostly contained Virginia Tech playmaker Que’Sean Brown (#3).
“Three is a great player, but for the most part, I thought we kind of did a good job, you know. We really didn’t do anything downfield to him. It was all, you know, they caught us off a couple of screens. That was probably the other thing defensively when we had cloud coverage and we didn’t get the edge. And our defense said, ‘You know, get outside us a couple times.’ But for the most part, we did a pretty good job. He brought us to the game in the red zone.”
When asked about Virginia Tech tallying four sacks and whether it fell on the offensive line, Tait Reynolds, or scheme:
“Well, we’ll watch the tape. I need to defend their answer on them, but for sure, one was on Tait [tape],” Swinney said. “You know, we held the ball really long on one after the.”
Addressing Tait Reynolds’ progress and the passing attack moving forward:
“Yeah, yeah, just go back to work. Watch the tape. You know, it hurts to watch because there’s going to be a lot of missed opportunity with the tape. The game, we handed it off. We should have kept it. You know, and so there were just some missed things early that they could have gotten us off to a little better start. But just watch it. You study it, you go back to work, and just keep working, and you know, I think it’s pretty easy to see, man. Two, two’s gonna be a good player. I mean, so unfortunate. I really liked how we went down the field. I was very excited for that again. You know, we put a nice rope to Wesco, which you know we held on the ball right there, so I’d like to see us have a chance to finish that. You know, again, did a lot of good things in the game, but I just don’t think that’s good enough offensively.”
On the final offensive play—a fourth-and-9 where Reynolds was sacked:
“Yeah, yeah, you can’t die with the ball in hands, you know. But I think that was a cat [blitz] that came off the edge there, I believe, and cats. But we were trying to hit the ball in the middle field. We felt like we might have a shot in the field on the bender coming in the sacks. But yeah, you just, you know, from a quarterback standpoint, it’s easy to say that, but you know, it happens fast. But yeah, you certainly want to just give yourself a chance.”
Revisiting the choice to throw deep after stopping Virginia Tech’s fake punt rather than keeping it on the ground:
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Poor coach bias. Well, I mean, again, I just, I just don’t think we helped them enough to win the game with some decisions to play calls. We didn’t help these kids, both of us. They competed tail off, and yeah, they made some mistakes, but I didn’t think we did enough to help them win. Not at all.”
On what changed in the locker room to open the third-quarter run:
“Yeah, what I said kind of went away from some of the read stuff and went to some of the direct run stuff, and just, you know, got it going. Got some, got, got some good room, and next time we hit them and sneak.”
Clemson’s Disappointing Loss Against Virginia Tech