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ICYMI: Video/Transcript – Kirby Smart, Carson Beck and Jalon Walker Postgame Interviews

KIRBY SMART: I always open with thanking our fans, but I
also want to thank Aflac as the title sponsor for this event.
What an incredible venue, atmosphere. Anytime you play
in Atlanta in this facility and it’s part of a title sponsor game
where you’re playing another top-15, top-20 match-up, to
me it feels like a playoff game. It’s a great way to try to
assess where you are as a team.

No longer do you have to win every game, but you do have
to find out when you’re going to be playing your best, and
you want to be playing your best towards the end of the
year, and one of the best barometers is to get quality wins.
I’ve got a lot of respect for Clemson, Dabo, the way they
play, the way they coach. But this event is special to me,
and every chance we get to play in it, we want to play in it.
Gary Stokan and his staff do a tremendous job, and so has
Aflac.

Q. Coach, Malaki started a few years ago as a
freshman. This game he made a big catch, I mean
interception. Made another huge interception this
game today. And then freshman KJ Bolden, he’s a
freshman, had a pretty good game. What do you
attribute the credit to Stark’s growth in this game and
being able to put freshmen in games like this and they
have a great performance?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I think Coach Schumann and his
defensive staff have done a great job of making our
defense adjustable, complex without being complex, and
you can play more players that way.

We play freshmen all the time. We had Malaki play in this
game two years ago; KJ played in the game today; Mykel
played in the game two years ago.

If you’re a talented freshman and you can learn, then you
can play. Malaki’s growth is a credit to his humbleness or
his humility, and he is a great kid from a great family, and
that’s what makes Malaki special.

Q. Coach, a tale of two halves. That first half looked
like the game in Charlotte a few years ago. What kind
of adjustments or was there anything you saw at
halftime? What would you owe the offense getting
loose in the second half?

KIRBY SMART: I think Mike and his staff did a good job at
halftime looking at pictures, seeing what was there,
capitalizing on some explosive plays. We blocked well on
the perimeter, and that drive in the second half kind of
opened things up. I think it loosened them up. It allowed
us to be more explosive, and we used some tempo to help
us, and we think we’re a really well-conditioned team, and I
thought that juice between Nate’s quickness brought some
energy and Arien and Dillon making some plays on the
perimeter.

Q. Mykel goes down in the third quarter and Jalon
Walker comes in at outside linebacker. Back to back
tackles for loss on one drive; next drive it’s
back-to-back sacks. What allows him to come in and
play inside and outside and make an impact like he did
today?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, he wasn’t really playing for Mykel.
He was playing outside linebacker before Mykel went
down. They don’t really play the same position. There’s
packages there where Jalon plays inside; there’s packages
where Jalon plays outside.

We’ve had to get uncomfortable as coaches to use his skill
set, and I think shim anyone and the defensive staff have
done a great job of finding ways that he can be successful.
Mykel and him both are really good football players, and
they both need to be on the field. They don’t need to share
time.

Q. I think during the game, Bull tweeted that Malaki is
the best DB in the country, Javon Bullard. Do you
think he’s the best DB in the country?

KIRBY SMART: I don’t know. How can I judge? I haven’t
seen him. It’s easier for Bull to say that because he has
seen the things Malaki has done in practice. I do think the
play I saw him make today may be one of the best
defensive football plays I’ve ever seen live in person.
I’ve seen a lot of them on TV, but that one he twisted and
contorted his body and how he can find the ability to go
find that ball and get it, it’s pretty special.

Q. Obviously the first half it was a little bit difficult to
get the running game going. How did Nate Frazier help
you open up the offense a little bit and get the offense
going?

KIRBY SMART: I don’t know that Nate opened up that.
We hit some perimeter runs to start the game, and you try
to mix and mingle and try to catch people off balance.
We thought that can we could run it a little bit better inside
than we did. They have some big defensive linemen.
They’re big on their edges. They’re big up the middle.
They are going to give people problems defensively. I
have a lot of respect for them.

I think Nate brought a little juice and a little energy there as
Cash did, too, and Branson. Branson hasn’t playing
football in a year, so Branson is going to be fine. He is a
really good back and we’re going to continue to get better
and look forward to using all those guys’ skill sets.

We’ve got a really good dynamic in that running back room
in terms of the players we have.

Q. On that note, Nate Frazier had an excellent debut.
How would you assess his place on the depth chart
after today?

KIRBY SMART: We don’t do depth charts at running back.
Cash Jones had a great day, too, and I was really proud of
all those guys stepping up.

But there’s no depth chart. We play the guys that have the
best week in practice.

Q. Your transfer receiver today made some big plays.
Colbie down around the goal line made a great catch
and London showed how fast he is.

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, London I thought really stepped up.
I thought the play of the game was the play he caught over
the middle. Dillon had gone down with some cramping.
London had to step up and go play. He made a great
catch. I think it was a 3rd down conversion, I’m not sure,
but once we converted that, it kind of was a springboard to
being explosive and scoring. I thought that was a clutch
catch. London is a great kid.

He’s very level headed. Nothing really affects him. It didn’t
surprise me in the moment that — the moment wasn’t too
big for him because he’s played in a lot of these SEC
match-ups.

Q. You mentioned Mykel earlier. What was the injury
for him and for Warren Brinson, as well?

KIRBY SMART: One was an ankle, and Warren’s was
more of a contusion of some kind. I don’t want to say high
ankle, but it was above the ankle. It was more calf, in there
where he got stepped on he felt like. And Mykel’s X-rays,
they looked good, but I’ve seen that before, so we’ve got to
go check it when we get home and see.

Q. Obviously Etienne didn’t play. Was that a suspension, and is it over now?

KIRBY SMART: You know we don’t talk about those
things. It was a good try, though. I’m focused on how our
guys played today, and that’s the focus and energy I’m
putting it towards. I appreciate your question.

Q. We all know that Carson is calm, cool, and
collected. We’re heard you say we want him to show a
little bit more passion, get his teammates fired up. Did
you see that from him today?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I thought he got a little passion and
energy there, too. We started early and didn’t have 3rd
down conversions in the first half, and I thought he
responded well to that. He came in, sat down with the
iPad, and he told me, when we come out second half,
we’re going to go in there and score, Coach, and sure
enough, we did. I thought he really handled that well.
Look, that was a good defense, guys. Y’all can say what
you want. That’s a really high-quality defense.

Q. That kick from Peyton, 55-yarder pretty late in the
half there, how big was that?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, it was big at the time, but you can’t
play these games in three, three, three, three. You’ve got
to score touchdowns. That probably was a little out of my
comfort zone, but it looked to me that he had some room to
spare on it.

KIRBY SMART: I didn’t realize that. I knew when we had
to kick it it was out of the zone that I really wanted to, but I
didn’t have a lot of options there, and we were playing field
position, and I’ve seen him make them, so indoors I think it
makes it more significant.

Q. I believe Carson Beck extended some plays with
his legs there, a couple 3rd down conversions. Talk to
that growth in the area of his game using his legs.
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, tremendous. The first conversion
was that, it didn’t end up in points, but what it did was flip
field position. It made play behind bad field position most
of the day. He has the ability to do that and I tell people all
the time they don’t know the athlete he is and it’s not the
speed it’s the body control, decision making.

He can hurt you when you go out there and match
everything, and then he takes off on you. He’s got really
good pocket presence, and he makes some plays with his
feet.

Q. With Warren going out, Jordan Hall, Xzavier
McLeod not out there, what did you see out of Christen
Miller and Naz Stackhouse today middle of your
defensive line?

KIRBY SMART: Just tough guys, man. I can’t say how
they played. I didn’t watch it specifically. But to play the
plays they played, the number of snaps, the volume they’ve
taken, they have been extremely durable and extremely
tough.

Tray has done a great job of bringing the young players
along in that room, and we’re getting a blessing in some
ways of getting all these young guys ready while we’re
trying to get healthy. That could really pay dividends late in
the year if we get everybody back.

Q. Coach, some of the talk surrounding Clemson has
been that they have not been utilizing the transfer
portal as much as some other teams have. Can you
talk about how the transfer portal guys have affected
your roster and how they’ve affected the way that you
guys play this year?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, that’s hard for me to speak on. I’m
not in judgment of someone else. I guess you’re not
asking me to judge their program, you’re saying how the
transfer guys have helped our program. We’re very
selective in the transfer department.

We take a tight end out of Stanford who’s played in a
similar offense, two tight end sets, we take a wide out who
we play against and can run, and we need wide outs
because we lost guys at wide out.

We take Colbie who’s a high-quality kid. We talk to these
kids, visit with these kids. I want my team to stay my team.
I’ve always said that. If you could give me every team kid I
sign, they stay at my program for four years and they can’t
leave, I would take that every day of the week.

But if we’re going to lose kids, we’ve got to replace them
with high-quality kids that are character kids that are
looking to have an opportunity to win a championship, that
want to go somewhere and play, because otherwise you
can’t survive in the SEC without the depth you need.
It’s a forced situation. You have to use it. So we use it
selectively because we actually like signing high school
players that can develop and the guys that you see in our
program most of the time are that.

Q. I think I saw you guys played seven offensive
linemen today. What does that say about the depth of
your program and what kind of benefit does that
provide to you?

KIRBY SMART: Well, we want to play a lot of linemen all
the time. Carson works with those guys all the time. We
like playing eight or nine. To get through the year you’re
going to have to do that.

We’re thinner than we have ever been. We’ve played
seven, eight guys and we’ve always played three tackles,
and we’ll continue to do that if they’re playing winning
football.

Q. Coming out of halftime, you guys score on the
opening drive, Clemson comes back down, threatening
to score, your defense holds them to a field goal.
What did you like from that series from your defense
and how big was that in the moment?

KIRBY SMART: I thought we responded. I’m trying to
remember that one. I think they got to a short yardage
situation, we were able to stop them, knock them back,
gave them a negative play. I thought the defense executed
well in the red area which is something we work on
situationally a lot. Coach Schumann called some really
good calls and Jalon and those guys on defense executed
them.

Q. Obviously you guys have new faces every year, but
I know you guys have some traits and characteristics
that you like to instill in your team. Did you see that
when it’s 6-0 and you guys take control in the second
half like that?

KIRBY SMART: I didn’t understand what you asked.
Q. In terms of some of the resiliency, not looking at
the scoreboard, being able to do what you guys
practiced to do.

KIRBY SMART: I was proud of the way our team played
both halves. I really was.

I think the narrative is out there you’re going to roll the ball
out and Georgia is just going to win. They’re going to win
because they have a G, and they are going to roll over
these teams.

Football is not that way. That’s a really good football team
we just played. The fact that we played and pushed
through that is indicative of the things you’re talking about.
We built into our program. We said we had to out-physical
them. I thought we did. We had to out-hustle them. I think
we did. We’ll watch the tape. You got to out-discipline
them.

Those are three areas that we thought we had to win to
beat Clemson, and our guys proved true in that.

Q. I know you said postgame that the interception
from Malaki reminded you of Champ Bailey?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, when Champ was a freshman we
were in 42, people don’t remember it, he would play middle
field safety and he had range that was unheard of. He
could go from sideline to sideline and he made some diving
plays and extended his body.

Malaki is very similar to that in terms of his ability to play
man-to-man, his ability to play safety. He can go out and
play corner if he had to. He’s just an tremendous athlete
but with all that accolades, he’s one of the most humble,
great kids I’ve ever been around.

But I saw Champ before the game and I told him that
Malaki has a lot of his same traits.

Q. The past couple off-seasons there were some
incidents and from the outside there were questions
about the culture of Georgia football. On the inside,
how would you describe the health of the culture of
Georgia football right now?

KIRBY SMART: Awesome. I wish you could talk to our
players. I wish you are could live in there and see all our
guys day-to-day and see Thomas Settles and Bryant Gant
and all the people that stand up in front of our team and
talk about connection and share their experiences.
I mean, there’s two of them sitting right there. You can ask
them. They’ll tell you.

What you know on the inside is a lot more than what
people can paint pictures to be outside. People use it in
negative recruiting, and they throw it out there, and it
comes back to bite them, too.

Q. Coach, you guys went 40 consecutive games in the
regular season. That means you’ve got to be a very
focused program. What do you think the secret is for
you keeping these players focused no matter — players
come and go, but that focus seems to be pretty
consistent.

KIRBY SMART: I think it’s a process. We believe in what
we do. The leaders on our team that I meet with, they
believe in it, they sell it, they push it to the younger players.
I think somebody said the other day we had 38 or 42 my
advisor brought to me. We had 42 or 38, I can’t remember
what it was. I had to sign something saying they were all
eligible and they were all new. We had 38 or 42 new
people. New.

When you turn over that much, you’d better have a nucleus
around them that can keep them grounded. That is what
we’ve been able to sustain at Georgia is, we’re not going to
change what we do based on who we play. We’re going to
do what we do and we’re going to try to out-execute you
and just do it the right way.

I think a lot of people that’s hard to do it the hard way all
the time, because everybody wants to find an easier way.
There’s no easy way to win these games. They’re all hard.

Q. On that fade route to Colbie Young, it looked like
Beck and Young had been playing together for years.
How have they been able to build that connection so
quickly?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, it’s been tough because Colbie
hasn’t actually practiced a full practice week. He was very
selective. We had him where he was not taking a full load
of reps. They had a really good connection early in camp,
and then when his hamstring occurred, they lost some of
that rhythm, and I think we’ve got to get more out of Colbie.
Colbie is a really good player, and we need him to step up
if we’re going to go where we need to go.

Q. What can you say about your freshman Nate
Frazier and the impact he’s had in this game?

KIRBY SMART: Awesome. The players can tell you that I
get on him all the time because he’s out of control. He is
just foot to fire, moving, going at the speed of light, doesn’t
know he might run into a brick wall, cutting back. He cut
back a couple times in practice and I told him, when you
get in a real game, you cut back like that, they’re going to
light you up.

I might have actually said some things I can’t say in here,
but he cut back and went all the way across the field for
about 50, and told him it’s okay now. He can do that.
He’s a great kid. He got an opportunity; he seized the
moment. A lot of people locked in front of him. And like I
told you, Chauncey Mullins is a good back. He will have
an opportunity to grow and play.

So I’m looking forward to that room because I think we got
some juice in that room as they get more experience.
Look, guys, Nate is a long way from a complete package.
He wasn’t here in the spring, so he missed 15 practices of
intense work that he’s trying to play catch-up on.

Q. Joenel banged up going into this football game.
You talk a lot about Malaki and you said he’s your best
corner, could be your best corner —

KIRBY SMART: I said he could play corner.

Q. Could play corner. What did it mean to be able to
slide him in at nickel today for you guys?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, that was huge. That was probably
the thing — you bringing it up, I forgot about that. That was
one of the biggest things that got us in the week, when
Joenel had a pull, and it happened on Saturday and we
didn’t know.

He didn’t go Monday, he didn’t go Tuesday, he walked
through Wednesday, and we’re all messed up because
now we’re having to not move one person in his spot, we’re
having to move Malaki, then Dan, then KJ.

It was really scary because we didn’t have the volume of
reps with that makeup, so then we tried to go with JaCorey
some, but every time JaCorey was in Malaki had to play
over here and Dan had to over here. Then when Malaki
went in, Dan jumped over here and KJ went over here.

They did a tremendous job of knowing what to do from
three different positions, and we really needed to get
Joenel healthy, and I thought JaCorey stepped up and took
advantage of his opportunity.

Photos/Box Score/Trophy Presentation: Georgia 34 vs. Clemson 3

Box Score

Dabo Swinney Postgame Presser – August 31, 2024

DABO SWINNEY: First of all, congrats to Georgia. It was
a good first half. Tough, hard-fought first half. Then they
just freaking kicked our tails in the second half. Congrats
to them. They’re a great team. They’ve been a great
team. They showed in the third and fourth quarter what it
looks like.
Just really disappointed. Biggest thing is when you don’t
finish, again I’ve talked a lot bit, thought we did some good
things in the first half. There will be some things on tape.
But you got to play four quarters. We didn’t do that.
Biggest thing, when you get beat like that, that’s on the
head coach. That’s on me, so… That’s just complete
ownership of just an absolute crap second half. Really
disappointed. But I’ve done it long enough. Sometimes
you get your butt kicked, and we did today. That’s not what
we came here to do. But you got to give Georgia credit.
We got to move on, we got to learn from it.

Again, biggest thing to me was missed opportunities in the
first half. We needed some early momentum. We had
made a couple plays. We made a huge play. They said
we weren’t lined up right. They said we weren’t quite up on
the ball. He thought he was on the ball. You look at the
tape, it’s close. That was huge, huge, huge missed
opportunity in the first half.
With a team like Georgia, where they are right now, you’ve
got to take advantage of those opportunities when they
present themselves. So we didn’t do that in the first half.
Some critical penalties, just a couple details.
Then the second half, just defensively really poor. Just
really poor. Again, I thought lines of scrimmage, there’s
going to be a lot of good stuff we’re going to see on tape,
but in the second half just missed tackle. Something I was
worried about coming into the game. But missed tackles,
third-and-long.
Another thing I was worried about was their quarterback. I
think he showed. He’s a really, really good player. He’s
incredibly accurate. That’s one of my concerns going into
the game, was if we let him hold the ball on third-and-long,
he’ll find ’em. And he did. He made a couple huge plays
on third-and-long.
I think they capitalized on a couple, we miss-fit a couple of
their runs. We missed some tackles. That contributed to
some of the big plays. Then we just kind of got in a hole
there.
Disappointed offensively on the third-and-one there. Had a
little miscommunication. They did fight. They didn’t quit.
They battled to the end. Like I said, there will be some
good things we see on tape. At the end of the day we just
got our butts kicked.
We got to battle back. It’s a long season ahead. Again,
Georgia is a great football team. I have no doubt they’ll go
on to have a great year. This is one game. Whether you
get your butt kicked or you lose by one point, when you
lose, you lose. It’s 0-1. We got to get back to work on
Monday, we got to flush it.
We all learn from it. I don’t shy away from games like this.
I don’t ever shy away from games like this. I think when
you play games like this, you got a chance to learn, you got
a chance to teach. I think you can grow your football team
because they get a chance to see right out of the gate.
We’ll get back to work on Monday. We’ll flush it. I really
am proud of our guys in the locker room. Obviously they
worked really, really hard. When you put in the amount of
work that these guys put in and you don’t get the result, it’s
incredibly heartbreaking and disappointing.
I’m proud of the comments in the locker room, the
leadership that I saw. We certainly took one, punched right
in the gut. But we’ll respond. We’ll get back to work.
Doesn’t get any easier next week. Probably as good of a
Group of 5 team in the country coming into the Valley.
Sorry for our fans. I feel terrible for them ’cause we didn’t
get it done for them tonight. Didn’t play those last two
quarters like we know we can play.
But I promise you this: we’ll get back to work. Long
season ahead. See if we can find a way to have a great
Sunday tomorrow, a great Monday, and find a way to get
on the other side of this thing and keep going there. One
day at a time, one game at a time and we’ll see what
happens. But today was not our day, and all the credit
goes to Georgia, for sure.

Q. How do you think Cade played?
DABO SWINNEY: I think Cade played well. I think he did
a lot of positive things, I really do. He did a lot of positive
things in the game.
Starks made a great play on the one ball, box fade. That
was a great play by a great player. The biggest thing is,
we didn’t help him early on. Too many third-and-longs.
You’re not going to make a living against Georgia on
third-and-long.
I think there were a lot of bright spots with Cade. He’s also
one of those guys I’m really proud of from just comments in
the locker room. That’s what leaders do. That kid will
show up Monday ready to go. He’s just going to keep
getting better.
I thought he competed his butt off. Thought Brady did
some good things. Antonio, obviously had the one huge
play that got called back. There will be some good things
that we can take away from it that we can go build on for
the season. That doesn’t take away the fact that you just
got your ass kicked in the third and fourth quarter.

Q. How about the decision with the kickoff? ABO SWINNEY: Just one of things we talked about
going into it. We felt really good about our opportunity to
either go score or move that thing far enough to where they
got to go 80-plus. Again, we had a couple critical penalties
that really cost us. I mean, the motion call was same thing,
it was close. It was close watching the video on the
sideline. But they called it, so…
We kind of got in a little bit of a hole right there. We didn’t
anticipate that. But we wanted to take the ball. We’ve had
a great fall camp. Coming out of the gate, then also they
led the country last year, or second in the country in time of
possession. We wanted to get them out there right away
and get them to play.
If we didn’t score, try to pin them. But it didn’t work out that
way. Again, I thought defensively we did a heck of a job in
the first half. I mean, they were physical. They held up
well. But again, tale of two halves.

Q. There’s been a lot made about your approach
(indiscernible). What do you say to people who point
to that?
DABO SWINNEY: People are going to say whatever they
want to say. It doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter what I say.
People are going to say whatever they want to say.
But we do what’s best for Clemson year in and year out.
People can say. When you lose like this, they got every
right to say whatever they want to say. So say whatever
you want to say, write whatever you want to write. That
comes with it. It’s just part of it.
Q. The last few years offensively in these big games,
are you able to pinpoint why you struggle offensively?
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, we haven’t done some of the
basic things the way we need to do it. I mean, we didn’t
make some critical plays that we had a chance to make.
When we did make a big, critical play to create momentum,
we get a penalty. So just creating the rhythm. It’s just
disappointing.
That’s where it is.

THE MODERATOR: Coach Swinney will have some
opening comments.
DABO SWINNEY: First of all, congrats to Georgia. It was
a good first half. Tough, hard-fought first half. Then they
just freaking kicked our tails in the second half. Congrats
to them. They’re a great team. They’ve been a great
team. They showed in the third and fourth quarter what it
looks like.
Just really disappointed. Biggest thing is when you don’t
finish, again I’ve talked a lot bit, thought we did some good
things in the first half. There will be some things on tape.
But you got to play four quarters. We didn’t do that.
Biggest thing, when you get beat like that, that’s on the
head coach. That’s on me, so… That’s just complete
ownership of just an absolute crap second half. Really
disappointed. But I’ve done it long enough. Sometimes
you get your butt kicked, and we did today. That’s not what
we came here to do. But you got to give Georgia credit.
We got to move on, we got to learn from it.
Again, biggest thing to me was missed opportunities in the
first half. We needed some early momentum. We had
made a couple plays. We made a huge play. They said
we weren’t lined up right. They said we weren’t quite up on
the ball. He thought he was on the ball. You look at the
tape, it’s close. That was huge, huge, huge missed
opportunity in the first half.
With a team like Georgia, where they are right now, you’ve
got to take advantage of those opportunities when they
present themselves. So we didn’t do that in the first half.
Some critical penalties, just a couple details.
Then the second half, just defensively really poor. Just
really poor. Again, I thought lines of scrimmage, there’s
going to be a lot of good stuff we’re going to see on tape,
but in the second half just missed tackle. Something I was
worried about coming into the game. But missed tackles,
third-and-long.
Another thing I was worried about was their quarterback. I
think he showed. He’s a really, really good player. He’s
incredibly accurate. That’s one of my concerns going into
the game, was if we let him hold the ball on third-and-long,
he’ll find ’em. And he did. He made a couple huge plays
on third-and-long.
I think they capitalized on a couple, we miss-fit a couple of
their runs. We missed some tackles. That contributed to
some of the big plays. Then we just kind of got in a hole
there.
Disappointed offensively on the third-and-one there. Had a
little miscommunication. They did fight. They didn’t quit.
They battled to the end. Like I said, there will be some
good things we see on tape. At the end of the day we just
got our butts kicked.
We got to battle back. It’s a long season ahead. Again,
Georgia is a great football team. I have no doubt they’ll go
on to have a great year. This is one game. Whether you
get your butt kicked or you lose by one point, when you
lose, you lose. It’s 0-1. We got to get back to work on
Monday, we got to flush it.
We all learn from it. I don’t shy away from games like this.
I don’t ever shy away from games like this. I think when
you play games like this, you got a chance to learn, you got
a chance to teach. I think you can grow your football team
because they get a chance to see right out of the gate.
We’ll get back to work on Monday. We’ll flush it. I really
am proud of our guys in the locker room. Obviously they
worked really, really hard. When you put in the amount of
work that these guys put in and you don’t get the result, it’s
incredibly heartbreaking and disappointing.
I’m proud of the comments in the locker room, the
leadership that I saw. We certainly took one, punched right
147885-1-2377 2024-08-31 20:26:00 GMT Page 1 of 4
in the gut. But we’ll respond. We’ll get back to work.
Doesn’t get any easier next week. Probably as good of a
Group of 5 team in the country coming into the Valley.
Sorry for our fans. I feel terrible for them ’cause we didn’t
get it done for them tonight. Didn’t play those last two
quarters like we know we can play.
But I promise you this: we’ll get back to work. Long
season ahead. See if we can find a way to have a great
Sunday tomorrow, a great Monday, and find a way to get
on the other side of this thing and keep going there. One
day at a time, one game at a time and we’ll see what
happens. But today was not our day, and all the credit
goes to Georgia, for sure.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. How do you think Cade played?
DABO SWINNEY: I think Cade played well. I think he did
a lot of positive things, I really do. He did a lot of positive
things in the game.
Starks made a great play on the one ball, box fade. That
was a great play by a great player. The biggest thing is,
we didn’t help him early on. Too many third-and-longs.
You’re not going to make a living against Georgia on
third-and-long.
I think there were a lot of bright spots with Cade. He’s also
one of those guys I’m really proud of from just comments in
the locker room. That’s what leaders do. That kid will
show up Monday ready to go. He’s just going to keep
getting better.
I thought he competed his butt off. Thought Brady did
some good things. Antonio, obviously had the one huge
play that got called back. There will be some good things
that we can take away from it that we can go build on for
the season. That doesn’t take away the fact that you just
got your ass kicked in the third and fourth quarter.
Q. How about the decision with the kickoff?
DABO SWINNEY: Just one of things we talked about
going into it. We felt really good about our opportunity to
either go score or move that thing far enough to where they
got to go 80-plus. Again, we had a couple critical penalties
that really cost us. I mean, the motion call was same thing,
it was close. It was close watching the video on the
sideline. But they called it, so…
We kind of got in a little bit of a hole right there. We didn’t
anticipate that. But we wanted to take the ball. We’ve had
a great fall camp. Coming out of the gate, then also they
led the country last year, or second in the country in time of
possession. We wanted to get them out there right away
and get them to play.
If we didn’t score, try to pin them. But it didn’t work out that
way. Again, I thought defensively we did a heck of a job in
the first half. I mean, they were physical. They held up
well. But again, tale of two halves.
Q. There’s been a lot made about your approach
(indiscernible). What do you say to people who point
to that?
DABO SWINNEY: People are going to say whatever they
want to say. It doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter what I say.
People are going to say whatever they want to say.
But we do what’s best for Clemson year in and year out.
People can say. When you lose like this, they got every
right to say whatever they want to say. So say whatever
you want to say, write whatever you want to write. That
comes with it. It’s just part of it.
Q. The last few years offensively in these big games,
are you able to pinpoint why you struggle offensively?
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, we haven’t done some of the
basic things the way we need to do it. I mean, we didn’t
make some critical plays that we had a chance to make.
When we did make a big, critical play to create momentum,
we get a penalty. So just creating the rhythm. It’s just
disappointing.
That’s where it is.
Q. (No microphone.)
DABO SWINNEY: He did. Showed up. Made a lot of
plays. He’s going to have a heck of a year. I think
defensively we got a chance to be really good on defense.
Obviously disappointing the second half with just, again,
third-and-longs, missed plays. You also got to give
Georgia some credit. They made some plays. Their
quarterback, I think he’s a special player. He’s an
experienced guy. He showed today what he’s capable of
doing.
Q. (No microphone.)
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, I mean, that’s what they can do
to you. Again, they can expose you quick. You don’t have
a lot of room for error with a team like that. You got to play
all three phases, you’ve got to put it all together.
Was happy Hauser got a chance to get in the game, get a
147885-1-2377 2024-08-31 20:26:00 GMT Page 2 of 4
kick. It was good to see him go out there and make one.
Just the missed tackles, missed tackles, a couple of busted
assignments. They got us on the wheel route. We didn’t fit
up the reverse or the jet sweep, get off the block right
there. Created a couple of big plays. Next thing you know
bam-bam, it’s a couple scores. It’s tough. That’s a tough
thing against a great team.
Again, it’s over. We got to flush it and move on to the next
one. That’s all we can do. We can’t sit around and just
wallow in it forever. We got a long season ahead. We still
got a chance. There’s not anything off the table for this
team.
It will all be written when it’s all said. Everybody can write
everything they want to write right now, but it will all be
written in November and December. So we got a lot of
work to do. As competitors, that’s what we do. We get up
and go back to fight again on Monday.
Q. What was the discussion halftime with Coach Riley
and Coach Goodwin as to how the team was going
overall?
DABO SWINNEY: There was a lot of discussion (smiling).
We all know what happened. That’s what we do.
Everybody’s disappointed. But we take ownership of it.
Starting with me.
Q. How does this one feel compared to last season’s
season opener against Duke as far as the locker
room? How you feel about your team going forward?
DABO SWINNEY: I feel great about our team and the
leadership on this team. Again, some people may say,
He’s just crazy, just got his butt kicked.
A loss is a loss. I hate to lose, period, to anybody,
anytime, anywhere. I hate to lose. We work too hard. So
it hurts. It’s going to leave a mark. This will be one I’ll
never forget, that’s for sure.
I remember every loss. Unfortunately sometimes you
remember those more than some of the others. This is
one. This is just a flat-out butt kicking. We just got our
tails kicked in for two quarters. I mean, look at the score.
You’re going, Whoa.
Again, there will be a lot of positives. There’s a couple
things that, again, if you just do a couple little things right,
you create a little momentum, a little confidence or
whatever.
They all hurt. They all feel the same. They all hurt. You
lose by one or 40. You work too hard. When you don’t get
the result you want, it hurts. This is our livelihood, this is
what we do. These kids, they work their butts off. When
we don’t get it done, we take ownership of it, go back to
work, see if we can find a way next week.
Again, been in this situation many times. Been 2-3.
Started 2-3 one year, and went on to the ACC
championship. There’s a long season ahead. I do think
we have the right people in the room.
When you play a team like Georgia, you get exposed.
That’s what happened in the second half. Again, there’s a
lot of good things in the first half that we’ll see. Then all of
a sudden third-and-long, big play, boom, big play. This is a
really good team. They’re well-coached. Kirby did a great
job, has done a great job. They kicked our butt tonight.
We’ll see where we go from here.
Q. (No microphone.)
DABO SWINNEY: I’d say we got a long season ahead.
That’s what I’d say. I’d say tonight was bad. Georgia
going to make a lot of people look bad. They made us look
bad today.
But I do think that we’ll get back to work on Monday. We’ll
go get better.
Q. You didn’t put the ball on the ground against a
great defense.
DABO SWINNEY: We took care of the ball. Starks, that
was a great play. We took a shot on the box fade to Tyler.
He made a great football play. Great player. We did a
good job with that.
Then again, I thought in the first half the red zone defense
was really good to see, too. There was a lot of physicality.
There was a lot of good stuff. At the end of the day it’s
about getting the result that you want. That was two
quarters of really poor football. I take ownership of that.
But we let that carry over. We got to flush it. 24 hours,
flush it, get back to work on Monday. Same thing if you
win the game. Got to get back to work. Got a long year
ahead.
I think we’ve got a chance to be a really, really good
football team if we will just improve like I think we will from
this.
Q. Is there an injury update on Martin?
DABO SWINNEY: I think he’s okay.
147885-1-2377 2024-08-31 20:26:00 GMT Page 3 of 4
Q. What was the injury?
DABO SWINNEY: He just got, I think, rolled up.
Q. (No microphone.)
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, they got in there. When they got
in there, made some plays. Those guys will continue to roll
’em in there. You’ll see ’em.
Q. What did you think of the wide receivers?
DABO SWINNEY: We had penalties, two penalties right
out of the gate. So I was disappointed with that. None
more than the one that cost us the big play.
There was some good, some bad, just like every other
position.
Really proud of Antonio, though. Thought he really
competed, made a lot of plays. I was excited to see that.
Good to get the young guys in there, both of them a
chance to touch the ball. I think they’ll continue to grow
from there.
Q. (No microphone.)
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, came out a little quick. They
brought some heat right there. Just didn’t find it, track it.
Q. You said you’re going to be pretty pleased with
some of the things at the line of scrimmage you see.
Your overall thoughts on how the offensive line
played?
DABO SWINNEY: Like I said, I need to watch the tape
before I make an assessment. I do think there’s going to
be some positives that we will see, that we can build on.
Doesn’t change the fact that the score got away from us in
the third and fourth quarter. It was a very competitive
game, you’re one score away. Next thing you know, you’re
in trouble.
We’ll watch the tape and we’ll assess it and go from there.
Q. What is your message to the team heading into the
game next week?
DABO SWINNEY: Put our eyes forward. Flush this thing,
put your eyes forward, focus on what we can control. Stay
together. Stay together. Leaders lead. So stay together,
flush it, show back up Monday. You can’t let this game
beat you twice. You got to move forward. That’s the
nature of football. We got to wait all week, we lose a game
like this, especially when you get your butts kicked in the
second half, there’s a lot of noise.
You got to block all that stuff out and focus on what you
can control, get back to work, one day at a time win a
game, keep going. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. It’s a
long way.
They didn’t hand out a national championship trophy
tonight. We didn’t lose the ACC tonight. We got our butts
kicked in one game, and we got a long way to go. Let’s go
play it out and see what happens.

Q. (No microphone.)
DABO SWINNEY: Watch the tape. Missed tackles, first of
all. Big plays. A few big plays and missed tackles. Really
did a nice job, I thought we were very physical. That stat
right there comes from big plays. The big plays, which is
what usually happens when you miss some tackles or you
don’t fit something properly.
But I thought we held up pretty good when they tried to
come at us. I thought we did some good things. Again, I
thought their quarterback made a couple of nice, timely
scrambles that created some opportunistic first downs for
them, as well.

Q. (No microphone.)
DABO SWINNEY: He did. Showed up. Made a lot of
plays. He’s going to have a heck of a year. I think
defensively we got a chance to be really good on defense.
Obviously disappointing the second half with just, again,
third-and-longs, missed plays. You also got to give
Georgia some credit. They made some plays. Their
quarterback, I think he’s a special player. He’s an
experienced guy. He showed today what he’s capable of
doing.

Q. (No microphone.)
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, I mean, that’s what they can do
to you. Again, they can expose you quick. You don’t have
a lot of room for error with a team like that. You got to play
all three phases, you’ve got to put it all together.
Was happy Hauser got a chance to get in the game, get a
147885-1-2377 2024-08-31 20:26:00 GMT Page 2 of 4
kick. It was good to see him go out there and make one.
Just the missed tackles, missed tackles, a couple of busted
assignments. They got us on the wheel route. We didn’t fit
up the reverse or the jet sweep, get off the block right
there. Created a couple of big plays. Next thing you know
bam-bam, it’s a couple scores. It’s tough. That’s a tough
thing against a great team.
Again, it’s over. We got to flush it and move on to the next
one. That’s all we can do. We can’t sit around and just
wallow in it forever. We got a long season ahead. We still
got a chance. There’s not anything off the table for this
team.
It will all be written when it’s all said. Everybody can write
everything they want to write right now, but it will all be
written in November and December. So we got a lot of
work to do. As competitors, that’s what we do. We get up
and go back to fight again on Monday.

Q. What was the discussion halftime with Coach Riley
and Coach Goodwin as to how the team was going
overall?
DABO SWINNEY: There was a lot of discussion (smiling).
We all know what happened. That’s what we do.
Everybody’s disappointed. But we take ownership of it.
Starting with me.

Q. How does this one feel compared to last season’s
season opener against Duke as far as the locker
room? How you feel about your team going forward?
DABO SWINNEY: I feel great about our team and the
leadership on this team. Again, some people may say,
He’s just crazy, just got his butt kicked.
A loss is a loss. I hate to lose, period, to anybody,
anytime, anywhere. I hate to lose. We work too hard. So
it hurts. It’s going to leave a mark. This will be one I’ll
never forget, that’s for sure.
I remember every loss. Unfortunately sometimes you
remember those more than some of the others. This is
one. This is just a flat-out butt kicking. We just got our
tails kicked in for two quarters. I mean, look at the score.
You’re going, Whoa.
Again, there will be a lot of positives. There’s a couple
things that, again, if you just do a couple little things right,
you create a little momentum, a little confidence or
whatever.
They all hurt. They all feel the same. They all hurt. You
lose by one or 40. You work too hard. When you don’t get
the result you want, it hurts. This is our livelihood, this is
what we do. These kids, they work their butts off. When
we don’t get it done, we take ownership of it, go back to
work, see if we can find a way next week.
Again, been in this situation many times. Been 2-3.
Started 2-3 one year, and went on to the ACC
championship. There’s a long season ahead. I do think
we have the right people in the room.
When you play a team like Georgia, you get exposed.
That’s what happened in the second half. Again, there’s a
lot of good things in the first half that we’ll see. Then all of
a sudden third-and-long, big play, boom, big play. This is a
really good team. They’re well-coached. Kirby did a great
job, has done a great job. They kicked our butt tonight.
We’ll see where we go from here.

Q. (No microphone.)
DABO SWINNEY: I’d say we got a long season ahead.
That’s what I’d say. I’d say tonight was bad. Georgia
going to make a lot of people look bad. They made us look
bad today.
But I do think that we’ll get back to work on Monday. We’ll
go get better.

Q. You didn’t put the ball on the ground against a
great defense.
DABO SWINNEY: We took care of the ball. Starks, that
was a great play. We took a shot on the box fade to Tyler.
He made a great football play. Great player. We did a
good job with that.
Then again, I thought in the first half the red zone defense
was really good to see, too. There was a lot of physicality.
There was a lot of good stuff. At the end of the day it’s
about getting the result that you want. That was two
quarters of really poor football. I take ownership of that.
But we let that carry over. We got to flush it. 24 hours,
flush it, get back to work on Monday. Same thing if you
win the game. Got to get back to work. Got a long year
ahead.
I think we’ve got a chance to be a really, really good
football team if we will just improve like I think we will from
this.

Q. Is there an injury update on Martin?
DABO SWINNEY: I think he’s okay.

Q. What was the injury?
DABO SWINNEY: He just got, I think, rolled up.

Q. (No microphone.)
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, they got in there. When they got
in there, made some plays. Those guys will continue to roll
’em in there. You’ll see ’em.

Q. What did you think of the wide receivers?
DABO SWINNEY: We had penalties, two penalties right
out of the gate. So I was disappointed with that. None
more than the one that cost us the big play.
There was some good, some bad, just like every other
position.
Really proud of Antonio, though. Thought he really
competed, made a lot of plays. I was excited to see that.
Good to get the young guys in there, both of them a
chance to touch the ball. I think they’ll continue to grow
from there.

Q. (No microphone.)
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, came out a little quick. They
brought some heat right there. Just didn’t find it, track it.

Q. You said you’re going to be pretty pleased with
some of the things at the line of scrimmage you see.
Your overall thoughts on how the offensive line
played?
DABO SWINNEY: Like I said, I need to watch the tape
before I make an assessment. I do think there’s going to
be some positives that we will see, that we can build on.
Doesn’t change the fact that the score got away from us in
the third and fourth quarter. It was a very competitive
game, you’re one score away. Next thing you know, you’re
in trouble.
We’ll watch the tape and we’ll assess it and go from there.
Q. What is your message to the team heading into the
game next week?

DABO SWINNEY: Put our eyes forward. Flush this thing,
put your eyes forward, focus on what we can control. Stay
together. Stay together. Leaders lead. So stay together,
flush it, show back up Monday. You can’t let this game
beat you twice. You got to move forward. That’s the
nature of football. We got to wait all week, we lose a game
like this, especially when you get your butts kicked in the
second half, there’s a lot of noise.
You got to block all that stuff out and focus on what you
can control, get back to work, one day at a time win a
game, keep going. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. It’s a
long way.
They didn’t hand out a national championship trophy
tonight. We didn’t lose the ACC tonight. We got our butts
kicked in one game, and we got a long way to go. Let’s go
play it out and see what happens.

Q. (No microphone.)
DABO SWINNEY: Watch the tape. Missed tackles, first of
all. Big plays. A few big plays and missed tackles. Really
did a nice job, I thought we were very physical. That stat
right there comes from big plays. The big plays, which is
what usually happens when you miss some tackles or you
don’t fit something properly.
But I thought we held up pretty good when they tried to
come at us. I thought we did some good things. Again, I
thought their quarterback made a couple of nice, timely
scrambles that created some opportunistic first downs for
them, as well.

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