Press Conference
DABO SWINNEY: Well, good to be back in Charlotte. Sat at home and watched this last year, so it's good to be back here and have an opportunity to represent the Atlantic, which I think is the only division in college football or at least Power Five to have six teams with seven-plus wins, so super excited about winning our division and earning an opportunity to be in this game.
It really is special, this time of year when you're playing and there's a trophy being handed out. We're excited, again, to be here and be a part of a great venue and represent this league.
We want to congratulate Coach Brown and his staff and all their team. Same thing; they're a division champion. They earned their way here. It's special. These opportunities are unique, to get these opportunities, especially when you look back historically.
I got hired 14 years ago yesterday, as a matter of fact, and at that time it had been a long time since Clemson won a championship.
I have such a great appreciation for the opportunity to be here and all that goes into earning the way here. It's hard. It's hard to win.
Really proud of our team for their season that they've had, to get to this point, and again, look forward to a great match-up tomorrow night, and want to thank Subway for being a sponsor, and then also all the people who make this happen.
There's a lot that goes into making a game like this special for the teams involved. There's a lot of logistics, a lot of moving parts, from the locker rooms to the field, et cetera, et cetera.
I appreciate everybody's efforts to make this a great venue and a great experience for both teams, and look forward to competing and hopefully playing our best.
Q. With Drake Maye, how important is it to try to build a two-score lead late in the game, kind of the way you did at Florida State with a guy like Drake Maye, who seems to be better when coming from behind and under pressure, leading game-time, game-winning drives?
DABO SWINNEY: Two-score lead? Hey, that's important anytime you can do that.
But hey, we just want to win the game, whether it's one point or two scores or whatever. But I think anytime he's on the field and they've got the ball, it's just regardless of what your lead is, whether it's two scores, as you say, or one point or you're behind, he's a problem in any situation. He's just a great player. He really is.
I can't imagine that he's not going to be one of the finalists for the Heisman, 35 touchdowns, five picks. He's a leading rusher. He's a great player, can beat you a lot of ways. He's got a great mind for the game. He sees things. He processes stuff well.
Regardless of what the scoreboard says or what the situation is, he creates a problem and has our full attention.
Q. Wanted to ask you about Josh Downs. He has a high win rate, but the last two weeks haven't been as good for him. What do you think you and your defense have to do to get him slowed down and keep him out of the end zone?
DABO SWINNEY: Yeah, well, I think that's what you hope to do is maybe minimize him a little bit, slow him down a little bit, but you're not going to stop him. He's the best we've seen, I think. We've seen some really good players, but he is a great, great competitor. He's a great football player. He's dynamic with and without the ball. He's a guy that -- he's also a returner for them.
But they use him a lot of underneath, screen -- they won't come out of this game without at least probably trying to get him the ball at least about 15 times in different ways. You just do the best you can to obviously know where he is. You've got to change things up a little bit as far as how you play him, and you've got to compete and win your match-up and hope that you can, as you said, just slow him down a little bit.
But he'll make some plays. You've got to try to hopefully minimize it.
