Swinney, Tigers Ready to Kickoff 2022 Season

Clemson HC Dabo Swinney met with the media for his Week 1 press conference Thursday and had a lot to say about his team and who they remind him of.

CLEMSON, SC—Clemson will kick off its 127th football season in school history in grand fashion on Labor Day as the Tigers travel to the home of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons for a prime-time ACC matchup with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Monday, Sept. 5. Kickoff for the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium is set for 8 p.m. ET. 

"We have respect for anyone we play, especially anyone in our conference," Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. "We were fortunate to win this game last year. We have to do some things better. We have some opportunities we have to capitalize on. They will be as excited as we are about this game. We have to go execute and earn it on the field.”

Clemson enters the 2022 campaign riding a streak of 11 consecutive 10-win seasons, including the 2021 campaign in which Clemson battled through injuries and a 4-3 start to finish 10-3 and ranked No. 14 in the final AP Poll. In addition to winning at least 10 games in each of the last 11 seasons, Clemson has also won at least one postseason game (conference championship game, bowl game and/or national championship game) in each of those campaigns, tied with the 1985-95 Florida State Seminoles for the longest such streak on record. 

While much attention has been paid to Clemson's coaching staff turnover necessitated by the departure of two long-time coordinators for head coaching positions, replacing those two key pieces was easy because Swinney has a process.

"You win with people and you lose with them, too," Swinney said. "I have competed at the highest level in this game. It comes back to chemistry and culture and a group of people working together. It’s overlooked whether it’s business or a team. You need to identify the right people."

Defense Reminds Swinney of 2014, not 2018

"On paper it reminds me of our 2014 defensive line. People talk about 2018 but we were young that year. You have to have some luck along the way to win a national championship. We had some guys who played every game that year, but we were still young and inexperienced.

"Our 2014 d-tackle group, Deshawn Williams is with the Broncos. Grady Jarrett and D.J. Reader and ... Dan Brooks was hysterical. Grady was the only guy we knew who was going to start. I never worried about who was playing. We had Shaq and Vic, two first-rounders. The makeup of our D-line reminds me more of what we had in 2014 in terms of talent and depth. We can play a lot of people. We don’t have to have someone go in and play 60 snaps. We will get Xavier Thomas back soon.

“That 2014 defense led the nation in every statistical category. They earned it. I still have a picture of that defense in my office. I can’t mention this group in the same breath yet because they haven’t done anything yet. They have the opportunity to hopefully do something special this year.”

Beaux and E.J. are "ready to go"

"They’ve been rocking and rolling over the last couple of weeks. We have a lot of depth there. We’re just in a different place there at receiver.

"Ngata has been outstanding. Hopefully, he’ll play like he practices. We have nine, ten guys that we feel good about being able to go play. We have about eight guys who can play at a high level.”