Swinney Pleased With 'clean game' in Opener

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney comfortable with the team's performance in the season opener, ready to sharpen in on details

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney had plenty of positives to pull from Saturday night's 37-17 win over Wake Forest. 

In Sunday's teleconference, Swinney said he was pleased with how the Tigers performed on both sides of the ball. 

The offense racked up 561 yards of total offense and after settling in during the first quarter, the offense was able to move the ball well. Travis Etienne picked up where he left off in 2019 with a 100-yard performance--a record-setting 18th of his career. 

"I mean offensively our tempo was amazing. We had 82 plays, 561 yards, 19 guys touched the ball. It was a lot of fun to see so many guys be involved," Swinney said. 

Swinney felt Lawrence did a good job of being the leader his team needs. Outside of taking an unnecessary sack on the game's first drive, he felt Lawrence made good decisions throughout the night.

"Trevor had the most passing yards for an opener. He was 22-of-28 for 351 yards and 79 percent. He missed one wide open and had two drops so he was a couple plays from being 25-of-28," Swinney said. 

Swinney was 'super proud' of how the offensive line performed reiterating the early sack was on Lawrence and not his revamped offensive line. 

"Man, they played really well. They did a great job of catching movement. Our protection was excellent. That group is going to be really, really good. 

The Clemson head coach was also happy to see his senior running back in good shape and making history in the season-opening win. He commended the offense on its red zone efficiency where the Tigers were five-for-five on the night. The special teams unit was also impressive as B.T. Potter converted on a trio of field goals.  

Playing without three probable starters on defense in Mario Goodrich, Justin Foster, and Derion Kendrick, the defense had an overall solid opening performance as well. The Tiger defense, which included early appearances from freshmen Myles Murphy and Bryan Bresee, pitched a shutout in the opening half. 

"A lot of good things there from our first group. Our new key guys that we are going to be counting on, a lot of good stuff," Swinney said. "They averaged 1.1 yards per rush, six sacks, 11 tackles for loss. I thought we did a great job of controlling the line and did a good job on third down," he said. 

Swinney said if there were any negatives from that side of the ball it was the lack of forcing turnovers. 

"We turned a couple of guys loose. Had a couple of mental errors here or there and a couple of bad penalties but I thought our effort was tremendous," Swinney said.