Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney spoke to reporters at his weekly Tuesday press conference, where he talked about the Tigers’ upcoming showdown with the Florida State Seminoles, the Clemson-FSU rivalry, and injury updates on players such as Peter Woods.
Woods, who has missed Clemson’s last two games, is “close” to returning, Swinney said. “He’s right there so we’re hopeful. Today’s a big day. Put the pads on today and tomorrow and just like last week, we’ll see where he is,” Swinney added.
The star defensive tackle was injured on a chop block in the first half of the Tigers’ 66-20 win over Appalachian State on Sept. 7.
Clemson wrapped up the month of September with a 40-14 win over Stanford last Saturday and head into October on a three-game win streak. The Tigers (3-1) have outscored their opponents by an average of 32 points since their season-opening loss to the Georgia Bulldogs and are ranked No. 14 in the US LBM Coaches Poll.
“Excited to move into October,” Swinney said in his opening remarks. “We had a good month here at home. That’s great for us, but you’ve got to go take it on the road. I tell them all the time: good teams win at home, great teams win on the road. You’ve got to be able to execute when they’re not all cheering for you.”
On that note, next up for the Tigers is a Florida State team that has been the biggest disappointment in college football. The Seminoles came into the year ranked in the top 10 of preseason Top 25 polls and were voted the favorite to repeat as ACC champions by conference media members in August.
With Saturday’s 42-16 loss to SMU, Florida State fell to 1-4. Swinney said that the focus shouldn’t be solely on FSU’s record and that people should give their opponents credit for being good teams in their own right.
“You look at a couple of these games and they’re right there,” Swinney said of Florida State. “So, you just have to keep playing. If you do this long enough, you’re going to have a year along the way where… crazy things can happen. You’ve just got to play the next game and keep going. I think everybody is surprised by what their record is, but you’ve also got to give the other teams some credit.
“They’ve played some good teams. Let’s don’t just attack Florida State. How about let’s give some praise to other teams?”
Kickoff for Clemson vs. Florida State is set for 7 p.m. ET Saturday at Doak Campbell Stadium. The game can be seen on ESPN.
Here’s everything Swinney said at Tuesday’s press conference.
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