The Clemson football team will be playing with a heavy heart tonight against Louisiana Tech as redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Bryan Bresee’s 15-year-old sister, Ella, passed away earlier this week following a battle with brain cancer.
ACC Network’s Kelsey Riggs spoke with Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney ahead of tonight’s game and asked Swinney what he has said to his players about channeling their emotion with what they’re working through right now.
“It’s been a tough week, a heavy week,” Swinney said. “But you know, it’s also given us an opportunity to have some real conversations. These are young people and this is a tough moment, and they’re all sharing in the pain with the Bresee family. But hopefully we can play in a way Saturday night that will bring them a little bit of joy in that moment. I don’t know if they’ll be watching. So, the biggest thing we need to do is stay focused on the task at hand and what we’re trying to do, and I think that’ll put a smile on Bryan’s face for sure.”
As for tonight’s game against the Bulldogs at Death Valley (8 p.m., ACCN), Riggs asked Swinney what he is telling his team about staying in the moment and not looking too far ahead.
“This is a tough challenge. La Tech’s got a bunch of dudes. They’ve got enough to beat us, for sure,” Swinney said. “We’ve got to play well, and we’re going into the third game. We’ve got a lot to continue to work on. So, we’ve yet to play four quarters. We’ve done a good job of compensating for each other, and good teams can do that. But great teams complement each other, and that’s what I’d like to see us do. So, we’ve just got to continue to apply the lessons we’ve learned from these first two weeks and truly be in the moment because that’s the only thing that matters is what we do Saturday night.”
Clemson will be playing with a heavy heart vs. Louisiana Tech as DT Bryan Bresee's 15-year-old sister died of brain cancer earlier this week.@kelseyriggs caught up with Dabo Swinney: pic.twitter.com/ypdQuU3uAi
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) September 17, 2022
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