Swinney on ‘the year of the quarterback’ in the ACC

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney joined “The Jim Rome Show” this week and was asked about the overall talent and depth in the ACC, which currently has four teams ranked in the top 25 – all from the Atlantic Division (Clemson, No. 5 AP Top 25, No. 5 …

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney joined “The Jim Rome Show” this week and was asked about the overall talent and depth in the ACC, which currently has four teams ranked in the top 25 — all from the Atlantic Division (Clemson, No. 5 AP Top 25, No. 5 Coaches Poll; NC State, No. 14 AP, No. 14 Coaches Poll; Wake Forest, No. 15 AP, No. 15 Coaches Poll; Syracuse, No. 22 AP, No. 21 Coaches Poll).

“It’s strong. It really is, especially the Atlantic,” Swinney said. “It’s the year of the quarterback. There’s a bunch of quarterbacks in the ACC this year that you’re gonna see playing on Sunday – a bunch of them – and it seems like we play one every week. There’s just a lot of guys, man, and I think a very competitive group. So, a lot of talent, a lot of guys I think will be drafted out of the ACC this year.”

Swinney’s Tigers have already beaten a couple of the ACC’s best quarterbacks in Wake Forest’s Sam Hartman and NC State’s Devin Leary, but Swinney pointed out that Clemson still has to face other top signal-callers in the conference such as Boston College’s Phil Jurkovec, Florida State’s Jordan Travis, Syracuse’s Garrett Shrader and Louisville’s Malik Cunningham.

“Wake Forest is a team that doesn’t get a lot of credit. I mean, they got a bunch of fifth- and sixth-year seniors, and NC State, that bunch we just played, same thing – a bunch of really good veteran guys on both sides,” Swinney said.

“That quarterback, Leary, is a great player. We’re getting ready to play Jurkovec. He’s a great player. We’ve got to go down to Florida State and play their quarterback. Louisville’s got a great quarterback. Syracuse has a great quarterback. It just seems like everybody we play has a dude, and when you’ve got a quarterback, you’ve got a chance to win against anyone. So, I think the league is very competitive and anything can happen any week, so you better show up and be ready.”

Clemson (5-0, 3-0 ACC) is set to take on Boston College (2-3, 1-2) on Saturday in Chestnut Hill, Mass. The game is scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m. on ABC.

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