Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney secured his sixth consecutive win with a 48-31 victory over Virginia on Saturday. During the post-game press conference, Swinney was asked why he kept starters in late in the fourth quarter despite holding a comfortable lead.
Swinney explained his reasoning, noting that Virginia didn’t ease up when Clemson’s backups entered the game. “I’m trying to call the dogs out, but that’s what I told those guys: When we put the subs in, they don’t call a timeout and say, ‘Oh, they put the backups in, let’s put our backups in.’ They don’t do that. It doesn’t work that way,” Swinney said. He added that Virginia’s uptempo offense forced him to respond. “They score on those guys, and then they onside it. It’s a two-score game, so I’m like, all right, we’re going to go score again, and so we did.”
Clemson extended the lead with a 34-yard touchdown from Cade Klubnik to TJ Moore, only for Virginia to answer quickly with a 65-yard touchdown. Swinney then reflected on how Virginia’s late surge challenged some of Clemson’s younger players, like cornerback Branden Strozier. “They go right at one (Strozier). But hey, Strozier has got to get better. He’s a talented kid, and he hasn’t played a lot, so you have to learn from it.” Swinney acknowledged Virginia’s effort, tipping his hat to Tony Elliott for keeping his team aggressive. “I tried to call the dogs off, but he wouldn’t let me.”