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Scrimmage Report: Swinney Pleased With Clemson's Run Game

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said after the Tigers scrimmaged on Friday that while pleased with the progress the team is making, the Tigers still have a lot of work to do between now and the season opener in September against Georgia.

The Clemson Tigers held another scrimmage on Friday afternoon inside Death Valley, and head coach Dabo Swinney was thoroughly impressed with how his offense was able to run the ball.

"Lot of great things today, I loved how we ran the football," Swinney said. "Super impressed with our running backs, a lot of big plays."

The Tigers' head coach said he was a little disappointed with his team's inability to stop the run, but at the same time said there were a lot of other things to like about how the team performed on that side of the ball.

"Did not think our mindset defensively was where it needed to be as for stopping the run," Swinney said. "Then the defense I thought they, they kind of flipped the script and created some turnovers in the red zone. They created a safety coming off the goal-line. We had some turnovers, a couple of interceptions, a fumble recovery, but then it was a lot of big plays offensively. It was one of those days."

While pleased with the teams effort, Swinney the Tigers are still currently making to many mental mistakes

"Very thorough practice, effort was good, but you know we got a long way to go to," Swinney said. "We'd have gotten smashed today with the mistakes. Too many critical penalties, missed tackles, had some bad mistakes in the red zone with some details of what we've got to do in those situational things. Turned it over, just lots and lots of mistakes. Our defense lines up offside, so it gives them life and they go win the game. So some costly mistakes on both sides."

Overall, Swinney said he was pleased with the progress the Tigers are making. However, he said his team still has a lot of work to do between now and the season opener.

"We got a lot of work to do," Swinney said. "We'll grade this, coach 'em up, thank goodness we don't play today. But I think that, you know, if we can learn from what we've put on tape the spring carry our plan out and we have post-spring and into the summer, we've got a chance to be a good football team."