Swinney Begins Getting Ready for Gamecocks, Recaps Miami Win

Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers have reached the "season of its own," otherwise known as rivalry week with the South Carolina Gamecocks.

Coming off a 40-10 win over Miami, the Tigers turn their full attention to the state championship, Swinney said during his Sunday teleconference.

"It doesn't matter what your records are," said Swinney, who turned 53 on Sunday. "It doesn't matter if you're coming off of three big wins in a row or three big losses in a row. This is a game that you can just throw all that stuff out. It's all about this game and not what you've done throughout the year, not what you've done last year or whatever or what's coming after this. It's really all about how you play in these four quarters.

"It's a fun week to get ready for and a game that both teams are gonna put everything they got into finding a way to win."

The Tigers (10-1) host the Gamecocks on Saturday at noon, and South Carolina (7-4) is coming off an impressive 63-38 upset win over No. 5 Tennessee.

"I got to watch a good bit of it once I got home and man, they just played great," Swinney said. "The quarterback played outstanding, guys made plays. That's a tough place to go play. Momentum is a powerful thing in games like that. And they just really, really played a complete ball game in all facets. And then as they got going, they just kept pouring it on. Tennessee, just wasn't their night and you gotta give South Carolina all the credit for that. They just played a really, really complete game in all facets. You know, a lot of big plays and their quarterback was just outstanding."

Swinney also provided injury updates. He announced that starting left guard Marcus Tate will miss the South Carolina game and the remainder of the season with a knee injury that requires surgery. Also, receiver Beaux Collins remains day-to-day, so his status for the rivalry game is still unknown.

Here's what else Swinney had to say about the Gamecocks and his team's win over Miami:

On South Carolina QB Spencer Rattler

"I watched him when he was at Oklahoma. He's a highly-recruited guy and he moves around well. He's really good in the pocket and he can make every throw. He throws really well on the move also and you know just a really good football player and again that's why he was the starter at Oklahoma. So everything that you, you know like about a quarterback. I mean he's got a great arm and he's a competitive kid, so all those things jump off the screen when you watch."

On what he liked/disliked in the win over the Hurricanes

"Back-to-back games where we've had really good balance and high completion. You know throwing, catching and we had a couple of big drops but did a better job with penalties. Some of the pre-snap penalties have been you know hurting us but just really controlled the game, 27 first downs, 14-and-19 on third down, and 74% is incredible. In the red zone six times, scored 100%, five out of six touchdowns. I just thought (QB) DJ (Uiagalelei) did a great job, as did (LG) Mitchell (Mayes). You know, coming in, Mitchell did a really good job as well.

"A lot of good things in the game, for sure. And defensively, man, that was dominant. I mean, just an incredibly dominant performance, 98 total yards and only eight at the half. We just love the effort of the team and how they competed in all aspects of the game. We again controlled the line of scrimmage."

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