Swinney May Be Coaching His Best Team Ever
The 2019 Clemson Tigers have done what many people expected them to do before the start of the season—finish the regular season undefeated.
For head coach Dabo Swinney, the reason for this teams success is two-fold. FIrst, they have the leadership required to be a special team. Second, their defense has been better than last year's squad.
"Well, I just think, just like last year, we have great leadership," Swinney said. "I mean, this is a defense that's playing the most consistent football of any group we've had. They're giving up 10 points a game. They've just been so consistent."
"I just think we're not giving up big plays," he added. "Last year we were about 70th in plays of 20 yards or more. This year we're third or fourth in the country, plays of 20 yards or more. We just don't give a lot of big plays up."
But even though the saying that, "offense sells tickets, defense wins championships" may hold some water, the fact is that you still have to score points to win games.
Which the Tigers have been doing at a historic rate.
"Offensively this is the most prolific offense we've had, scoring 45 a game. I mean, we're rushing the ball for 250 something a game," Swinney said. "The other big thing, this is the best turnover margin team I've had. We're plus 11 in the turnover margin. We're getting a lot of takeaways, we're doing a good job of taking care of the ball. I think we've had seven games in a row now we've won the margin, which is the first time since I've been a head coach to have that consistency.
"The flipside of it, we're explosive. We're playing very, very well up front. We're protecting our quarterback at the best level of any team I've coached. So it's just been fun."
The unique thing is this, even though this may be Swinney's best team he has ever coached at Clemson, he is doing so with arguably his youngest team in his tenure.
80 freshmen and sophomores make up the 2019 Tiger squad.
"I think the neat thing is not a lot of seniors, but the experience and leadership of those guys has been unbelievable," Swinney said. "The youth and the energy that has been a part of this team has been fun to coach.
"We're a young team. I think we played the most freshmen of anybody in the country. Our future is very bright. But it's been neat to see it come together, the chemistry, the buy-in, the selflessness of this group."
The mission now is to parlay their perfect regular season into a perfect postseason. If they accomplish that goal it will mean they will once again hoist a golden trophy as the best team in college football.
"Hopefully they'll be able to finish like we want them to." Swinney said. "Now you get into a new phase of the season here, new experience for them in the postseason. After 12 games, just a tremendous year by these guys."
