Tigers Not Changing their Plan

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has always said the Tigers prepare for every opponent the exact same way. Even with a bye week this week and the revenge-minded Cavaliers looming, the message does not change.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has always said the Tigers prepare for every opponent the exact same way. It doesn't matter whether they are prepping for a national title game, a conference championship, or a game against an FCS foe, the Tigers will take the same mentality to their practices.

After defeating an in-state foe, and FCS opponent, The Citadel, the Tigers head into their first of two bye weeks this season with the Virginia Cavaliers coming to Tiger Town Oct. 3 in a rematch of the 2019 ACC Championship.

Even with a bye week this week and the revenge-minded Cavaliers looming, the message does not change.

"Yeah, well, we won't prepare any different than we prepared for The Citadel," Swinney said. "To be honest with you, we just do what we do. We'll show up Monday ready, we met on Monday, we have a daily focus each day. The only difference is we do have a little extra time to get ready for Virginia, so we'll get a chance to see them play. We haven't seen them play yet. I think they play Duke next weekend, so we'll get a chance to see them play a game. But we do what we do. Really no different. We'll practice on Monday. Tuesday's always been a community-service-type day, but we're not going to be able to do that right now. So we're going to do a bit more team-oriented-type function. We'll practice Wednesday, we'll practice Thursday. Then we'll get Friday and Saturday off. We'll get back in here Sunday for testing and then it's game week again."

Swinney continued to say that his team will not use the bye week to look ahead to their game against one of the hottest teams in the ACC—the Miami Hurricanes, who appear to be the biggest challenger to the Tigers through the first two weeks of play.

"So again, the biggest difference is just a bit of time to prepare for Virginia," Swinney continued. "We won't worry — we won't even think about Miami. We're one (opponent) at a time here — one day at a time, literally. So but we'll take this extra time and, again, really spend some time developing our depth — correcting, teaching from this tape — and it's a great opportunity to kind of go over some things, slow some things back down, but again, get a head start on Virginia, get a chance to watch them next week. But as far as how we prepare, it's really not any different."

The only thing that is different this season is the unseen foe that every team is worried about—more than their next opponent—COVID-19 outbreaks, especially considering the Tigers will be on their own for part of their bye week.

"Just COVID," Swinney said. "Probably the same primary concern of every coach out there. We've done great. We've had no positives, I think, for a couple weeks now and we've got a lot of testing going on. You know, you wake up this morning — it's 5:30 in the morning, you get that text, 'Hey, all negative. Play ball. Let's go.' So that's probably the biggest thing is just guys continuing to do a great job. And they have. Our students have been around for a while now, so I'm really proud of 'em.

"So football stuff — no real concerns there. I think we've got a really good team. We've got a bunch of guys that care, we've got a great staff and, yeah, we've just got some young guys that we've got to develop, football-wise, but that's going to happen. That's what we do. But the biggest concern is just, hopefully, everybody continuing to be vigilant, keep their guard up and just keep their six-foot bubble everywhere they go. That's probably the main thing."