Everything Clemson Tigers' Dabo Swinney Said About Texas Longhorns

AUSTIN -- Following the announcement of the new 12-team College Football Playoff bracket schedule on Sunday, the No. 5-seeded Texas Longhorns are set to meet a fresh competitor and the No. 12-seeded Clemson Tigers on Dec. 21. Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney addressed the media that same day, previewing the matchup itself and the various connections that this opportunity presents for both teams.

Here are some key notes that Swinney touched on ahead of his team's first round against Texas:

On what stands out about this year's Texas team:

"I haven't even had my chance to put my eyes on them other than just what I've seen like everyone else, on TV, but they were a final four team last year, and now they're back in the playoffs, so I think Sark's done an amazing job. They've got a great roster, a very, very talented roster. They've got elite quarterback play [and] explosive players outside. This is a complete football team in every sense of the word. They're good enough to win the whole thing, and we'll have our hands full, for sure, but [we're] excited to go compete."

On Clemson to Texas transfer safety Andrew Mukuba:

"Man, I love Mukuba. He was a very unique situation. I never met Mukuba ever until the day he showed up on campus. That was [during] all the COVID [and so] I was never able to go see him, he was never able to visit campus, but he wanted to come to Clemson. I just loved his spirit and I loved his heart and he was just a really neat kid. Andrew was a great player for us, he did everything that was asked of him, he worked his butt off here. [We] certainly wish he'd been able to finish here, but listen, he did everything that was asked of him at Clemson, and he gave a lot to this program and made a bunch of big plays. I'm happy for him. He wanted some change, and it was an opportunity for him to go back home. He's had a great year, he's an outstanding football player."

On Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik returning to Austin and reuniting with Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers:

"When Texas came up, it was just kind of like, 'Oh, this is amazing,' because there's a lot of storylines, [Klubnik] is obviously from Austin, went to Westlake there, and [he's] one of the best quarterbacks to come out of the state of Texas. But also him and Quinn went head-to-head a lot in high school. It's all about the game but that's just kind of a cool storyline for our quarterback. You just never know how things are going to work out in this crazy game of college football. For him to be going to his first playoff, because we didn't make it in '22, we won the league, but didn't make it, and then last year we didn't make it, so [having] his first playoff game in Austin, Texas, where he grew up, you can't make that up."

On his visit to Austin to meet former Texas head coach Mack Brown:

"That trip was life-changing for me. I got the job as an interim here in the middle of the season in '08 and then got the job of Dec. 1 of '08, and now you're putting your staff together and we signed our first class, we signed 12 guys. I was just looking to go learn, I didn't know much about being a head coach other than what I had done as an interim. I actually called around to a lot of coaches and the only guy that would let me come visit was Mack Brown. He spent several hours with me one-on-one, and I had a lot of questions, some of it was just confirmation on things, and then a lot of it, I couldn't even get out of my mouth, he could read my mind [and] he had the answer. That time with Mack Brown was transformational for me as a young coach."

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