Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney spoke with reporters during his Tuesday weekly press conferencewhere he spoke about Tigers‘ upcoming showdown with Florida State Seminolesthe Clemson-FSU rivalry and injury updates for players such as Pierre Bois.
Woods, who missed Clemson’s last two games, is “close” to returning, Swinney said. “He’s here, so we’re hopeful. Today is a big day. Put the towels down today and tomorrow and like last week, we’ll see where he is,” Swinney added.
The star defensive tackle was injured on a chopped block in the first half of the Tigers’ 66-20 win over Appalachian State on Sept. 7.
Clemson finished September with a 40-14 defeat Stanford last Saturday and are starting the month of October on a three-game winning streak. The Tigers (3-1) have outscored their opponents by an average of 32 points since their season-opening loss to Georgia. Bulldogs and are ranked No. 14 in the rankings Survey of LBM coaches in the United States.
“I’m excited to go into October,” Swinney said in his opening remarks. “We had a good month here at home. It’s good for us, but we have to go on the road. I tell them all the time: good teams win at home, great teams win away .You’ve got to be able to perform when they’re not all cheering you on.
On that note, next up for the Tigers is a Florida State team that has been college football’s biggest disappointment. The Seminoles entered the year ranked in the top 10 in the preseason Top 25 polls and were voted favorites to repeat as ACC champions by conference media members in August.
With Saturday’s 42-16 loss to SMU, Florida State fell to 1-4. Swinney said the focus shouldn’t just be on FSU’s record and that people should give their opponents credit for being good teams in their own right.
“You look at some of these games and they’re there,” Swinney said of Florida State. “So you just have to keep playing. If you do that long enough, you’ll have a year down the road where… crazy things can happen. You just have to play the next game and keep going. I think everything the world is surprised by their record, but we also have to give credit to the other teams.
“They played some good teams. Let’s not just attack Florida State. How about we praise the other teams?”
Kick-off for Clemson vs. Florida State is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET Saturday at Doak Campbell Stadium. The game can be seen on ESPN.
Here’s everything Swinney said during Tuesday’s press conference.
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This article was originally published on Clemson Wire: Everything Dabo Swinney said before Clemson vs. Florida State showdown
