Swinney says Tigers are healthy in big challenge against Georgia (2024)

CLEMSON – It’s finally game week, and head coach Dabo Swinney knows the tall task ahead for his Tigers.

No. 14 Clemson and No. 1 Georgia kick off the season Saturday at noon (ABC) in the Aflac Kickoff Game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Swinney met with the media Tuesday morning to discuss the contest and said everyone is ready to finally play a game.

“I know everybody's excited, just like we are, that it's game week and get a chance to get back into game mode around here, but everybody's ready to kick it off,” Swinney said. “Excited to see our guys go play and compete, see where we are and see where we go from there. But it's been a good camp. We had good preparation. I think we've got a committed team. I've enjoyed these last several weeks just being with these guys, the leadership, their attitude, again, the work ethic, it's, it's been a lot of fun to prepare. For the most part, we're a pretty healthy team, which is a real positive for us coming out of camp. I'm excited about that and just got one goal, and that's to find a way to achieve our first goal. That's really what we're trying to go down to Atlanta and do.

“And certainly going to be a huge challenge in playing a game like this. This is usually, you only get opportunities like this in the postseason, in the playoffs, in a national championship, but this just happened to be on our schedule. So, it's a great opportunity to play the best team in the country right out of the gate and that's what they are. If anybody doesn’t think they're the best team in the country, then they probably haven’t paid much attention. These guys are really, really good. Kirby has done a tremendous job down there and they got a lot of guys back starting on the offensive side. You have a Heisman quarterback (Carson Beck), he's a very, very good football player. They've lost two games in three years and part of that is they're a very, very physical football team on both sides of the ball.”

Swinney said the Tigers have to stop Beck.

“You have to be able to match that and then by nature of scheme, you have to win competitive plays. I think that's a big thing in a game like this, but starting with the quarterback,” Swinney said. “He's just a very good player and the kid, he's accurate, he's opportunistic with his legs, he really understands their scheme. They do a great job in really making you play assignment football with how they formation in motion and mix the inside zone game with their run game and their counter game in multiple ways that they do that with the play actions and screens built into it. And they have dudes that can make plays down the field. But I think Carson is accurate. I think he's a great vertical thrower, so just puts a lot of pressure on you. And then offensive line there, there's probably none better in the country.”

Swinney said the Tigers can’t miss tackles – an issue in last year’s opener at Duke – and expect to beat the Bulldogs.

“Tackling is always at a premium, but against a bunch like this, by nature of who their blockers are and their backs, tackling will be critical in this game,” Swinney said. “They lost some skill, but like I said, they have all kinds of guys that are there and have already made plays for them. And a couple new guys that maybe haven't made plays at Georgia yet, but they've made plays where they came from or heard some good reviews on a couple of the high school kids that have come in there as well.”

The Tigers will change their usual game week preparation only slightly.

“You try to create the game week routine this week, but it's different. It'll be a different week next week when you truly have five days to get ready for a new opponent,” Swinney said. “You've had a lot of time to get ready for these guys. You have to be smart in how you get them ready. Monday is similar, Tuesday, Wednesdays are tough practices, but with this particular week, again, you have this type of emphasis and you get the things you need to get done, but not quite as long as practice would be next week.”

Swinney said the Tigers are healthy when he was asked about cornerbacks Jeadyn Lukus and Shelton Lewis.

“Everybody's right now ready to play. Everybody's good to go,” Swinney said. “Good to go until you hear otherwise. Everybody's day to day.”