Swinney says UNC's Drake Maye is so good he makes the popcorn taste better

Swinney says the Tar Heels have one of the nation's most complete offenses.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Tue Nov 14 12:14:00 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Clemson’s defense is playing as well as anyone in the country but faces its toughest challenge to date when UNC brings one of the nation’s best offenses to town.

The Tigers play host to UNC quarterback Drake Maye and the Tar Heels at 3:30 pm Saturday (ESPN).

"Great opportunity again this week. November is here, and we are off to a good start. We have an opportunity to have a great finish,” head coach Dabo Swinney said during his weekly press conference. “This is another great team and an elite quarterback. He will play for a long time if the good Lord keeps him healthy. He is a great one, and they have a lot of good players, too. But he makes the coaches better, the fans better, and he makes the popcorn taste better. They have had a heck of a year there. Both teams will want the same thing. We were off to a good start last night (in practice).

"I love Mack Brown. He is a great friend. I have always had a tremendous amount of respect for him. His teams are always well-coached. They are third in the country in offense. They do a great job with all their schemes. You have a quarterback ... he's just back there having fun. He's got a lot of toys to play with. They have as good a back as we've seen. He's elite. Their tight end is a great player. No. 9 is a guy everyone talks about, but man, those other guys are good, too. They spread the ball out. It's pretty well distributed all across the board. A lot of screens. A well-coordinated deal. They only have eight turnovers all year. They have an experienced group up front, too. Trying to affect the quarterback is the biggest challenge.”

The defense is coached by former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik, who was also at Clemson in 1988-89.

"They're big up front on defense. They have some guys who are twitchy,” Swinney said. “All of their backers have a lot of experience. Now it's game 11, and a lot of these guys were new in the secondary as it relates to last year, but now they have a lot of experience.”

The game, the last home game of the season, also offers a chance to honor the seniors.

"It's a special day for us because it's Senior Day. It's a fun day to recognize and honor guys who chose to come to Clemson, but they also finished. To me, that is special. I have always valued the senior, especially today. Sometimes football works out the way you want it, sometimes it doesn't. It's not a game of longevity. Some of these guys graduated in three years. They've equipped themselves as men. To me that's a huge part of what college is all about.

"Most people have no concept of how hard it is to do what these guys have done. People just see you run down the hill in a uniform playing in front of a lot of people, but there is so much that goes into what they do ... a lot of pain, sacrifice and commitment over time. To see them finish this phase of their life is special. It's special for the parents, too."

Clemson defeated UNC 39-10 in last year’s ACC Championship, and Swinney talked about what worked for the defense against Maye last season.

"They had 26 first downs. Honestly we didn't do a great job. He was about 64-percent completion. We didn't do as good a job as the score indicated,” he said. “The difference was red zone. We had a blocked kick, three turnovers and stopped them on downs. We had 29 first downs against Duke but a bunch of turnovers, and we got beat. So we just took advantage of turnovers in that game.

"It was probably our best game offensively, very efficient. We were really good on third down in that game. That's it. It was kind of a bend, but don't break defensively. It wasn't a game that felt comfortable, honestly. We will have to be better this week, for sure. We have to defend better on the back seven. Our pass defense was the worst thing we did all of last year. They are a big play offense, so this will be a big challenge for us. Red zone will be a huge part of this game."