Wednesday night notes: Swinney says Williams and Wiggins are improving

Antonio Williams is improving every day.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Oct 04 18:46:57 GMT-04:00 2023

Nothing new on the injury front as Clemson prepares to take on Wake Forest on Homecoming.

Clemson (3-2, 1-2), a 21-point favorite, plays host to Wake Forest (3-1, 0-1) on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. on the ACC Network.

Head coach Dabo Swinney held his weekly post-practice Wednesday press conference and said nothing was new with starting wide receiver Antonio Williams and Nate Wiggins, who each missed last week with injury.

“Better. They are better,” Swinney said. “They are day-to-day with their type of injuries but improving every day.”

*Says Peter Woods is settling in and getting experience. “He’s a load, man. He has learned to take on these double teams. He is learning a lot.”

*Says they are happy with DeMonte Capehart. “He is a big, big body. His understanding of the game is at an all-time high, and he’s healthy, and he’s learned to take care of his body, and it’s showing on gameday. I am really proud of him.”

*On transfer portal window change, Swinney says it’s good for the coaches across college football.

*On Jeadyn Lukus last week. “He did fine. He didn’t give up any big plays. He needs to improve his hands, and his footwork broke down a couple of times. He did a good job of leveraging the sideline pretty much the entire game. He is a developing guy and super talented.”

*On the recruiting process with Khalil Barnes. “Coach (Mickey) Conn did a great job. Early on he wasn’t sure if he wanted to play DB or receiver. I think Notre Dame offered him as a receiver. He’s a passionate kid, very savvy, very mature, and already a leader on the team.”

*On Trent Howard. “He didn’t do anything to not earn more playing time. He is long, and he does a good job of playing with his length and he’s athletic and gives us some diversity up front and held his own.”

*He says his team has improved weekly, and they respond. You have to handle failure in order to be great, and it was good to see his team bounce back after the “gut-wrenching” loss to FSU. Said both losses are games they dominated statistically, but they lost. The reason Clemson has been successful for a long time is they’ve had well-managed failure and success.

*Someone wanted me to ask if he would consider using the new rule that allows the running back to push the quarterback in a short-yardage situation, and Swinney said they’ve done it twice. Once Will Shipley pushed Cade Klubnik, and once Sage Ennis did it. “We’ve already done it. Twice.”