Opening statements: Thank you guys for hanging around. It’s an awesome win for our program, getting on the road. Three straight conference road games for us. Started really, really fast and put a lot of pressure on them. Could have started a little bit faster, cost ourselves with an emotion penalty that could have put us in real command of the game, but overcame a lot of injuries. Defense really became physical, particularly in the second half. Only allowed six points in the first half, missed a lot of big plays in the second half that led to their touchdown. But I felt we really put a lot of pressure on their quarterback, knocked around the running game, and then I think we had to, the first half play count was 25 Miami, 47 Clemson, and then we flipped the script on that. And this was good because four years ago we came here when we had just got to Miami, with a roster that wasn't what it was supposed to be, and we got our faces kicked in. So it was good to come out today and play good football and to give ourselves a chance to control our own destiny. Questions, please?
On facing injuries this season: We had a lot of guys go down. It's an awful year for that for us, unfortunately. Keep our guys in your prayers. Hopefully they'll heal up and be in a good spot. But the resiliency of our team continued to show up, not only in the form of that, but in the guys that had to step up and just kept going. And so it's a great trademark to have as a team as you enter the middle of the season, and certainly we'll look at the tape and learn a lot from it, but I'm extremely proud of the way that these guys just continue to battle and fight when so many guys went down. There were several true freshmen in the game at several points.
On Miami’s win over Clemson, the team’s ability to improve on the road and the positive steps the Hurricanes continue to make: Honestly, all it means is we're 1-0 for the week. And I think that you really kick yourself in the butt because you could go up 24-3 at halftime. You can't give those away, not down the stretch. I think they're an excellent football team. They have at least three first-round potential picks and another nine draftable guys. That's a really talented roster. They've been playing really good football. Coach Swinney does an excellent job. That atmosphere was incredible. So I think just again being on the road for three weeks, continuing to improve our play in all areas, see a couple O-linemen go down and still rush for about 200 yards, protect the quarterback pretty well. They got a really good pass rush. A lot of positive steps and a lot of opportunity for growth as well.
On Marquise Lightfoot going down with an injury and his status: We won't know until Tuesday, Wednesday, something like that. We'll go back and evaluate and see where he's at.
On running the ball to ice the game: Well, I just think as time has gone on when you assess O-line play we view it for what it is, and we measure progress, the metrics that we have for that are very tangible and concrete. Our O-line has been getting better and better and better, and there came a point in time where let's put the game on your backs and let's see what happens. And they did against a team that's been playing, I think they didn't allow a touchdown for 20 drives prior to our game. And the O-line just kept pounding away, pounding away, pounding away, and then did it there again at the end. So really proud of those guys.
On Miami’s pass rush: I think we were resilient and relentless. I think that our matchups and our continued work at technique and fundamentals and the way we practice showed up. I do. I think GreenTree showed up out here tonight. We don't do special video. Maybe our social media team does, but we really work hard at this stuff, and that stuff is starting to show up in the way that we want it to, in a humble, quiet, let's get better and just shut our mouths kind of way. And so I just want to continue to get more physical. We want to be more durable, obviously, but you can't control that sometimes. But the continued experience gained by our freshmen, due to circumstances, it's going to pay off and it paid off tonight. It paid off J.J. Dunnigan, right? J.J. was banging them coming into this week. Runs out there, ten men on the field, gets out there right in time, covers a guy, returns it for a touchdown. So many things to be proud of, but, you know, we had a lot of opportunities at the quarterback, and we maybe did not sack him all the time, but we certainly made our presence felt. And I think the more we hit him, the more it affected him. And again, he's a great player, they got a great team, hats off to them, but really proud of the Miami Hurricanes.
On Darian Mensah performance: Oh yeah, I thought he had awesome numbers with both his arms and with his legs, commanding the offense, putting us in the correct run check, extending plays, made some awesome throws, got hit a few times as well. We had a shift that was called on that touchdown. Aside from that, we had one. I think Max jumped off, was illegal procedure they called him for. Aside from that, I don't think we had any pre-snap penalties. So I thought he had great command in a great environment. So I thought he was great.
On the bye week coming at a good time: Yeah, you know what? We’ll see what we have. It’s certainly welcome due to the fact that we are banged up. We just, we won't know the severity of some of these things until we get in there and see the docs and figure it all out. So, that’s the bittersweet part of it, right? But I know that group in there, they love winning, and they love supporting each other and they find a way. So they're looking forward to getting back to Miami and getting back to work on the next opponent.
On Miami’s depth and the coaching staff’s player development: We have no different depth than anybody else, and this staff doesn't get enough credit for player development. That's a flat-out truth. Everybody has, what, 85 to 105 scholarships. That's it. And that's what we have. And these guys have done a really good job of developing players, and it showed up tonight.
On the Clemson atmosphere, fan engagement and the respect shown by both fanbases: Yeah, it's different. It's different. The fan engagement is an awesome thing, as long as it's cordial. Like, as long as it's right. You don't want to, like, cross over that line where, let's call it what it is, the most abused constitutional right on the face of the earth is the First Amendment, the freedom of speech, right? Where people can spew blank out of their mouth, right? And this was very different. This was a very humbling experience. A lot of fans on both sides were out there, and they were cordial and supportive and welcoming and whatnot. So tremendous atmosphere. Hats off to the entire Clemson organization, and they're just a really first-class act.
On facing injuries this season: We had a lot of guys go down. It's an awful year for that for us, unfortunately. Keep our guys in your prayers. Hopefully they'll heal up and be in a good spot. But the resiliency of our team continued to show up, not only in the form of that, but in the guys that had to step up and just kept going. And so it's a great trademark to have as a team as you enter the middle of the season, and certainly we'll look at the tape and learn a lot from it, but I'm extremely proud of the way that these guys just continue to battle and fight when so many guys went down. There were several true freshmen in the game at several points.
On Miami’s win over Clemson, the team’s ability to improve on the road and the positive steps the Hurricanes continue to make: Honestly, all it means is we're 1-0 for the week. And I think that you really kick yourself in the butt because you could go up 24-3 at halftime. You can't give those away, not down the stretch. I think they're an excellent football team. They have at least three first-round potential picks and another nine draftable guys. That's a really talented roster. They've been playing really good football. Coach Swinney does an excellent job. That atmosphere was incredible. So I think just again being on the road for three weeks, continuing to improve our play in all areas, see a couple O-linemen go down and still rush for about 200 yards, protect the quarterback pretty well. They got a really good pass rush. A lot of positive steps and a lot of opportunity for growth as well.
On Marquise Lightfoot going down with an injury and his status: We won't know until Tuesday, Wednesday, something like that. We'll go back and evaluate and see where he's at.
On running the ball to ice the game: Well, I just think as time has gone on when you assess O-line play we view it for what it is, and we measure progress, the metrics that we have for that are very tangible and concrete. Our O-line has been getting better and better and better, and there came a point in time where let's put the game on your backs and let's see what happens. And they did against a team that's been playing, I think they didn't allow a touchdown for 20 drives prior to our game. And the O-line just kept pounding away, pounding away, pounding away, and then did it there again at the end. So really proud of those guys.
On Miami’s pass rush: I think we were resilient and relentless. I think that our matchups and our continued work at technique and fundamentals and the way we practice showed up. I do. I think GreenTree showed up out here tonight. We don't do special video. Maybe our social media team does, but we really work hard at this stuff, and that stuff is starting to show up in the way that we want it to, in a humble, quiet, let's get better and just shut our mouths kind of way. And so I just want to continue to get more physical. We want to be more durable, obviously, but you can't control that sometimes. But the continued experience gained by our freshmen, due to circumstances, it's going to pay off and it paid off tonight. It paid off J.J. Dunnigan, right? J.J. was banging them coming into this week. Runs out there, ten men on the field, gets out there right in time, covers a guy, returns it for a touchdown. So many things to be proud of, but, you know, we had a lot of opportunities at the quarterback, and we maybe did not sack him all the time, but we certainly made our presence felt. And I think the more we hit him, the more it affected him. And again, he's a great player, they got a great team, hats off to them, but really proud of the Miami Hurricanes.
On Darian Mensah performance: Oh yeah, I thought he had awesome numbers with both his arms and with his legs, commanding the offense, putting us in the correct run check, extending plays, made some awesome throws, got hit a few times as well. We had a shift that was called on that touchdown. Aside from that, we had one. I think Max jumped off, was illegal procedure they called him for. Aside from that, I don't think we had any pre-snap penalties. So I thought he had great command in a great environment. So I thought he was great.
On the bye week coming at a good time: Yeah, you know what? We’ll see what we have. It’s certainly welcome due to the fact that we are banged up. We just, we won't know the severity of some of these things until we get in there and see the docs and figure it all out. So, that’s the bittersweet part of it, right? But I know that group in there, they love winning, and they love supporting each other and they find a way. So they're looking forward to getting back to Miami and getting back to work on the next opponent.
On Miami’s depth and the coaching staff’s player development: We have no different depth than anybody else, and this staff doesn't get enough credit for player development. That's a flat-out truth. Everybody has, what, 85 to 105 scholarships. That's it. And that's what we have. And these guys have done a really good job of developing players, and it showed up tonight.
On the Clemson atmosphere, fan engagement and the respect shown by both fanbases: Yeah, it's different. It's different. The fan engagement is an awesome thing, as long as it's cordial. Like, as long as it's right. You don't want to, like, cross over that line where, let's call it what it is, the most abused constitutional right on the face of the earth is the First Amendment, the freedom of speech, right? Where people can spew blank out of their mouth, right? And this was very different. This was a very humbling experience. A lot of fans on both sides were out there, and they were cordial and supportive and welcoming and whatnot. So tremendous atmosphere. Hats off to the entire Clemson organization, and they're just a really first-class act.
