Swinney gives his take on the talent gap between Clemson and UGA

During his Zoom conference call with the media on Sunday night, Dabo Swinney was asked what he thought about the talent gap between Clemson and Georgia after watching footage from Saturday’s game.

Despite the lopsided outcome of the 14^and-ranked Tigers’ 34-3 loss to the top-ranked Bulldogs, Swinney believes Clemson was “a good match” for Georgia talent-wise and is a bright spot after the season-opener loss in Atlanta.

“The scoreboard doesn’t show that,” the Clemson head coach said. “But we’ve had games where we’ve blown someone out. That doesn’t mean they didn’t have talent. Sometimes it can slip away, especially in the opening games.

“But we were very well-coordinated. That’s one of the positives. We were very physical. Again, it was just a few details that really killed us. In a game like that, you don’t have much room for error. I think that’s one of the things our guys will take away from this game – it’s good to see that.”

Saturday, Clemson suffered its third-worst loss under Swinney, marking the first time the Tigers have suffered a 30-point loss since 2013.

Swinney is happy his team got the chance to take on the nation’s number one team, but he’s disappointed the Tigers didn’t take that opportunity.

“Like I said going into the game, to get a shot at the No. 1 team in the country, you normally have to be in the playoffs and in the national championship to really get that kind of exposure and experience. But this one just happened to be on our schedule,” Swinney said. “So, great opportunity for our guys, and that’s the most disappointing part is we missed a great opportunity, didn’t take advantage of it. But again, there’s going to be more opportunities in the future.”

The Tigers hope to bounce back on Saturday with their home game against Appalachian State at Memorial Stadium (8 p.m., ACC Network).

Swinney is confident Saturday’s game against the Bulldogs will help his team move forward.

“It’s going to make us better. It’s going to help us develop and grow our team. I’m excited about that,” Swinney said.

“But that’s one of the positive things I saw – I thought we were evenly matched physically. We just have to take a good lesson from this tape and see if we can clean up some of the mistakes and details that can cost you dearly in a game like this.”

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