Dabo Swinney on Texas: “They’re good enough to win the whole thing”

The No. 5 Texas Longhorns will host the No. 12 Clemson Tigers at Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday, December 21. The matchup will be the first College Football Playoff (CFP) game in history held in Austin, with kickoff taking place at 3:00 pm (CST). Texas is making its second consecutive appearance in the CFP and is in search of its first national championship since the 2005 season.

It is hard to believe that in the storied history of these two programs, Clemson and Texas have never met on the football field. Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney described the upcoming first round CFP game in Austin as “magical and historic.”

Swinney, who has held the head coaching position at Clemson for 15 years, met with the media to share his thoughts on his team playing the Longhorns in the CFP, Cade Klubnik’s return to Austin and more.

Dabo Swinney on playing Texas in the College Football Playoff

“I went out to Austin when I got the job at Clemson in February of ‘09 and I spent, you know, two or three days with with Coach Mack Brown and and that was very impactful for me and but I’ve only been in one game at that stadium, and that was to see Cade Klubnik play in a playoff game. And ironically, visited with Coach Sark. We stood down in the end zone there. But so what an opportunity, I mean, what a magical, historic place to go play a football game. I’ve never played Texas. I’ve never been to, you know, obviously, played in that stadium or anything. So I’m super excited about it. And what a great experience, you know, for our guys to compete against, you know, one of the best teams in the country, if not the best team in the country. They’ve had a great year. Sark’s done an amazing job. So we’re really excited about it, and you know look forward to the preparation process, and great matchup out there and again just thankful to have the opportunity to go compete, you know, at the at the highest level.”

Dabo Swinney on former Clemson DB and current DB Andrew Mukuba

“He was a very unique situation, you know, I never met Mukuba, ever, until the day he showed up on campus. You know, that was all the COVID and all that, you know, never was able to go see him. He was never able to visit campus, but he wanted to come to Clemson. And, you know, just, I just loved his spirit and loved his heart, and, you know, he was just a really neat kid. That whole time was one of the strangest times of my life. Because, you know, recruiting is a very personal thing. You get people come to campus and you go there, literally, the first time I ever met him was when he got dropped off, and we had, everybody had to have the COVID protocols in place, because that’s when he came in. And, man, Andrew was a great player for us. He did everything that was asked of him. He worked his butt off here. And, you know, certainly, you know, wishing had, we’ve been able to finish here. But listen, you know, these guys, I mean, there’s, he did everything that was asked to him at Clemson, and he gave a lot to this program and made a bunch of big plays. I’m happy for him. You know, he had the opportunity when he wanted something a change. And it was an opportunity for him to go back home and and he’s had a great year, he’s an outstanding football player.”

Dabo Swinney on what stands out about this year’s Texas team

“I haven’t even had a chance to put my eyes on them, other than just, you know, what I’ve seen, you know, like everybody else on tv and stuff. But, I mean, they were final four team last year so, and now they’re back in the playoffs. I think, I think Sark’s done an amazing job. He’s recruited, I mean, they got a great roster, a very, very talented roster. They got elite quarterback play, explosive players outside. I mean, this is a complete football team in every every sense of the word. So they’re good enough to win the whole thing, and we’ll have our hands full for sure, but excited to go compete.”

Dabo Swinney on Cade Klubnik returning to his hometown of Austin to face the Longhorns and Quinn Ewers

“It’s amazing, you know, because there are a lot of storylines. He’s obviously from Austin, went to Westlake there and, you know, one of the best quarterbacks to come out of the state of Texas. But also him and Quinn, you know, had went head to head a lot in in high school. So it’s just a really, you know, that’s, it’s all about the game, but that’s just kind of a cool storyline for our quarterback. You know, you just never know how things are going to work out in this crazy game of college football for him to be going to his first playoff. Because we didn’t make it in 22 we won the league, but we didn’t make it, and then last year we didn’t make it. So his first playoff and his first playoff game in Austin, Texas, where he grew up, is you know you can’t make that up. So pretty cool, pretty cool for, you know, opportunity for him and his family.