Belichick Praises Dabo Swinney Ahead of Clemson Matchup

North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick opened his press conference this week by emphasizing the challenge of preparing for Clemson in the Tar Heels’ first ACC game of the season.

• “Big week. Excited to get back on the field. Not that we weren’t on the field last week, but we’re really in direct competition in preparation for Clemson here,” Belichick said. “It’s exciting to have our first ACC game. Clemson has a great program. A ton of respect for Coach Swinney, his staff, players, the program they run there. I’ve had a lot of guys from Clemson through the years.”

• Belichick credited Clemson’s toughness and culture. “Those guys are tough, they love football. And they do it the right way, so a lot of respect for them. We’re excited to get going. I think we made some improvements last week that we needed to make and kind of reset a few things. So, hopefully that’ll show up this week, but it’s a good football team that we’re prepared for.”

Belichick Continued

• He also pointed to the Tigers’ experience despite their early setbacks. “They’ve lost a couple of tough games, but obviously, they have a lot of talent. Some very explosive players on both sides of the ball. And they’re a very experienced team as well. So they definitely know what they’re doing. Turnovers have hurt them in a couple of those losses, probably all of them.”

When asked how his interactions with Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney have helped him adjust to the ACC, Belichick reflected on his background as an NFL coach evaluating college players.

• “As an NFL head coach, talking to college coaches, whether they’re head coaches, or coordinators or whatever, a lot of it’s personnel based, people you’re thinking about drafting and how they would fit into your program and things like that.”

Belichick added that the ACC coaches’ meetings gave him a better chance to hear directly from Swinney. “

• At the ACC meetings in Jacksonville, we’re all there together. Dabo spoke a number of times about various issues and I can just tell from his comments and his opinions on certain things where he was coming from, what his beliefs are, what’s important to him and what his convictions are. Those were all pretty consistent with what I thought they would be, but to actually hear him articulate them and talk about things that he deals with as the head coach at that school… that in all honesty, I haven’t had enough experience at this level to appreciate—was very insightful for me.”

Belichick said his conversations with Swinney have also extended beyond formal meetings. “And we talked about some things outside of meetings and off camera and things like that, but he’s been very helpful with a couple things that I’ve asked about in general and I appreciate his openness and willingness to try to give me some advice that I’ve asked for.”

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