Two head coaches of top-five programs held dueling Zoom media sessions some 500 miles apart on Oct. 24, each of their teams fresh off hanging 40-plus points on inferior opponents.
In Pittsburgh, Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly shoved aside clichés about one week at a time and leaned into the importance of an upcoming game.
“We’re interested in being a championship football team, and just playing to win games is not good enough anymore,” Kelly said following a 45-3 beatdown of Pitt.
Meanwhile, in Clemson, S.C., Dabo Swinney pushed back after his team’s 47-21 victory over Syracuse, one in which Clemson took a 17-0 lead, saw it shrink to six points — and then received some inquiries on what went wrong and why his team was not more dominant.
“I want to make sure I’m at the right press conference here,” Swinney said, with a hint of incredulity. “We did win the game, I think. I want to make sure I’m at the right spot. Am I in the right spot? OK. I think we won the game.”
He echoed Kelly’s stance the week before, when Kelly’s postgame outlook on an uninspiring 12-7 win over Louisville was, “Winning is hard.”
His version: “It’s not easy to win.”
It was indeed harder in the most recent game, when Clemson beat Boston College 34-28 on Oct. 31 without quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who tested positive for COVID-19 three days earlier. The junior won’t play in his team’s biggest regular-season game either. But with presumed successor and five-star freshman D.J. Uiagalelei at the helm in his place, victory is still reachable.
