Swinney confident despite losses
Clemson must replace majority of offense
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dabo Swinney isn’t concerned about losing more than 77 percent of his team’s offensive production from last season’s national championship team.
Rather, Clemson’s 10th-year coach is brimming with confidence that the Tigers can replace quarterback DeShaun Watson and a host of other players and maintain the program’s success, which includes a 34-5 record over the last three seasons with two trips to the national title game.
“Everybody keeps wanting to talk about last year’s team and what we don’t have, but what I’m excited about is what we do have,” Swinney said.
Clemson will have to do more than just replace Watson, who over his last two seasons with the Tigers threw for 8,702 yards and 76 touchdowns and ran for 1,735 yards and 21 TDs.
The Tigers lost two other AllAmericans on offense — wide receiver Mike Williams and tight end Jordan Leggett. Wide receiver Artavis Scott, the school’s alltime leader in receptions, and 1,000-yard running back Wayne Gallman are also in the NFL.
Returning players for Clemson account for just 22.7 of the offense from last year’s team, which ranks 128th of the 130 teams that will compete at the FBS level.
SEC: In Hoover, Ala., coach Hugh Freeze delivered a 16-minute opening statement about his Mississippi team while pointing out he couldn’t talk specifics about a long-running NCAA investigation.
“I mean, we obviously have created it in and around our program,” Freeze said Thursday at Southeastern Conference media days. “The length of it, we can sit here and debate all of that. But you can’t. We’ve got to be responsible for the areas which we were deficient in, that we didn’t either react or act properly, or whether it was staff or whether it was boosters.”
The Rebels are facing 21 allegations that include academic, booster and recruiting misconduct and have self-imposed several sanctions, including a oneyear postseason ban.
NMSU: Defensive back Jaden Wright has been named to the 2017 Bronko Nagurski Trophy Watch List on Thursday the Football Writers Association of America and Charlotte Touchdown Club announced. The award goes to the nation’s best defensive player.
Wright finished 2016 fifth on the team with 81 tackles (32 solo) and a team-high four forced fumbles to go with his one fumble recovery. The 6-foot, 212-pound senior from Lewisville, Texas, also led the team with five interceptions and recorded 2.5 tackles for loss.