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PLAYSTATION FIESTA BOWL: OHIO STATE VS CLEMSON

December 29, 2016

Jay Guillermo

Glendale, Arizona

JAY GUILLERMO: I tell you that, he stepped in and done such a good job at being able to learn the system. He came in early, in January, and just dove right into it. I mean, I remember coming in and him asking me to watch film like the first week he was there.

And that's just the kind of person he is. That's why he's been successful because he works hard. He cares about it. Cares about the game, and just so locked in. Not normal as a freshman.

And you've got another guy like Tremayne Anchrum who, he's had to play a lot. He played the entire Pitt game. And just came in, does a really good job and it just shows also their work ethic, the kind of guys we recruit and how good of a job Coach Caldwell does with these young guys. You had Mitch last year, Jake Fruhmorgen playing a little bit last year, and then have those guys come in and there not be a drop-off has just been phenomenal. It's been unbelievable.

And once again I just remember where I was as a freshman. And I could not be in the spot they were in. Those guys have handled it so well. And just really appreciative of them.

Me being a senior, kind of on the other side of the spectrum. And it's just been so appreciative of those guys.

Q. You being a senior and being around last year, you made the playoffs, made the title game, you didn't win but you made the title game. This season, though, you guys have had some games where, some really close games, NC State comes to mind and that type of stuff. I'm sure your fans were kind of concerned about you not winning by enough. Curious, Ohio State dealt with the same thing last year -- they had all that talent. You had a whole bunch of talent. What's that been like for you?
JAY GUILLERMO: I mean, obviously you read it in the papers and the media and everything. But I mean we can only control what we can control. I mean, we can't control what anyone says, what any fan says, what anyone writes. We just control what we can control. And just go out and play our hardest.

It's not easy to win football games. I mean just ask all these teams that projected in the top 10, top 25 of the start of the season, half of them aren't even there anymore. And that's just how it is -- big time college football.

Winning is not easy anyway. Whenever you get up here, once again where the air's thin and everyone's good, everyone's on scholarship, and it's hard to win.

And so it's us as a team it's not like we've come out of the game and going, man, we only won by six points, we barely got by. No we're in there celebrating just like if we win by 50 points.

Q. The way you say that sounds like Ohio State last year, just like Ohio State. The guys were saying they won by seven. People were like why didn't you win by 25.
JAY GUILLERMO: Exactly, it doesn't matter. A win is a win. Coach Swinney made a really good analogy during the season. He said you know if you're going and you're playing golf and you're on hole 3 and you hit it, knocks off a tree, goes, gets on the green, you putt it in, it's not going to say, oh, hey, you knocked it off the tree, you know, screwed up, you missed your first putt. No. It's going to say you hit par. That's where we're at.

We've hit par. And I mean we've done a really good job at controlling our adversity, really taking the adversity that we've had during the season, because obviously adversity is inevitable in anything you do, and especially in football.

It's not always going to go your way and it's the way we've responded since week one has been so great.

Once again, it goes back to the leadership of our team. Not just even with the seniors, but the younger guys. Our younger guys are so locked in and do such a good job of just taking leadership and dishing it out too.

Q. Talk about the senior class, helped change the culture of Clemson. I know you're being focused on the game but what's been the past couple years been for you guys?
JAY GUILLERMO: It's not just these seniors, but it's the guys that aren't even with us on this team now. It's guys like Tajh Boyd, Sammy Watkins, DeAndre Hopkins, Dalton Freeman, Brandon Thomas, I mean, the list goes on and on.

I mean even going back to Thomas Austin, who's one of our GA's now, graduated in like '09. Those guys set the foundation for what we're able to do today. And we wouldn't be where we are without those guys and the hard work that they put in.

And to be able to see where we've come, where we said, man, we want to be a top 25 team. And, man, we want to be a top 15; man, we want to be top 10; man, we want to be top 5. Now we want to be the team.

And it's in our sights. And we just gotta go finish.

Q. (Indiscernible) is from our area. What is it to see from him in him?
JAY GUILLERMO: John, another talented guy. He's gotta work a little bit on his technique. He's a freshman. But learn the game of football, but he's a physical specimen. He's a freak.

He's got up to, like, 325 pounds and looks like he weighs 295. It's freakish. But once again another work-hard guy. Comes to work every day, doesn't complain. Off the field he does what he's supposed to do. And you know for, once again, these guys as freshmen, just getting into college.

John didn't come in early. But him to get installed what he did over the summer and to be able to go out and play. He came in and played in big situations. It's been huge.

And just adds depth. Gets those guys experience. To be able to go in and play against Pitt, he's played against Boston College, several other big games, you can't put a price on it. Because you build on those experiences and you learn through experience.

And once again just handled it really well.

Q. How much does motivation matter versus execution?
JAY GUILLERMO: Well, you always gotta be motivated. If you're not motivated to do something you're not going to execute very well. So, I mean, motivation is a big key. But whenever it comes down to it, if you're not executing, nothing matters. You can be as motivated through the roof. But if you're blowing assignments, not executing your plays, it don't matter.

Q. But for all the attention paid to the words that coaches used, that other players use, what weight or meaning do the words have?
JAY GUILLERMO: And I think they got a little bit of meaning because I've seen a few things where throughout the season people have called out our offensive line, other opponents have said maybe we're finesse and stuff like that. We take it to heart.

Because we worked so hard. We put so much into it. We do what we feel like we need to do. And to hear someone call you out it's kind of like a smack in the face. So to be able to go out and to get that little piece of motivation and be able to execute, it just brings that little more edge, that little bit bigger chip on your shoulder.

Q. How much does what a coach says the night before or the day of matter?
JAY GUILLERMO: It matters. You know, we go and we go to the movies, let our hair down a little bit, but we come back and Coach Swinney, has his meeting before we go for curfew. And that's just like that last little lock-in.

And Coach Swinney, everyone knows he's such a great motivator. And he just knows what to say to get you locked in, to get you focused, and really to make it where you know this is the biggest game.

And it's funny because he doesn't do it only for whenever we play teams like this or like Louisville or anything like that. He does it with South Carolina State, he does it whenever we play Troy. Like I was saying to some people yesterday that's what's made us so successful and what's made us so consistent over the past few years.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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