Bulletin board not needed: Swinney, Saban complimentary of each other

Published Jan. 5, 2016 11:16 a.m. ET

foxsports

You can throw out the bulletin board this week because it’s a safe bet that neither Clemson’s Dabo Swinney nor Alabama’s Nick Saban are going to provide any material for it leading into their national championship matchup on Jan. 11.

Swinney, a former Alabama football player and assistant coach, presides over the No. 1 Tigers (14-0) and exchanged praise with Nick Saban, the leader of the second-ranked Crimson Tide (13-1), during a teleconference on Monday.

Here is what Swinney had to say about Saban and Co. per Tigernet.com:

We're excited about getting back to work, and we know that we've got an incredible challenge with Alabama. We've got great respect for the University of Alabama and Coach Saban and their staff and what they represent. They certainly have been the standard in college football for a long, long time, but especially since Coach Saban has been there.

It's a great honor to be able to go and compete at the highest level with the team that represents the best. We know that we're going to have to have great preparation here and play very well to have a chance to win the game. But again, just proud of our team and our staff for the type of season that we've had. We look forward to a great game out in Arizona and traveling out there and competing one last time and hopefully playing our best four quarters.

Saban was equally impressed by the work of Swinney.

Via Tigernet.com:

Also like to congratulate Clemson on what they've accomplished in winning their conference and being in the National Championship game.

This is certainly going to be the most challenging game we've had to this point. Clearly Clemson is a team that is good in all facets of the game. Very, very good offensive team, great defensive team, play well on special teams, very well-coached. Dabo has done an outstanding job, and they have a lot of good players that are very well-coached that play very well.

I think as it should be, this is a game that two great teams are going to have a great opportunity to compete in, and it's something that we're certainly looking forward to and pleased that we've created the opportunity for ourselves to do that.