Missing ingredients?

The most discussed portion of Dabo Swinney's press conference yesterday was his identification of the "5 percent" crowd.

It's the group that, upon adversity, is inclined to "turn and run and quit and cry and fire the coach and fire this guy and fire this player and all that stuff."

But the most interesting part, in my opinion, was Swinney's assessment of what is ailing this program right now.

This team is 4-4 overall and 2-3 in the ACC. This is not where Swinney anticipated being in his second full season, not even close.

Swinney, who took over a program that didn't need a vast overhaul, has talked about the "culture change" that's been difficult to impose. Before yesterday, he hadn't talked in specifics about what this culture change entails, but I surmised recently that he was trying to infuse this program with the mentality to push through and make the plays it hasn't been making in close games.

(Under Swinney, the Tigers are 2-9 in games decided by a touchdown or less. Dating to 2005, this program has lost 20 of 27 games decided by a touchdown or less.)

Here's what he said yesterday:

“I’ve been a head coach here two years and one month from yesterday. Last year was a different deal. We had some intangibles we don’t quite have now but I think we’re addressing."

Swinney was asked the obvious follow-up: What kind of intangibles?

"We’re missing some of our skill guys, obviously. We only start four seniors on this team. Three on defense, one on offense. There are some things there that we’ve got to continue to grow to. But I’m very confident with what we have on this team. Confident in what we’ve redshirted on this team, and I’m extremely confident in what we have coming in here and how we’re doing things."

Clearly, losing C.J. Spiller and Jacoby Ford hurts in a huge way. We knew that entering 2010. I said over and over again during the offseason that we'd learn much more about Swinney and Billy Napier as offensive tacticians in Year 2 than in Year 1, when they wouldn't have the most talented player in college football at their disposal.

But the reference to the lack of senior leadership was the most interesting observation. Even though this team does have just five seniors in its starting lineup this season (Chris Hairston, Jarvis Jenkins, Marcus Gilchrist, DeAndre McDaniel and Byron Maxwell), I don't consider this a young team.

Even though this team doesn't have a strong senior presence, it has 14 juniors on its two-deep. Nine of those juniors start.

But if there is a void of senior leadership, we must turn to the recruiting classes of 2006 and 2007 to identify the reasons behind that void. Those are the guys who, at this point, would be fifth-year seniors or fourth-year seniors.

From the 2006 class, five guys ended up not completing their eligibility for whatever reason:

DT Jamie Cumbie
DB Darius Gaither
WR Kendrick Johnson
OL Jamal Medlin
WR Jeff Ogren

And here are the guys from the 2007 class:

DL Byron Clear
LB Scotty Cooper
LB Stanley Hunter
WR Markish Jones
QB Willy Korn
TE Brian Linthicum
OL Wilson Norris

That's not a tremendously high percentage of players who didn't make it through. But when you combine that with some of the current players from those classes who have not consistently proven themselves worthy of starting roles, there's definitely a void there.

WR Brandon Clear
WR Xavier Dye
WR Terrance Ashe (walk-on)
TE Drew Traylor
PK Richard Jackson

The biggest weaknesses on this team, as everyone knows, have been receiver and linebacker.

Dye, Clear and Ashe flopped earlier this season when the staff thought they'd flourish. Hard to get leadership from guys who are dropping passes, missing blocks and drawing penalties. That hurts.

The linebacker position is glaringly inexperienced. Starter Quandon Christian is a redshirt freshman. Corico Hawkins is a sophomore. Tig Willard is a redshirt sophomore. From the 2006 and 2007 classes, Brandon Maye is the only guy who has made substantial contributions at linebacker. That hurts.

On to some Wednesday linkage...

I'm not a fan, but I'm pulling for Auburn and Oregon from here on out. The thought of those two in the BCS title game is just ecstasy.

Stewart Mandel says the Tigers and Ducks are testing the axiom that defense wins championships.

The other thing that's been striking about the Ducks is the balance they've displayed the past two weeks. Unlike Kelly's past teams, which leaned more heavily on the run, Oregon killed UCLA through the air two weeks ago. On Saturday, LaMichael James ran for 239 yards and three touchdowns while Darron Thomas threw for 288 yards and four touchdowns, three of them to go-to guy Jeff Maehl.

Auburn, for its part, made some strides to improve its own balance on Saturday. In recent weeks, Cam Newton and the Tigers have run, run and run some more against their opponents, and with good reason: Nobody could stop them. (They ran for 440 yards on LSU, for crying out loud!) Saturday night in Oxford, however, Newton only ran for -- brace for this -- 45 yards. No matter. He went 18-of-24 for 209 yards and two touchdowns and -- as if he hasn't shown off enough -- made a leaping 20-yard touchdown catch in the back of the end zone on a pass from Wildcat quarterback Kodi Burns.

Auburn put up its usual 572 yards in the rout.

"They were making [Newton] throw the football,'' said the Tigers' offensive guru, Gus Malzahn. "We've been saying all along we have other guys who can do a solid job, and they did that."

More on Oregon's insane offense from Doc Saturday.

Urban Meyer called it "mesmerizing" and "the evolution of the game right now." Tony Dungy waxed rhapsodic from the USC sideline about the Ducks' "mental conditioning." Jon Gruden has said he once mulledtaking a job in Eugene to learn the system. And the Wall Street Journal honed in last weekend on its most distinguishing mark: The tempo.

At N.C. State, talk of team-building.

At our sister Rivals site in Raleigh, R.J. Mattes talks about another matchup with Da'Quan Bowers.

"I know I have a big matchup on my hands," Mattes said. "He is a good player and I have my hands full. I've been watching a lot of film of him. He's obviously improved tremendously if he's going to be one of the top picks in the draft this year. He's a good speed outside rusher, and we have to get good sets and hands on him. If you do one false set or don't get your hands on him, he'll get to the quarterback."

And then:

"Going against Florida State is like going against one of the fastest teams in the country. You have two big matchups back-to-back. FSU is fast, and Clemson is fast and physical."

Finally, Miami's president apparently thinks Randy Shannon is doing just fine.

``He can't get away with winning five or six games,'' said a second Board of Trustee member. ``But if they win eight games every year, as long as the kids keep graduating and stay out of trouble, that's most important to Donna. He's got her full support.''

Now, for the reaction in Miami....

LW