Behind Enemy Lines: Wofford Terriers

Today we take you behind the lines with an in-depth look at the Clemson Tigers' Week 9 opponent—the Wofford Terriers

Josh Conklin is entering his second season as head coach of the Wofford College football team.

In his first season at the helm, the Terriers won the Southern Conference Championship and reached the second round of the NCAA FCS Playoffs. In the first round of the playoffs, Wofford defeated Elon 19-7 at Gibbs Stadium. In the second round, the season came to an end with a 13-10 loss to #4 seed Kennesaw State. Conklin was one of only three first-year head coaches to lead his team to the playoffs and he was the only one to earn a victory.

But the challenge this week is the biggest one he has faced in his young coaching career.

"As a competitor, even as coaches, you want to go and compete against the best," Conklin said. "Coach Swinney is arguably one of the best head coaches in the country right now. Coach Venables down there, I’ve known him and he’s a great defensive coordinator. … As coaches you look at that.

"I know as players, they’re going to be excited to go. They’re excited to go match up against the best of the best. They understand that. They know who the Clemson Tigers are. They know who they are as players and as a program. They’ll be excited to go compete and lay it on the line for 60 minutes."

The Terriers on offense

The 2019 season marks Wade Lang’s 32nd year at his alma mater and 30th as offensive coordinator running the triple option.

Wofford has finished either first or second in the Southern Conference in rushing in 20 of the past 22 years and the Terriers have been among the top 10 rushing clubs nationally for 22 consecutive seasons.

He has coached some of the most prolific quarterbacks in school history, including All-American Shawn Graves, Travis Wilson, Josh Collier, Ben Widmyer, and Mitch Allen.

Last season, the rushing offense finished first in the league and fifth in the nation at 311.7 yards per game.

The passing offense had 115.5 yards per game. Joe Newman threw for over 1,000 yards, giving the Terriers back-to-back 1,000-yard passers for the first time since 2007 and 2008.

In four straight games in 2019, Wofford went over the 400-yard rushing mark. This includes Gardner-Webb (489), VMI (439), East Tennessee State (409) and Western Carolina (428). In 2018 the Terriers had three games of 400+ rushing, but in 2016 and 2017 there were no games over 400 yards.

But if the Terriers are going to continue their success on the ground, it will come against one of the best defensive fronts in all of college football.

"We’re going to try to figure a way to grind it out on offense and move the sticks as much as we can and control the clock and see if we can’t keep it close for as long as we can and try to give them a little bit of a game," Conklin said.

The Terriers on defense

Sam Siefkes was named the defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach at Wofford in January 2018.

In his first season at Wofford, the defense was ranked first in the Southern Conference in total defense, scoring defense, passing defense and rushing defense. Nationally the squad was 12th in total defense and eighth in scoring defense. The team posted a 9-4 overall record and won the Southern Conference Championship. In the NCAA FCS Playoffs, the Terriers advanced to the second round.

The Terrier defense is a true team effort with contributions from numerous players this season. Overall, 17 players recorded 10 or more tackles. Seventeen players have at least a share of a tackle for loss, while nine recorded sacks. Five players have interceptions. In the first seven games, there were seven different players with a share of being the leading tackler.

However, the challenge for this no-name defense is deciding who you try and take away.

"You go down through the list, where does it stop," Conklin said. "There’s six, seven, eight guys on offense and then on defense they’ve got a plethora of players playing at a really high level. There’s a little bit of that where, who do you take away?"

The line:

The Tigers are favored by 47.5 points.