Clemson Coaches Talk Impact of Transfer Derion Kendrick on Georgia Game

Derion Kendrick spent three seasons with the Clemson Tigers, now he'll be playing against them in the opener Saturday. Is that keeping Clemson coaches up at night?

The last time Clemson coaches saw Derion Kendrick, the cornerback was playing for them. 

The next time they see Kendrick, they'll be coaching against him. Kendrick transferred to Georgia and will start when the No. 3 Tigers take on the No. 5 Bulldogs on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the 2021 season opener. 

Kendrick spent three seasons at Clemson, one on offense and two on defense, before he was dismissed from the team early in spring practice. It was later discovered that Kendrick had been arrested, but charges were dropped after he landed with Georgia.

Still, he has great institutional knowledge of what both sides of the ball like to do from a schematic standpoint and with in-game play calls and adjustments. Is that something keeping Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott and defensive coordinator Brent Venables up at night?

"You’ve got to be mindful of that, but you’ve also got to understand that it happens in real-time, too," Elliott said Monday. "So you don’t want to just change everything that you do and confuse your own guys. But you do wanna give some respect to him that he may have some inside knowledge. 

"At the end of the day, once it gets going, it’s not going to be about what information he was able to pass on. It’s going to be about the one-on-one matchups. Obviously, he knows our guys. We know him. So it’s gonna be that cat-and-mouse, that battle, to see who can play the most disciplined football on those one-on-one matchups."

Sure, Kendrick will pass along tendencies from the Clemson receiving corps, but he also knows what Venables likes to do in certain situations. The veteran DC downplayed Kendrick's impact, though. 

"We haven't focused on that at all," Venables said. "I don't know what that is. You've still go to go out and play. It's not like we don't do a lot. We do a lot. Maybe he can give a 911 on the personnel, strengths and weaknesses, I’m not sure. I wouldn't know what that is. We're gonna focus on us from that standpoint." 

Kendrick recorded 61 tackles and three interceptions in his final two seasons with the program. 

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