Defense has gotten better, but still has work to do

The Clemson defense was supposed to be work-in-progress this season after losing four starters, and one backup, off last years defense. But against all odds, it has been the defense that has surpassed the offense through the first three games.

CLEMSON—The Clemson defense was supposed to be work-in-progress this season after losing four starters, and one backup, off last years defense. But against all odds, it has been the defense that has surpassed the offense through the first three games.

It has been the quick growth of some of the young defensive linemen that defensive coordinator Brent Venables believes has helped.

“I think they’ve gotten better,” Venables said. “I think they’ve gotten noticeably better as a unit, particularly at defensive end where you lost a lot of experience – not just Clelin (Ferrell) and Austin (Bryant) … but Richard Yeargin, Chris Register, those guys that are seniors that are always valuable to have. But those five guys are all kind of growing up still.”

In fact, in the Tigers’ last game against the Syracuse Orange, the Tigers recorded a banner day in both sacks and tackles for loss. The Tigers  posted 15 tackles for loss—tied for the fifth most in school history—and eight sacks—tied for the eighth most in school history.

But even with the defense playing at a level that few expected this season, defensive coordinator Brent Venables believes they can still be better.

“We have done some good things, but we have a long way to go,” he said. “You look at our first three games and we had Georgia Tech making the move from the option to the spread and then Syracuse moving to a new quarterback, so there have been some extenuating circumstances.”

The challenge this week will be to once again be the unknown, as the Tigers prepare to take on the Charlotte 49ers.

Saturday’s game will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs. That fact, combined with the Wing-T offense, combined with a spread offense passing game, that the 49ers run mean that the Tigers will have to be especially focused.

"Just three games into it, I think they've scored the most points at App State since Miami did two years ago in an opener,” Venables said. “A year ago, App beat them 45-7. This year, they put 40-something points on App State. You can't just overpower them. You have to play option-sound football."