By Will Vandervort.

During his Clemson career, Grady Jarrett’s playing weight stood at around 300 pounds. That’s about the norm for a defensive tackle in college football. But most defensive tackles are not Grady Jarrett.

In the last two years, Jarrett record 1,069 snaps on Clemson’s vaunted defensive front, second only to Vic Beasley’s 1,117. Of the defensive tackles, Jarrett had 336 more snaps.

“If one and two are not equal, then one and two are not going to play equal,” Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. “Just like Grady Jarrett. He took more snaps than any of those guys last year and we had a bunch of good players, but Grady was going to play seventy percent of them because he was too good of a player. We may not have that.”

Venables isn’t sure he has guys like DeShawn Williams, Josh Watson, D.J. Readers and Carlos Watkins, who basically alternated at the second defensive tackle position the last two years. Reader and Watkins are expected to be the starters this season, while Scott Pagano will serve as the main backup, but after that there doesn’t seem to be the defensive tackle positions.

Freshman Sterling Johnson is working at defensive tackle as is Jabril Robison and Roderick Byers.

“I don’t know (how many will play defensive tackle). Maybe it is three D tackles? Maybe it is four? Who knows? Maybe it is five? Who knows? I do know that we do not have the same experienced, proven depth that we did a year ago,” Venables said. “As a result, the guys that we know can win for us, we might have to count on them. They might have to be in better shape. They might, instead of playing thirty-five snaps, have to play fifty snaps. We are not afraid of that.”

Last year, Clemson led the country in tackles for loss for a second straight season, setting an all-time mark of 131. Chances are they are not likely to repeat that this season because of the experienced depth.

The Tigers seem okay when it comes to talent with highly recruited players like Chris Register, Richard Yeargin and Albert Huggins playing at defensive end and Johnson and Pagano helping at defensive tackle—not to mention help is on the way in the form of Christian Wilkins. But there is something to say about experience, especially on the defensive line, and that is what concerns Venables the most.

He isn’t so much worried about who his backups might be as much as he is can his starters be good enough. Lawson has taken 632 snaps and has 79 career tackles, including 21 tackles for loss. Reader is next with 562 snaps and 70 tackles. Watkins, who was injured for most of 2013, recorded just 135 snaps last year and had 13 tackles.

“Who are those first group of guys we can count on? You can’t do it with just four,” Venables said. “I have done it with just four, but you want to be able to do it with six or seven or nine, though we are not going to do it with nine, so really it is a collective group.

“It’s the best players.”

The question is who are they?