By Will Vandervort
CLEMSON — Clemson defensive tackle DeShawn Williams said there was a look on defensive coordinator Brent Venables face Saturday night he never wants to see again. It was a look of disgust, a look of anger and look of disappointment.
It is easy to see why Venables might have had that look. His defense just yielded 667 yards and 49 points to fourth-ranked Florida State, while also blowing leads of 14 and 10 points in the third quarter.
“It was a locker room full of disappointment,” Venables said Tuesday. “When you invest as heavily as these guys did, and they recognize the stage and the platform we were on, and as a defense you like to pride yourself on rising to the challenge and overcoming adversity when we have an opportunity to win the game and that is dependent on us in getting stops. Of course you’re disappointed.
“When you have a lead, it is incredibly disappointing. I would have been more displeased had I not seen that reaction in them. I saw it. I mean, I was not walking around telling them, ‘I’m glad you are sad.’ That’s not how you think, but there was a real disappointment that you would want to see. Whether or not they see that from me, hopefully, that’s what they expect, too.”
Venables says he is not the kind of guy that is going to walk around and sugarcoat things. He is not going to tell them everything is okay when he knows in reality it is not.
“That’s not how I’m wired,” he said. “I think a strength of mine as a leader is, I do handle adversity well. I’m able to keep perspective. I try not to get influenced. I understand the issues. I understand what it takes to fix them. I understand there is a lot of work involved and there is a lot of people involved in order to get those issues corrected.
“Sometimes it easier said than done, but at the same time there is a process. I believe in it and it is a very systematic approach. When you deviate from it, I think it makes it a lot more difficult to get the results that you want. It’s my responsibility to get everybody to believe it and to buy into it and do it with the consistency that is takes.”
Trying to get his defense to be consistent, however, looks to be an big undertaking right now. Clemson has not shown really any consistency in doing the things necessary to become a top of the line defense. The Tigers currently rank 93rd in the country in total defense, allowing 442.5 yards per game through the first four weeks, and the problems can’t be pointed to just one thing either.
Clemson is giving up 206.5 yards per game on the ground (100th nationally) and 236 through the air (73rd).
“Technique is a big issue that we have to work on,” cornerback Bashaud Breeland said. “We have to put our focus a little more on that. It’s a big issue right now… I wouldn’t say we are confused or anything. This is a new defense and this is our first year running it so it is kind of hard picking (things) up. It’s only the fourth game so we can fix it. We have a long season head of us.”
Venables doesn’t want it to be as long as the first four games have seemed. Right now, there are a lot of things that seem to be going wrong with the Clemson defense, whether it’s technique, missed assignments or being out of position.
That’s the problem. It just has not been one issue that Venables and his staff can key on and fix.
“There are mental issues that took place and there are some physical issues that took place,” the defensive coach said. “And obviously, first and foremost, there were some coaching issues. Why is that happening? What are we telling them? Why do some of the things continue to happen?
“We have to do a better job as coaches to put them in more successful situations and positions and then get better at all the details.”