By Will Vandervort.
It’s not like the Clemson secondary was awful in 2013. The Tigers ranked 16th nationally in pass defense and 19th in pass efficiency defense. They ranked 14th nationally in defense completion percentage and 15th in touchdowns allowed.
As a group, they recorded 18 interceptions which ranked 13th in the country. So why isn’t Clemson’s group of defensive backs considered to be one of the best in the Atlantic Coast Conference for 2014?
It doesn’t help that it lost its two starting cornerbacks, including junior Bashaud Breeland, who is now playing for the NFL’s Washington Redskins.
Despite Breeland’s jump to the NFL and Darius Robinson’s graduation, it seems at least in and around Clemson that the secondary is going to be just fine, though.
Why is that? Why aren’t the Clemson coaches and fan base nervous about a group that will start two sophomores and a redshirt freshman?
Maybe it’s because the Tigers return the best defensive line, arguably, in the country.
“Of course it helps that you have a good defensive line, but we are not depending on that at all,” said senior safety Robert Smith. “We have to go out there and pull our work load.
“We cannot depend on Vic Beasley going out there and getting a sack. We can’t depend on Grady Jarrett to get penetration so that the ball comes out quicker or anything like that. We have to go out there and do our jobs.”
If the defensive line isn’t the reason, then maybe it’s because Clemson has a potential All-American playing middle linebacker in Stephone Anthony. Or maybe they feel having a blue-chip player like Mackensie Alexander and an up-and-coming star like Cordrea Tankersley are upgrades from Breeland and Robinson.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney thinks it’s something else, though.
“I think we are going to have the most depth we have had in the secondary in a long time,” he said. “We have guys that can flat out run and guys that know what they are doing. It is going to be great because it is going to create the competition that we need.”
In all the Tigers have 15 players on their roster that play either cornerback, safety or the nickel back positions. Besides Smith, Alexander and Tankersley, Clemson has 6-foot-4 safety Jayron Kearse back in the fold as well as experienced players like Garry Peters and Martin Jenkins at cornerback. Travis Blanks and Korrin Wiggins will be one and two at nickel back, while other guys like T.J. Green (safety), Jadar Johnson (safety), Adrian Baker (corner), Marcus Edmond (corner) and Taylor Watson (safety) are all seriously pushing for playing time as well.
So it is easy to see why people in and around Clemson think the secondary is going to be better this year than it ever has at Clemson under Swinney. But many of the national pundits feel the secondary—though talented—is still too much of a question mark and instead say groups like Florida State, Virginia Tech and Duke are better as a whole in the ACC.
“You hear stuff like that, but they have earned that right,” Smith said. “They are very good teams and very good secondaries. We have to go out there and prove we are just as good as they are. We can’t say we are going to be this and we are going to be that. We have to go out there on Saturdays and prove what we can do.”
Beasley has seen what this group can do and he says the new and improved secondary will make his job a whole lot easier.
“It makes it a lot easier knowing that you have guys that you can depend on in the secondary,” the defensive end said. “It is always easier for us up front when those guys are that good. There is a lot of dependability and it just helps us out a lot being able to rush how we want to because we know we have guys that we can depend on.”
Smith says it all comes down to doing your job and trusting the guy you have beside you.
“We have to make sure we do our jobs so that (the defensive line) gets sacks or so that we get our interceptions,” he said. “We have to make sure we pull our workload. We are going to do our share and they are going to do their share and that is going to make us one of the best defenses as long as we keep doing that each and every day.”