By Will Vandervort.

Saturday did not start out exactly the way the Clemson defense wanted it to, but by the end of the two-hour scrimmage in Death Valley on Saturday the strongest part of the Tigers’ team flexed their muscle.

“Everybody was out there playing hard,” linebacker Tony Steward said. “I felt like we started a little slow, but we bent down and kind of keep our composure and played the way we are supposed to play.”

The offense opened the scrimmage with a 13-play, 70-yard drive which quarterback Cole Stoudt completed with a five-yard scoring toss to tight end Jordan Leggett.

“That fast paced offense and that tempo they used against us really got us off balance,” defensive end Vic Beasley said. “Plus Coach (Brent) Venables is getting back in the grove going against Coach (Chad) Morris’ and his tempo offense.

“I guess it is new to him too with him getting the play calls in so I guess we will progress over the next couple of scrimmages.”

The defense actually got better as the scrimmage went along. As usual, the front seven was impressive as Grady Jarrett had two sacks and red-shirt freshman defensive tackle Scott Pagano had a team-high three tackles for loss to lead the way.

“You are never satisfied, but I have not been disappointed in anything,” Venables said. “This is just part of the process. This is just one practice, one scrimmage. We are going to come back and correct some things and to continue to develop and improve.

“We need to be more consistent, more precise and more disciplined.”

Though the offense scored five touchdowns and did not turn the football over, the defense finished the scrimmage by dominating the short yardage and goal line situations.

“I thought offensively, they really came out and set the tempo. That was just a great opening drive,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. “Defensively, they were on their heels early, but as the day went, I thought they were very, very strong.”

Venables said his defense did not get off to a slow start so much as it was trying to adjust and react to what the offense had scripted.

“If they come out and score on a four-play drive, that’s a slow start,” he said. “That is sleeping in the drive and it certainly was not that. Again, sometimes those offenses have things scripted and as a defense you are reacting out there in your first full open-field scrimmage of fall camp.

“We are just a little bit off, not by much, but it does not take much. We had twelve guys on the field, we gave up and fourth-down conversion, but our guys made them earn it.”