By William Qualkinbush.

By William Qualkinbush

Brent Venables is a lot of things, but rarely is Clemson’s defensive coordinator somber.

Such was the tone of his media session on Tuesday in the aftermath of a 45-21 loss to Georgia that featured finger pointing and second-guessing from top to bottom within the program. Venables stressed the importance of his unit putting the sting of the opener behind it, but he had no problem sharing the emotion he felt after giving up an average of eight yards per carry against the Bulldogs—the worst in his Clemson tenure.

“You can use a lot of different adjectives as ways to describe it, but you’re pissed,” Venables said. “From a defensive standpoint, you want the game on the line. You want the opportunity to win the game. We had the opportunity to do that and didn’t do it.”

For three quarters, Venables says his unit was playing well. Georgia was limited offensively, and the Clemson defensive coordinator credited the Bulldogs for playing to their strengths down the stretch.

In the final frame, the Tigers were gashed for 211 yards on the ground as Georgia scored three consecutive touchdowns to pull away in the game. Venables says it is no secret why things went south in a hurry for his defense over the past ten-plus minutes.

“Positioning was poor,” he said. “Aggression wasn’t what it needed to be across the board.”

Venables says there are plenty of positives for his defense to glean from the Georgia game, but as proud as he was of his team’s performance early, the lackluster finish was a lesson that all sixty minutes of play are equally important in the final result.

“You want to be complete in competing,” Venables said. “You’re in a production-based, bottom-line profession. You either get it done or you don’t, and when you don’t, there’s no trying to play on two sides of the fence.”

Venables has often opined that nothing is worse for a defense than having an opponent gain chunks of rushing yardage against it. Because of this belief, he says he is fine with frustration and disgust reigning supreme in the defensive meeting rooms. The goal is to correct the mistakes that plagued the Tiger defense once fatigue became a factor so they do not cause further problems in the future—like this weekend’s game against South Carolina State, an opponent Venables respects.

“Regardless of the opponent, there’s a particular mindset and attitude and physicalness that (the game) requires,” he said. “If you’re off your game, if you’ve got your guard down, if you don’t have a great sense of desperation, a great deal of respect for your opponent and for the game itself, then you’ll get exposed.”

Against the Bulldogs, Venables made the conscious choice to give some of his younger players a trial by fire. His hope is that some of the positive points in the game will resonate with those players as they provide depth for his defense.

“Along the way, they’re going to fail some,” he said. “Hopefully, some of the mistakes we made a week ago, we’re not making this week.”