By Will Vandervort.

Though he has to replace eight starters on a defense that led the nation in 2014, Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables says there is a lot to feel good about following Wednesday’s scrimmage.

Linebacker Ben Boulware led the defense with four tackles for loss, while defensive end Shaq Lawson had three sacks and safety Jayron Kearse had an interception in the 100-play scrimmage at Death Valley.

But it’s not the tackles, the sacks and the interceptions that pleased Clemson’s newest $1 million-coach. No, he is likes the way guys, especially in his first group, are coming on as leaders. Guys like Boulware, Lawson, Kearse and linebacker B.J. Goodson.

“There are some guys that are trying to,” Venables said. “Leaders have to be judged by being consistent. We will see who those guys are. You have to earn that. We can’t anoint a guy a leader just because he is a senior or he is a returning player.

“Leader means you are a good leader. There are good leaders and then there are not so good leaders. Then there are great leaders. We had great leadership (last year) so we are trying to bring guys along.”

Kearse, who is expected to replace Robert Smith as the leader of the secondary, is one guy who is doing his best to lead his group. The Clemson safety was not happy with the way the defense played in the scrimmage, citing penalties (several offside infractions and a pass interference call) and a couple of big running plays they gave up.

“We played okay. We definitely can get better,” the junior said. “We did some good things and we did some things that were bad. We just have to come back to work when we get back out here on Friday.”

Venables says most of his and head coach Dabo Swinney’s post practice talk is about how to be a leader. How do you handle adversity? How do you handle different situations? How do you communicate with your teammates? How do you handle failure? Do you own it when you make a mistake?

“It’s all those things. Good or bad. That’s leadership,” he said. “Maybe you demote somebody in the middle of a drive. How do they handle that? A guy you call a good leader will handle that. He will correct the mistake, come over and tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘Coach I got that. Please put me back in the game.’

“The bad leaders will go over there and pout and feel bad for themselves. That’s what you love about practice, game simulation — you get a lot of those opportunities as a coach to foster, develop it, identify it, and correct it and kind of find out about guys. You judge it over the long haul because everybody has a bad day – coach and player alike so you are not going to be perfect. But as for today, there is a lot you can feel good about.”