In his first two seasons at Clemson Ben Boulware has been able to go out and play the game with little to worry about.

His only concern, play within the rules and play with fire and passion on each and every play. When it comes to playing his position, Boulware has truly only had to play for only himself as he adjusted to life as a linebacker for a major college program.

When it came to leadership, he had two of the best teammates a guy could have in front of him. He let Spencer Shuey and Stephone Anthony be the leaders, while he played the game. They both made the game easier for him to learn and understand.

But Shuey is now two years removed from the program, and Anthony is showing out in the NFL for the New Orleans Saints. That leaves Boulware as one of the elder statesmen on a defense that lost eight starters to graduation and another to injury.

Now guys like Jalen Williams, Chad Smith, J.D. Davis, Judah Davis and Kendall Joseph look up to him and others like fellow junior T.J. Burrell and senior middle linebacker B.J. Goodson.

“It’s definitely a role I had to come into and learn really quickly,” Boulware said. “I have not had to do that the last two years so it is something I have had to learn how to do. I think I’m doing okay.”

These days, it isn’t uncommon to see Boulware taking Williams to the side and showing him what he might be doing wrong during a certain drill, or helping newly converted linebacker Martin Aiken adjust to being in a stance instead of playing with his hand on the ground like he did when he was a defensive end.

“There are definitely areas I have to mature on and get better at, but this is a role I have been waiting on the past two years so I’m just glad it is here,” Boulware said. “I’m going to make the most of it and bring our young guys along and make sure they are ready to play.”

Boulware likes what he is seeing from the two guys that play directly behind him. He says Williams reminds him a lot of himself when he was a freshman, and Aiken is already showing he can adjust to life as a linebacker.

“I think he is learning a lot quicker than a lot of guys just because he is an older dude,” Boulware said of Aiken. “I think one of the hardest things to learn from the linebacking position is learning gap schemes, understanding your gap and learning formations. He has been here for three years so he understands what the defensive line is doing, and he understands if they are shifting and going from one gap to another gap so that has helped him learn the position pretty well.”

Boulware says Aiken still has a lot of areas to get better at as he learns how to get in and out of his stance, and not being in a three-point stance on every down.

“That is difficult for him because he has been doing it his whole life. He obviously is a very fast and physical person, but you have to know what you are doing. You are going to look like an idiot if you don’t know what you are doing. That’s how I looked my freshman year,” Boulware said.

Not that he says Williams looks like an idiot, but Boulware sees a lot of himself in the way Williams plays. The true freshman is free spirited. Plays with a tough mindset and goes full speed on every play.

“That is one thing that separates him from a lot of guys and that’s why everybody has been hearing about him so much. It’s the way he plays the game,” Boulware said. “I wish we had twenty-two guys that played like that. We are pretty close to that, but if you have twenty-two guys that play like that through every down, that’s a national championship caliber team.

“That’s how he has been taught to play. Nothing is going to change him. That is going to allow him to do great things here.”