Clemson still has 11 days remaining before its next opponent arrives in Death Valley. A bye week means head coach Dabo Swinney did not hold his weekly press conference, but defensive coordinator Brent Venables and a number of players still spoke to the media on Tuesday.

Former Clemson running back Terry Allen also spoke about his decision to return to Clemson to finish his degree and help with the current running backs as a volunteer assistant coach.

Here is what we heard:

Allen, who played for former head coach Danny Ford from 1987-’89, is very impressed with the way Swinney coaches his players to be both great players and great people.

“Coach Ford created men and Dabo Swinney creates whole men. He creates that kid that is out in the community working. Coach Ford expected us to do the right things, Dabo makes sure that these kids are doing the right things,” Allen said. “He has people lined up in front of them to give them direction. There is nothing that these kids lack. If these kids don’t get it while they are here, they work in order not to do it.”

Allen, who played 11 seasons in the NFL, named off a number of players he thought were very special. At the top of his list were running back Wayne Gallman and quarterback Deshaun Watson.

“I’ve played with quarterbacks in the NFL who didn’t have his talent,” Allen said about Watson.

Cornerback Ryan Carter, who had been teammates with Gallman in high school, believes Gallman is a special, hard-working athlete.

“He’s worked hard for it for where he’s at right now. Being his teammate, and just seeing how much he has improved into becoming a real full, complete running back, its just great to see him reaping the benefits of his hard work,” Carter said.

Carter recorded four solo tackles against Louisville, and believes he is finally seeing some of his hard work pay off.

“It was definitely a new experience being on the road and not playing in front of the home crowd,” Carter said. “It was definitely a good experience for me.”

Receiver Hunter Renfrow is also starting to see some of the work he has put in at practice pay off in a big way. Renfrow caught his first career touchdown in the win over Louisville.

“I wasn’t surprised that my first touchdown came so early. I was just waiting on my time to come,” Renfrow said. “I gained a lot of my confidence from the older guys.”

Clemson’s defense held Louisville to only 19 rushing yards the entire game, and freshman defensive tackle Christian Wilkins believes the unit is on the right track to being as good as last year’s defense.

“Its definitely just a start, definitely something to build on for sure. Last year’s defense was really good. They were able to do it all year, it’s only been three games for us. We’ve still got a long way to go until we want to even be close to being compared to last year’s defense. I think we definitely have the capability to do that,” Wilkins said.

Veteran defensive tackle Carlos Watkins agreed.

“A lot of people thought we were going to have a major drop off but we haven’t yet,” Watkins said.