FORT LAUDERDALE – Baker Mayfield was in middle school when Lake Travis High School hired Chad Morris to be the head football coach.

Morris left Austin to be the offensive coordinator at Tulsa, after Mayfield’s freshman season.

“I was able to see how he coached. He’s a great coach and he wouldn’t be where he’s at right now without that,” Mayfield said.

Though Morris is now more than a year removed from his duties as the Clemson

offensive coordinator, Mayfield recognizes the Tigers’ hurry-up, no-huddle offense.

“They, obviously, had a good offense last year, and it was all credit to his system,” Mayfield said. “Obviously, they have a different coordinator, but they’ve tried to use some of the strong points for what worked for them last year and the last couple of years.

“We still see the coach Morris plays and concepts. It’s fun for me to see that and how successful he is. It’s also not for me because it all works.”

Down from 2014: Semaje Perine didn’t want to provide in bulletin board material, but his point was made.

The 2014 Clemson defense is better than the 2015 edition. Most opinions are in line with his, as are the stats.

“Obviously, you can’t be the top defense in the ACC for no reason,” Perine said, with a laugh. “They’re a good defense, but they have areas where we can expose. I’m not going to say anything particular on camera, because I don’t want to be disrespectful, but areas are there, and we’ve got to make sure they expose it.”

The sophomore running back went into specifics.

“They were bigger, faster. This year, they have pretty good size. Last year’s Clemson defense, they were a lot faster and a lot bigger,” he said.

Central perspective: Ty Darlington has started 25 games at center for Oklahoma, including last year’s Russell Athletic Bowl.

Clemson may not have many of the guys that he came across in Orlando a season ago, but there are still plenty of familiar names.

“They played a lot of guys last year, so a lot of these guys played against us,” Darlington said. “They’re a group, they roll a good amount of guys, generally. And they play as a unit.

“That’s the thing with their defense. There probably aren’t as many superstars as there were last year.”

The change in personnel from 2014 isn’t the only difference that Darlington notices when he turns on the film.

“They’ve seen some different looks out of them this year, compared to last year,” he said. “Personnel-wise, it’s a little bit different, but some familiar faces, too. It will be a good challenge for us.”

Among the individuals, Shaq Lawson is stands out the most. Darlington also spoke of the two starting safeties.

“The safeties get really involved in the run game, (T.J. Green and Jayron Kearse),” Darlington said. “Both get really involved in the run game, physical players, and just the way they play defense. They trust their secondary a lot. They play man-to-man coverage a lot. Not everybody can do that.”