Dan Brooks is old school. He was raised with the philosophy, “To take care of others, you have to look out for No.1 first.”

As a football coach, Clemson’s defensive tackles coach uses that same philosophy. His mission is to get as many high quality football players at the position he coaches as humanly possible. And he has done that.

As the Tigers enter fall camp this coming Tuesday, Brooks will come in with a position group that is as deep and as talented as any on the Clemson roster. Besides having veteran players like All-ACC defensive tackle Carlos Watkins, Freshman All-American Christian Wilkins and nine-time starter Scott Pagano, he also has sophomore Albert Huggins, who has come into his own, as well as redshirt sophomore Jabril Robinson.

Then of course there is freshman Dexter Lawrence, a 6-foot-5, 340-pound defensive tackle, who was listed as the No. 2 player in the country coming out of high school. In the spring, according to head coach Dabo Swinney, Brent Venables and several players, he plays like it, too.

Though he is not as polished as Lawrence is right now, fellow freshman Nyles Pinckney (6-3, 300) also had a good spring and could find himself in the rotation this fall if continues on the path he is on.

“The young guys give me a hard time about that, but I tell them, ‘Hey, the way I was taught, you look after yourself.’ I’m going to fill my room up until the head coach says stop. So it is a blessing to have depth, especially quality depth,” Brooks said. “Every guy in our room is capable of contributing this fall.”

Brooks has lived by this philosophy is entire coaching career, and the results prove that. Not only has he produced NFL caliber players like Jarvis Jenkins, Brandon Thompson and D.J. Reader at Clemson, but even when he was coaching at North Carolina and Tennessee he produced NFL talent.

At Tennessee he coached first-round draft picks Shaun Ellis, Justin Harell and John Henderson, who won the 2000 Outland Trophy Award.

“Competition makes everyone better so when they know they have to fight to get play in preseason camp, and not only that, but week to week. Because you started against Auburn does not mean you will start the next week,” Brooks said. “So I think they understand that. We have been together long enough now. Even the two freshmen know they have to go compete to get on the bus. It makes all of us better.”

And in turn, it makes Clemson’s defense better.