On Tuesday, representatives from Clemson’s defense gave insight on preparing to take on Ohio Sate’s offense in the Playstation Fiesta Bowl. Led by defensive coordinator Brent Venables, some senior and starters talked about their experiences in Arizona, and dissected some of what they have seen on film.
Here is what we heard:
Clemson was excited to get back to Arizona to have the opportunity to make its second-straight appearance in the College Football Playoff.
“I love it out here. It’s absolutely beautiful,” defensive back Cordrea Tankersley said. “We left with a bad taste in our mouth but that was last year. It’s a new year. We want to come out and finish the right way. We kind of limped to the line last year. So we just want to like sprint to the line, finish the right way, have no regrets.
Senior linebacker Ben Boulware said that after last year’s championship defeat in Arizona, the team’s only mindset is to finish what they have set out to do.
“That’s kind of the only thing we’ve been preaching all year. We’ve got to finish. We played well for 14 games. And at the end of the day we didn’t finish. We got beat. So that’s kind of been our motto all year is to finish in every aspect — in the film room, at practice, each game — just treating every game like it’s the national championship and hopefully when that time comes it will carry over,” Boulware said.
Defensive lineman Christian Wilkins said he was impressed with what he has seen from Ohio State’s offense. He added that there are even some similarities to Clemson’s offense.
“They have a really good offense. There’s a reason why they’re in the Final Four because they have such a good offense with a dynamic quarterback who can run the ball and can hurt you in a lot of different ways, throw the ball pretty well and have a good running back, good skill everywhere, and their number 4, Curtis Samuel, heck of a player, too, can do a lot of different things. And it starts up the trenches. It’s going to be a battle I’m looking forward to,” Wilkins said.
Defensive Tackle Carlos Watkins said that a lot of the offense stem’s from quarterback J.T. Barrett’s dual threat abilities.
“They’ve got a lot of ways they can beat you on the ground, in the air, and especially when you have a quarterback that can move in the pocket, move around, scramble. He’s a part of their run game. So it makes it a lot more dangerous,” Watkins said
However, safety Jadar Johnson said that he thinks Clemson has already been battle tested by quarterbacks who may have been better than Barrett.
“I’m not taking anything away from J.T. Barrett. He’s definitely a good quarterback. I’m not that strong on his arm. Not saying that he can’t throw at all, because he definitely can. But he’s a run-first quarterback. I feel if we can limit his run, we’ll be good,” Johnson said.
Venables agreed that limiting the run will be a necessity for Clemson’s defense to have success, and that all starts up front in the trenches.
“I think it’s critical. Not that that’s earth-shattering news. You’ve got to win up front. And you’ve got to win more than you lose. And it’s been a group for us that’s kind of carried us throughout the year, got some youth up there that have played well beyond their years, just a very mature group of guys. And we’ve seen that group getting better and better as the year has gone on. But it’s going to — we’re going to need our best effort going into this game, a real physical game. Playing Ohio State a few years ago in the Orange Bowl, arguably one of our most physical games that we’ve played in my five short years here at Clemson,” Venables said.