CLEMSON – Clemson’s defensive tackles all got a simultaneous notification on their phone this offseason.

With a buzzing sound, the phones showed that position coach Nick Eason had changed their group chat’s name. Instead of  generic monikers like “DTs” or “Clemson Tackles,” Eason had named the chat “Prove It.”

The name created by the Tigers’ DTs coach, assistant defensive coordinator and associate head coach was more than fitting, because Clemson’s defensive tackles may have more to prove than any other group on the 2026 roster.

“That’s what I’m all about, just proving it.” Eason said. “If you love football, prove it. If you want to help take Clemson back to the top, prove it. If you want to be great, prove it. Prove it in your daily actions and your daily decisions. And then we’ll be headed in the right direction.”

The “prove it” mindset came on the heels of a few factors.

First and foremost, the phrase emerged because star defensive tackles Peter Woods and Demonte Capehart, now NFL rookies, are no longer on the Tigers’ roster. For the last three years, Woods– a second-team All-American in 2025– did a brunt of the dirty work for Clemson’s interior defense, gobbling up double teams and recording tackles-for-loss when the 310-pounder could break free. 

Capehart, when healthy, was also a consistent force of athleticism and violence for the Tigers in the last six seasons. Despite varying injuries, the big man finished with 13.5 tackles for loss, five pass breakups, and three sacks in his time at Clemson.

The Tigers’ defensive lline also lost Stephiylan Green, the third-most impactful defensive tackle last season, to the transfer portal.

So now, to Eason’s point, the remaining Tigers in his room have an enormous chance to prove themselves, both in fall camp and during the upcoming football season, in the absence of three memorable veterans.

“Everybody’s going to have an opportunity,” Eason said. “I went through spring and and told guys ‘We 

don’t have any starters, all right?’

“There’s a lot of competition in the room and really excited for the opportunity these guys will have to go and play and get an opportunity to put it on tape,” he added. “But it starts in the offseason, and those guys are doing a really good job just kind of keeping their heads down and staying in the dark and just remaining humble and just  going to work every single day.”

A couple new players that will have a chance to work their way into one of Eason’s current undecided starting roles this season are transfers Markus Strong– a rising redshirt junior, and Andy Burburija, a junior college product who received rave reviews from his coaches and teammates since arriving on campus this summer.

As far as “proving it” goes, few players have a better opportunity than Vic Burley, a former five-star recruit who has seen limited playing time in three seasons behind Woods and Capehart. The Warner Robbins, Ga., native also has a chance to prove himself to head coach Dabo Swinney, who challenged him publicly in the spring.

“He’s been a guy that’s kind of, I think, been OK with being a backup,” Swinney said of Burley. “He needs to make up his mind he wants to be a wrecking ball in there because he can do it.”

Behind Burley in the “must-prove-something” category is another former high school five-star, rising sophomore Amare Adams. Adams was Clemson’s highest-ranked player in the 2024 cycle, finishing as high as the seventh-best player in the nation by 247 Sports.

In his rookie season at Clemson though, Adams recorded just 10 tackles before his year was cut short with an injury in late November.

“Amare is a highly talented player,” Eason said. “He’s got all the tangibles, height, size, all the things

you want. And he got hurt last year. He’s still learning the defense. But I’m really, really proud of him. He has made a huge jump this offseason.”

The aforementioned quartet of tackles with a boulder-sized shoulder chip, along with several other players waiting in the wings, are not just proving that they should start this season, however. They also have a chance to help Clemson’s entire defense prove itself in year No. 2 under defensive coordinator Tom Allen.

In the last three seasons, Clemson’s defense has averaged 34 sacks. In the ten years prior, the Tigers averaged 46. While not fully on the defensive tackles, the group’s production, in that stat and others, was down last season, and Woods and Capehart combined for just 6.5 of Clemson’s 85 tackles for loss and three of its 35 sacks.

For context, in the peak of the Tigers’ defensive success, Clemson’s defensive tackles Christian Wilkins and Dexter Lawrence combined for 22.5 tackles for loss 7.5 of its sacks in a National Championship campaign in 2018. 

Of course, it is hard to compete with two future NFL standouts in Wilkins and Lawrence. But the goal may not be that kind of dominance right now. According to Eason, the present moment is all about building trust ahead of 2026 to earn the opportunity to get Clemson back to its best form.

“I don’t show them a depth chart,” Eason said. “I show them a circle of trust. Above that circle of trust, it has the best guys in the game. You got another circle which it’s guys that are talented, but they’re unproven or inconsistent, etc. And so I put everybody’s name in the circle of the guys that I don’t trust and they have to earn their right into that circle of trust over time. And as you continue to get better, I keep sliding your name over into that circle of trust. And so for me, I want a room full of men that I can all trust to go out there on the field.”

With fall camp starting in Aug. 6, Eason’s room will have two more weeks to move their names over to the circle of trust and follow the group chat’s “prove it” moniker ahead of Clemson’s season-opener against LSU on Sept. 5.