Clemson’s starting defensive end Shaq Lawson established himself as a leader on Clemson’s defense throughout the spring and fall camp.

When he arrived at Clemson in 2013, he noticed guys like Vic Beasley, Corey Crawford, DeShawn Williams and Grady Jarrett were the heart and soul of the defense. Lawson knew one day they would all have to graduate and he had to be ready to step up when his time came.

Now, as the Tigers set to open the season on Sept. 5 against Wofford, Lawson is the leader of a defense that is young and inexperienced, but very talented.

“I’m just trying to take each day at a time and just lead by example on and off the field to some of the players and trying to help them get better,” the junior said. “I’ve been waiting for two years now, so I’m glad it is finally here.”

One player Lawson is mentoring is freshman left tackle Mitch Hyatt. The two have been battling it out throughout fall camp, and Lawson is not going easy on him. His goal is to make Hyatt as experienced and game-ready as possible.

“He’s picked up on a lot of my moves now and he’s blocking me well. I like to challenge him everyday and make him better. I want him to be one of the best linemen in the nation this year as a freshman,” Lawson said.

Although Lawson has only started one game in his career, he has no shortage of game experience. To date, he has played in 26 games and has recorded 79 tackles, 21 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks.

“If we need to make a play, I’m going to try and be there and make that play for us, for our D-line or count on my teammates to help me out to make a play,” Lawson said.

This year Lawson is focusing on every opportunity to make big plays. Specifically, he wants to focus on getting as many sacks and tackles for loss that he can. He even joked he wanted to record 23 tackles for loss this year because Michael Jordan is his favorite athlete of all-time.

“I’m trying to work hard and hopefully get to the sack record by the time I leave Clemson,” he said.

The defensive end has a long way to go to reach the sack record that Beasley set in his last year at Clemson with his 33 career sacks. However, Lawson believes he has a chance because he plays the game differently than Beasley.

“He’s (Beasley) more of a pass rusher. I can play the run and the pass and I’ve got an extra 20 pounds on him. I feel like my game is different from his,” he said.

Lawson is not only confident in his abilities, but he is also confident in the whole defensive unit’s ability to prevent any drop off from occurring with the loss of so much veteran talent.

“We’ve just got to come in everyday and get better as a team, and at the end of the year, we’ll try to look for that number one spot again. Were just trying to get better as a whole defensive group’” he said. “I feel like we can repeat that again this year.”