At Dabo Swinney’s Media Golf Outing, both local and national media outlets had the opportunity to pick the brains of Clemson’s position coaches for the only time in the regular season.

This is what we learned from defensive line coach Dan Brooks.

How does the depth you have at tackle compare to some of the previous classes you have had?

“It is a blessing to have, and especially the quality of depth. I think every guy in our room is capable to contribute this fall. You guys have heard me say this before, but I think competition makes everybody better. When they know that they have to fight to get to play in preseason camp, and not only that but week to week, because just because you started against Auburn, it does not mean you are going to start the next week. I think they understand that and even the freshmen know they have to go compete to get on the bus, so it makes all of us better.”

What does Carlos Watkins mean in your room?

“It’s just that senior leadership with game experience. He’s been there, done that, that kind of thing that I think is really valuable,” Brooks said. “I thought he really started to get into what we thought he could be last year and now I think everybody knows about him by making an All-Conference top player. Expectations are high and he knows that. He has all the tools. He is long and he can run. He is strong, just great size for his position, so he has all the tools.”

How much of a luxury is it to be able to have Christian Wilkins able to play both on the inside and out at defensive end?

“It is a great luxury for us because game experience is what we don’t have on the outside. We’ve got game experience on the inside with Pagano, Watkins and Christian, and you’ve got some other guys like Albert (Huggins) and Jabril (Robinson) who have played some, but outside you just don’t have that. That will all play out as we go through, but it is a great luxury to have a guy who is athletic enough to be able to do both, and I have had a few guys in my past who have been able to do that, but it takes a unique athlete.”

If everybody is healthy, how many healthy guys do you want in a rotation at defensive tackle?

“Well I always have said since doing this for a long long time, I think you would love to have five guys that you felt good about putting in at every game. Now, if you have a guy that can go inside and outside, you’d love to have five ends,” Brooks said. “Ideally you would like to have five guys inside and five guys outside that you would feel really good about putting in the game.”

If you have five or even six inside, is it likely that Christian could be full time at end?

“I don’t know because when we start practice, I think Clelin Ferrell had a great spring practice, but he has not played in a game. Christian has played in 15 games,” Brooks said. “We are going to get the best four out there. Christian Wilkins will be in that mix as a starter. He has earned that whether it’s out there or inside, that depends a lot on the development of some other guys.”