Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables has been openly critical of the Tigers’ secondary this spring, voicing his concern and displeasure with the position group on multiple occasions.

Following Clemson’s first full scrimmage of the spring, for instance, Venables said the secondary made him “wanna puke looking at it.” Things weren’t much better for the unit in the second spring scrimmage, as Kelly Bryant threw four touchdown passes, while the other three quarterbacks each had one touchdown pass of at least 20 yards.

Venables has made no bones about the Tigers’ lack of depth in the secondary, especially at cornerback, saying at one point that they “are hurting at corner, as bad since 2012.”

Cornerback A.J. Terrell knows the lack of depth has contributed to the struggles this spring. However, the rising sophomore and his teammates aren’t making that an excuse for the secondary’s subpar performance.

“We all know that we have a lack of depth, but we’re still going out there and competing every day,” Terrell said. “We’re not really thinking about the depth because it is what it is right now. So we’ve just got to go out there and compete.

“We’re all tired, but we have two corners coming in, so we’ll see how it works out.”

Those two corners are signees Kyler McMichael and Mario Goodrich, both of whom will join the team this summer. The Tigers are optimistic the true freshmen will be able to contribute early and bolster the depth at cornerback.

Clemson is thin at corner right now behind Terrell, Trayvon Mullen and Mark Fields. But besides that, another issue for the secondary has been its lack of intensity in some practices.

“We have to come out with the same energy (each practice),” Terrell said. “Sometimes we have our days, and then, I don’t know, we just… I’ll just say we have to come out there with the same energy every day and not let the offense get ahead of us like that.”

Terrell saw significant action as a true freshman last season, recording 15 tackles, a tackle for loss, an interception and six pass breakups in 237 snaps across 14 games.

Now that former Clemson corners Ryan Carter and Marcus Edmond have moved on, Terrell is poised to see increased playing time next season.

On the bright side, Clemson’s lack of depth has resulted in more reps for Terrell this spring. In the process, those reps are helping the Atlanta native prepare for a larger workload in 2018.

“I don’t complain about the reps because on game day, you’re going to be playing four quarters,” Terrell said. “But yeah, the reps are helping me out.”