Amare Adams is entering his second season at Clemson, and with the Tigers losing so much production at defensive tackle from last season, the learning curve for the former five-star is being expedited.
Dabo Swinney and Tom Allen brought in Markus Strong, Kourtney Kelly and Andy Burburija to help reinforce the interior. Devarrick Woods was also added from the portal during the summer. However, despite those additions, Clemson is also going to have to rely on some of its homegrown talent, and Adams is one of the players expected to step up.
Adams saw his freshman season cut short by an injury and the recovery stretched into the spring. Having seen what it feels like to be sidelined for an extended period of time only motivates him more.
“It is hard when you get the game taken away from you,” Adams said. “You really realize how much you appreciate the game when you come back.”
That injury is about the only thing from last year’s 7-6 campaign that Adams chooses to really think about.
“It makes me hungry,” Adams said. “Just seeing how last year went. We have a windshield mentality. We don’t worry about the past. I just want to bring everything I got to the field.”
Having lost Peter Woods and DeMonte Capehart to the NFL and Stephiylan Green to the portal, defensive tackle is one of the bigger questions facing a Clemson team that needs a rebound season in a big way. Even Swinney called the position an unknown heading into camp last week, adding more fuel to the fire for the players inside Nick Eason’s room.
For Adams, he likes the makeup of the players Clemson has at the position. Some of the doubts have created a hunger. The kind that possibly wasn’t always present a season ago.
One thing that isn’t present is complacency, and one of the biggest reasons for that is Adams and the rest of those defensive tackles feel like they have something to prove.
“We are working. We are in the field,” Adams said. “We got a lot of great guys. We got Andy Burburija, we got Markus Strong, Champ Thompson, Kourtney Kelly. We got all of those guys in the room, and we are working, just staying low.
“The benefit is just getting everybody better. Because you don’t want no complacency. You got guys pushing each other.