CLEMSON – After giving up over 600 yards of offense in its season-opening loss to LSU last Saturday, Clemson’s defense was in need of a bounce-back performance against Georgia Southern.

One week later, in the Tigers’ 22-7 victory over the Eagles at Memorial Stadium, Clemson defenders made a statement for a crowd that waited through a weather delay hoping to watch their team calm storms of criticism.

As expected, the Tigers’ secondary, led by cornerbacks Ashton Hampton and Elliot Washington, gave Clemson (1-1) fans a show in the win, finishing with four combined pass breakups and a forced fumble, as well as five tackles. Safeties Corey Myrick, Jerome Carter and Ronan Hanafin also played large roles in stopping the Eagles’ airborne attack.

These dominant secondary performances were unsurprising to head coach Dabo Swinney, who had dubbed Tigers’ defensive backs rare “bright spots” in the blowout loss at Tiger Stadium.

“Elliot and (Hampton), they stick to people,” Swinney said after the win. “They’re sticky. I mean, you don’t see a ton of separation with those guys.”

While those “sticky” defenders mitigated any real deep threats for the Eagles and quarterback Max Johnson, the biggest improvement from Clemson’s first game may have come from its run defense.

One week after allowing LSU 309 rushing yards in another late-night contest, the Tigers held Georgia Southern to just 22 yards on the ground and amassed three sacks and five total tackles for loss along the way.

“We needed to get better up front at winning on some matchups, defeating some blocks, stopping the run, and that was the biggest improvement tonight,” Swinney said. “And you know, making (quarterback Max Johnson) have to get rid of the ball a little quicker than he would like.”

One of the big factors in the improvement came from defensive end Will Heldt, a preseason All-ACC selection. Against LSU, Heldt–with the rest of Clemson’s defensive line–struggled to overpower one-on-one matchups, and had a hard time keeping LSU’s ball-carriers contained.

In turn, the Tigers did not sack LSU’s quarterback Sam Leavitt once and allowed him to run for 113 yards and two touchdowns. One week later, Heldt picked up two sacks all by himself, and forced Johnson into negative rushing yards. 

Additionally, on the Eagles’ final drive of the game, Heldt and the defensive line held up to force a turnover on downs on the Tigers’ goal line, a significant improvement after LSU scored on all of its trips to the red zone.

Throughout that drive and the entire game, as Heldt generated three tackles (all for loss) as well as a quarterback hurry against the Eagles, the 6-foot-6 athlete showed why his teammates call him “the Robot.”

“I think I was just able to use my different moves and kind of exploit them because, just watching them on tape, I knew the kind of sets I was going to get,” Heldt said. “Just was able to work those moves.”

After the LSU loss, stopping the run and toughness were big priorities from defensive coordinator Tom Allen throughout the course of the week, according to Heldt. A tough week of practice with that emphasis paid off with the dominant defensive stands in Death Valley Saturday.

“I think we were really excited about how we played against the run,” Heldt said. “I think that was a big emphasis going into this week. I think our DBs played really well on the back end. They really strapped them. But really excited about that.”

Heldt and the Tigers’ defense do not have long to celebrate their improvement and victory, however, as Clemson will now begin preparing for its conference schedule. Their first ACC opportunity will come next weekend, when the University of North Carolina (2-0) comes to Memorial Stadium in an attempt to snap Clemson’s seven-game win streak.