CLEMSON — Amare Adams is starting to hit his stride.

The sophomore defensive tackle started the first four games of the season, but didn’t quite get off to the kind of start that many were expecting. By the time the week five matchup against Miami rolled around, Adams was coming off the bench, despite still getting a lot of time.

Coincidentally, that’s when he started to really settle in. Over the next four games Adams began to prove what kind of disruptive force he can be and in last Saturday’s 18-13 road win over Syracuse, the big defensive tackle was back in the starting lineup.

The 6-foot-4, 305-pounder would record his first career sack against Virginia Tech, then notched his second in the win over the Orange, totalling three tackles for loss in his last three games. Finally seeing some of the fruits of his labor pay off is something Adams has been waiting on.

“It was unreal, to be honest,” Adams said of his very first sack. “Just the work I have put in. From the summer, throughout the season. It was just unreal, and I just knew it was going to come sooner or later. But actually seeing it happen, it is just a blessing.”

Coming out of South Florence High School, Adams was a five-star prospect and a consensus Top 100 player, ranking as high as No. 7 overall. With that kind of pedigree, expectations were extremely high, and when Adams wasn’t an instant impact player in his debut season, he faced some outside criticism.

That injury that cut his freshman season short also kept him out of spring practice, so he had some catching up to do when fall camp began. It should have understandable that he might need a few games this season to get totally up to speed. Instead, the critcisms grew louder. Not that Adams was listening to any of it, and after the past few games, the noise isn’t quite as loud.

“There are a lot of critics out there. I don’t listen to them at all,” he said. “I just keep my head down because there is always something I can improve on in my game. There is always something I can work on. Yeah, I got sacks. Yeah, I am playing pretty good football right now. But there is always something I can work on. Little details I can work on in my game. I am never satisfied with what I am doing. I am never satisfied with how I play.”

Adams isn’t the only one stepping up his play along the interior of the Tigers’ defensive line. Andy Burburija jas also started to settle in. Darien Mayo has really flashed since moving inside and Kourtney Kelly is another player starting to find his groove after returning from an ACL injury suffered in the spring. Devarrick Woods is also rounding back into form after returning from his own injury sufferd early in the season, while Champ Thompson has also flashed.

As a collective, the unit has played really good football for the most part over the past several games, turning a position some saw as a question mark coming into the season into one of the strengths on the defensive side of the ball.

“We were just laying in the weeds,” Adams said. “We were working our butts off, working our tails off all year. We weren’t saying nothing, just keeping our heads down. Coach Eason, he preaches to us, with our aggressiveness, we have got to be all in. People were talking bad about us because we did not have those guys that we had last year in the room. We were just overlooked. Coach Eason kept preaching to us, lay in the weeds, stay down and just work. That is what we have been doing and proving through these last few games — that we can play.”