The reign of Associate Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach Brent Venables continues into its 10th season at Clemson. Under Venables’ guidance, Clemson has finished in the top 15 in the nation in total defense in each of the last seven seasons, the longest active streak in the country. Clemson has finished in the top 10 in that category in six of those seven seasons, tied with Wisconsin for the most such finishes in the nation. Venables will preside over Clemson’s most veteran group in the modern era, as Clemson returns a Swinney-era record nine defensive starters for the first time, surpassing its eight returning starters entering 2009 and 2018.
LINEBACKERS
The position group directly under Venables’ purview got its own experience boost in January, when veteran linebacker James Skalski (Sharpsburg, Ga.) announced his intention to utilize the NCAA blanket eligibility waiver for 2020 to return for his “super senior” sixth year in 2021. Skalski, the heart and soul of the Clemson defense who is the only player ever to play in (and win) five consecutive ACC Championship Games, has played in 56 career games at Clemson, sitting alongside fellow super seniors Will Spiers and Will Swinney three games shy of the Clemson record of 59, held by select members of the 2018 and 2019 senior classes.
Last year, Skalski and fellow linebacker Baylon Spector (Calhoun, Ga.) formed a hard-hitting tandem Dabo Swinney called “The Bruise Brothers.” Spector returns for his fourth season and his second as a full-time starter after the coaching staff credited him with a team-high 72 tackles (10.5 for loss), a team-high 4.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery in 2020.
The transfer of linebacker Mike Jones Jr. — one of Clemson’s two departing starters from 2020 — creates additional opportunity at Clemson’s nickel/sam linebacker spot, a position that Trenton Simpson (Charlotte, N.C.) seized down the stretch of his true freshman season along with his role as a situational edge rusher. Despite playing shy of 300 snaps and starting only three of his 12 games played, Simpson finished tied for second on the team with 4.0 sacks.
The rest of the linebacking corps is a similar mixture of experienced depth and high-upside youth. Jake Venables (Clemson, S.C.) earned four starts at middle linebacker in Skalski’s absence last year, finishing fifth on the team in tackles. Venables, in his fourth season at Clemson, is joined by a trio of third-year players seeking additional opportunities to make an impact: LaVonta Bentley (Birmingham, Ala.), Keith Maguire (Media, Pa.) and Kane Patterson (Brentwood, Tenn.). Clemson’s scholarship depth at linebacker also includes second-year players Sergio Allen (Fort Valley, Ga.) and Kevin Swint (Carrollton, Ga.), who combined to play in 15 games a year ago, as well as midyear enrollee Jeremiah Trotter Jr. (Mt. Laurel, N.J.), the son of 12-year NFL veteran Jeremiah Trotter Sr. Swint has cross-trained this spring at defensive end.
DEFENSIVE LINE
Clemson’s linebacking corps will operate behind an immensely talented defensive line, a group that flashed tremendous potential in 2020 despite its collective youth. Clemson’s defensive linemen combined for 44 starts last season (including games in which Clemson started only three down linemen), 23 starts of which were by true freshmen or sophomores and an additional 16 of which came from players in their third year in the program. Only five starts are unaccounted for among Clemson’s returning group, with those five belonging to veteran defensive tackles Nyles Pinckney and Jordan Williams, who transferred to Minnesota and Virginia Tech, respectively, in search of more playing time as a function of Clemson’s young stars that have quickly ascended to the starting lineup.
The defensive ends remain under the tutelage of Defensive Ends Coach Lemanski Hall, who helped Clemson tie for the national lead in sacks in 2020. Last year, he helped true freshman Myles Murphy (Marietta, Ga.) make an immediate impact, as the consensus top-10 recruit collected Freshman All-America status from The Athletic, ESPN, Rivals and the Football Writers Association of America and was named ACC Co-Newcomer of the Year by the Associated Press.
Hall’s unit will be hoping for a full bill of health, something that eluded it in 2020. Justin Foster (Shelby, N.C.) and Xavier Thomas (Florence, S.C.) entered 2020 slated as likely starters after the duo combined for 21 starts in 2019, but both battled challenges that resulted in unavailability for much of the 2020 campaign. Foster missed the entire 2020 campaign with medical concerns and elected to conclude his football career this offseason, and Thomas had intended to take a four-game medical redshirt a year ago after complications with both COVID-19 and strep throat but ultimately appeared in seven games upon the NCAA granting a free year of eligibility in 2020. Thomas (22.5) ranks first in career tackles for loss on Clemson’s current roster.
With Foster and Thomas limited in 2020, Clemson leaned on K.J. Henry (Winston-Salem, N.C.) and Justin Mascoll (Snellville, Ga.), a duo of then-redshirt-sophomores that combined for 15 starts. Both return for 2021 amid a scholarship defensive end group that includes “super senior” former walk-on Regan Upshaw (Bradenton, Fla.) and redshirt sophomore Greg Williams (Swansea, S.C.) and was joined in January by midyear enrollee Cade Denhoff (Plant City, Fla.).
Hall’s defensive ends flank an interior group led by Defensive Tackles Coach Todd Bates, who has helped every primary starter in his tenures at Jacksonville State (2014-16) and Clemson (2017-20) to at least one all-conference selection. His two incumbent starters are ones whose play and results early in their careers often placed them in the company of other young Clemson defensive tackle phenoms such as William “Refrigerator” Perry and Dexter Lawrence.
Tyler Davis (Apopka, Fla.) returns for his junior campaign, as his sterling 2019 season in which he became the first true freshman defensive tackle to start a season opener at Clemson since 1974 was followed by a season in which he grinded out seven starts while battling injury all throughout the 2020 season. The 2019 All-ACC selection was joined last year by the nation’s top recruit, Bryan Bresee (Damascus, Md.), who stormed onto the scene to earn Freshman All-American in 2020 and join Lawrence as the second ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year in Clemson history. The powerful, precocious tackle added 6.5 tackles for loss, 4.0 sacks (tying Perry and others for third-most ever by a Clemson true freshman), two pass breakups, a forced fumble and a safety to earn first-team All-ACC honors. He joined Clemson in 2020 alongside two additional highly touted defensive tackles from Clemson’s prized 2020 recruiting class, now-second-year tackles DeMonte Capehart (Hartsville, S.C.) and Tré Williams (Windsor, Conn.).
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Third-year tackle Ruke Orhorhoro (Lagos, Nigeria) entered the 2020 season primed for more playing time as a key rotational piece prior to suffering an injury in the season opener that cost him all but four games of what would have been a medical redshirt season under normal circumstances. Larger roles could also ensue for fourth-year junior Darnell Jefferies (Covington, Ga.) and third-year sophomore Etinosa Reuben (Kansas City, Mo.), both of whom played in seven games in 2020. The scholarship group is rounded out by midyear enrollee Payton Page (Greensboro, N.C.), an imposing figure who already stands 6-foot-4 and 315 pounds at 18 years of age.
DEFENSIVE BACKS
A year ago, Clemson faced the task of replacing three of its four starters in the defensive backfield from 2019. In a reversal of script, this year, Cornerbacks Coach Mike Reed and Safeties Coach Mickey Conn return nine of 10 defensive backs who started at least one game for the Tigers in 2020, a list lengthened by Clemson’s proclivity for opening games in packages with extra corners and safeties a year ago.
Now a junior, former five-star cornerback Andrew Booth Jr. (Dacula, Ga.) flashed in his four starts, riding SportsCenter Top 10 interceptions against both Virginia and Pitt and an acrobatic pass breakup in a Top 10 matchup with Miami to a second-team All-ACC selection.
Fellow junior Sheridan Jones (Norfolk, Va.) started eight games at cornerback a season ago, notching his first career interception after more than doubling his defensive snap count from his freshman campaign (140 in 2019, 300 in 2020). Senior Mario Goodrich (Kansas City, Mo.) started four games a year ago, including a two-interception performance against Pitt in November for which he won ACC Defensive Back of the Week after posting the first multi-interception game by a Clemson player since Cordrea Tankersley in the 2016 ACC Championship Game.
Last season provided early exposure for now-sophomores Malcolm Greene (Richmond, Va.) and Fred Davis II (Jacksonville, Fla.), a duo that totaled 31 tackles, four pass breakups, 1.5 sacks and an interception in 380 combined defensive snaps in 2020. The group was joined in January by midyear freshman enrollee Nate Wiggins (Atlanta, Ga.), a product of the same high school that produced former Clemson cornerback and 2020 first-round pick A.J. Terrell.
Like the linebacker unit in front of it, the safeties group will be led by its own “super senior,” as Nolan Turner (Vestavia Hills, Ala.) elected to utilize his blanket NCAA eligibility waiver for a sixth season in 2021. Last season, Turner earned a second-team All-America selection from the American Football Coaches Association, giving Clemson an All-America safety for a second straight year and representing the first time Clemson has had a safety honored by NCAA-recognized selectors in consecutive seasons since 1981-82, when Terry Kinard parlayed first-team honors by the AP and FWAA in 1981 into unanimous All-American honors in 1982. Two years ago, it was Turner’s interception that sealed Clemson’s Fiesta Bowl win and second straight National Championship Game berth.
Turner’s running mate at safety for most of 2020 was now-junior Lannden Zanders (Shelby, N.C.), who started nine of the 10 games in which he appeared and was credited with 34 tackles (2.5 for loss), three pass breakups, a forced fumble and a sack. Zanders was one of four safeties in Clemson’s 2019 recruiting class, alongside junior Joseph Charleston (Milton, Ga.), junior Jalyn Phillips (Lawrenceville, Ga.) and redshirt sophomore Ray Thornton III (Columbus, Ga.), all three of whom were relied upon in various packages in 2020. Charleston started six games, finishing third on the defense in both snaps (502) and tackles (55). Phillips notched his first career interception against Syracuse, while Thornton’s 2020 season was highlighted by a de-cleating sideline tackle against The Citadel.
R.J. Mickens (Southlake, Texas) and Tyler Venables (Clemson, S.C.) combined for 250 defensive snaps in their true freshman seasons in 2020. Andrew Mukuba (Austin, Texas), a midyear enrollee who joined the group in January after committing to Clemson sight unseen by virtue of NCAA recruiting restrictions preventing recruiting visits during the COVID-19 pandemic, rounds out Clemson’s scholarship depth at safety.
