Clemson's defense defined as 'off-road tires' in 2023

Even when Clemson was led by star quarterbacks like Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence, the defense was the standard that the Tigers built their success on. Especially on the front seven, which has been an NFL factory of nearly a decade now.

That will be the case again this year. Expectations are high for second-year quarterback Cade Klubnik and first-year offensive coordinator Garrett Riley but it will be the defense that sets the tone for Clemson.

As On3’s J.D. PicKell recently put it, the defense will be in great position to set up how the Tigers will want to play.

“Defensively for Clemson, I define them as the off-road tires,” PicKell said. “You and I know, when you have tires that can go off road your options just become much, much more vast as to where you can travel to. You can win ugly games. You can play game control. You can slow the game down offensively if you were to want to do that for Garrett Riley, not really in his philosophy, but maybe they want to if they get into one of those games and they’re having trouble getting it going offensively. Because this defense, I think you’re going to be able to lean on.”

The Tigers lost some key players to the NFL Draft in the offseason, including first round picks Myles Murphy and Bryan Bresee from the defensive line.

But they also have key players coming back and lots of depth to go around.

“Bring back 75% of the production from a season ago that only allowed 23 points a game,” PicKell said. “That front seven is just silly. Xavier Thomas is a bad dream coming off the edge. Barrett Carter, pretty sure his ZIP Code resides wherever the Clemson weight room is. Pretty sure he just has a cot and pulls up in there and does curls and does squats and all that. I’m pretty sure it’s just how he gets down in his past time. They got some guys, Jeremiah Trotter Jr., they got some dogs now in this front seven.”

The big question mark last season for the team was the secondary, which struggled at times during the season.

“Now the secondary last year was not bad,” PicKell said. “At times, they were bad. What are you if you’re bad at times, you’re just inconsistent. Saw them look phenomenal against UNC and Drake Maye, who is going to be the No. 2 pick this coming season. Then I saw them really struggle against Wake Forest. I understand they were dinged up last year. The hope then is that the depth and the experience is able to hold. Depth obviously kind of going hand in hand with having some health. “

The defensive backfield will be a key reason for the team’s success if Clemson is back in the College Football Playoff race come November. But the inverse will also likely be true.

If the secondary doesn’t step up, the Tigers might not be in contention for a playoff spot.

“They don’t have bad players on the back end,” PicKell said. “That’s what I think we really need to hammer home here. It’s not like the personnel is just horrific for Clemson and that’s why they were inconsistent. They were inconsistent because they were playing young players. Like Nate Wiggins was a four-star player out of high school. Dude’s got some ability we saw him really come on at the end of the year, especially in the ACC title game. They got to be more consistent on the back end because if they can, that front seven is gonna hold it down. And at that point, I don’t know how you attack this Clemson defense.”