Dabo Swinney offers high praise to KJ Henry after continued progress

One of the most visibly dominant players on the Clemson defensive front on Monday night against Georgia Tech was fifth-year senior KJ Henry — and he is in the midst of plenty of great defensive linemen. So dominant was Henry that head coach Dabo Swinney couldn’t help but heap on praise for the edge rusher.

Beyond the performance, Swinney gushed about the commitment Henry made to get from good to great this offseason, transforming his body and refining his play. The results on Monday — one sack, 2.5 tackles for loss, seven total tackles and generally wreaking havoc in the backfield and heating up GT quarterback Jeff Sims — were just a product of an offseason of work.

“Just his improvement as a player,” Swinney said on Tuesday. “He would’ve never had a stat line like that a couple years ago. But it just is a reminder to everyone that this is a developmental game. And if you put in the work and you’re talented — he’s always been talented — but if you have self awareness and then you put in the work and you really pay the price, talent plus great work ethic plus character and commitment, man you’re going to get the results you want.

“And he has just transformed his body. He has become very technically, fundamentally sound and savvy. His motor is a much higher level than it was a couple years ago. And he just is way more physical than he’s ever been. And his stat line last night was really, really outstanding.”

Henry and Clemson’s defense overwhelmed the Yellowjackets for basically the entire game, save for one touchdown drive in the third quarter and a field goal right before the half. Otherwise, it was lights out. Sims threw for just 164 yards and Georgia Tech had 73 rushing yards as a team. In a game where it took a while for the Tigers offense to thaw out, the defense — and special teams — came to play.

Henry was every bit a part of that. He got home on Sims on the very first play of the game, disrupting a throw and giving sophomore safety Andrew Mukuba a chance to intercept the pass, which he did. It was a tone-setting play for the rest of the night. Swinney, after the fact, thought about how enjoyable it was to see Henry wrecking things coming off the edge.

“So it’s just fun. He’s a fifth-year senior, that’s been a good player and he’s trying to transition to become a great player. That’s been his goal, that’s why he came back here. So it’s fun to see him get off to a good start last night,” Swinney said.