Clemson aware Georgia players asking Derion Kendrick for answers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Derion Kendrick spent three seasons at Clemson, playing both sides of the ball, before transferring to Georgia this offseason.

The former five-star recruit started his career as a receiver for the Tigers, before transitioning to defense prior to his sophomore year.

It’s safe to say Kendrick has knowledge about Clemson’s playbook and personnel, and Georgia players have turned to him for info ahead of Saturday’s top-5 showdown.

“I’ll ask him whatever I can, whatever I see based on technique and certain things that Clemson does,” Georgia quarterback JT Daniels said this week. “Really with D.K., it’s awesome to have a really good competitor, really good ball player.”

Clemson players and coaches are well aware that Kendrick will try to offer inside knowledge to the Bulldogs. Tigers offensive coordinator Tony Elliott admitted earlier this week that it is something that has been discussed.

“You’ve gotta be mindful of that,” Elliott said. “But you’ve also gotta understand that it happens in real time, too. You don’t wanna just change everything that you do and confuse your own guys. But you do want to give some respect to him that he may have some inside knowledge.”

Still, Elliott, defensive coordinator Brent Venables and linebacker James Skalski all said this week that they expect Derion Kendrick’s impact as far as what he can provide to teammates from a knowledge standpoint to be minimal.

He’s a good player, for sure, but they expect him to impact the game more so with his play than with information he can provide.

“At the end of the day, once it gets going, it’s not goint to be about what information he’s able to pass on. It’s going to be about the one-on-one matchups we get into,” Elliott said. “Obviously he knows our guys, we know him, so it’s going to be that cat and mouse, that battle, to see who can play the most disciplined football and go win those one-on-one matchups.”

Clemson also has knowledge on Derion Kendrick, the way he plays and possible ways to attack him. So it’s not just Kendrick with inside knowledge.

We’ll see Saturday night how Derion Kendrick impacts the game and how he performs against his former team.

“We haven’t focused on [DK] at all. … You’ve still gotta go out and play,” Venables said. “It’s not like we don’t do a lot. We do a lot. Maybe he can give a 911 on personnel, strengths, weakness, I’m not sure. … But we’re just gonna focus on us.”