Wes Goodwin evaluates his growth in first year as Clemson defensive coordinator

Clemson DC Wes Goodwin had a successful first run in his position of coaching a side of the football that means so much to the program. That’s because, over the course of that season, he continued to learn tricks of the trade to reach the point today where he says he feels incredibly comfortable heading into his second season with the headset.

Goodwin spoke with the media this week about his growth as a coordinator during last season. He said that he quickly learned that the job was a grind but that, because it was, it quickly reaped the rewards of personal development in his job on Clemson’s staff.

“You look back and evaluate everything. This position? It grinds you up from numerous different ways,” said Goodwin. “Just from being a husband and father at home, dealing with all the stresses that come with being in this position.”

“And then just looking back? I’ve grown as a teacher. Teaching our scheme and relating to the players, what it takes every day to prepare my guys to perform at a high level. And then just overall defensively. Just adjustment wise, how to handle things in game,” Goodwin continued. “What a game week week looks like for me? I’m very comfortable in that process now. And just, from a practice standpoint, how to drill fundamental football. I’ve grown tremendously in that aspect as well.”

Goodwin worked in several roles for Clemson’s defense under Brent Venables over the last decade. Then, upon the latter’s hire at Oklahoma, Dabo Swinney hired the former from within to take over.

Goodwin most certainly did take over with how the Tigers defended in his first shot at leading them. Clemson posted numbers throughout the Top-25 nationally such as sacks, tackles for loss, and opponent fourth down percentage. Overall, their defense finished 22nd last season by giving up only 20.9 points per game.

Now, Goodwin hopes to build off that success into even more of it in his second season. He’s confident that it will happen too considering how much advancement he has seen from himself within the job.

“I’m super excited for year two and feel really confident in where I’m at personally,” Goodwin said.

Clemson 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. That’s especially so on the front seven, which has been an NFL factory for 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. However, 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 a 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.”