Is Brent Venables Clemson’s X-Factor?

By Matthew Osborne
SouthernPigskin.com

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If the defense can catch up to the production of its offensive counterparts, the Tigers very well be able to piece together a successful campaign in 2012.

The Clemson Tigers would love nothing more than to put last year’s season-ending debacle in the Orange Bowl completely behind them.

After starting the 2011 season a perfect 8-0 and rising to as high as No. 5 in the national polls, the Tigers lost three of their final four regular season games, rebounded to topple Virginia Tech for the ACC championship, but were ultimately thrashed 70-33 by West Virginia in Miami.

The 70 points allowed to the Mountaineers ultimately led to the departure of defensive coordinator Kevin Steele.

With long-time Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables now set to take over the same position in Death Valley, the Tigers feel better about the prospects for a defensive unit which, quite frankly, came unglued over the second half of last season.

Amazingly, over the last eight games of the 2011 season, the Clemson defense gave up an average of 36.6 points per game. If you exclude the ACC Championship Game against Virginia Tech, where the Tigers allowed just 10 points, Clemson gave up over 40 points per game over the second half of the season.

With seven starters set to return to an offense which should be the best in the ACC, Clemson knows that the success of the upcoming season will squarely hinge on the amount of improvement made on the defensive side of the football.

One man who is undoubtedly hoping that Venables’ presence will lead to immediate and significant defensive improvement is head coach Dabo Swinney.

“Well, I hope we play a lot better on defense this year,” Swinney commented at ACC Media Days Monday. “You know, the biggest thing is just, Brent brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm, and I think the chemistry is very, very good. We’ve got a lot of guys that got some experience last year that are back, especially on the back end, secondary and linebacker group, that hopefully will be better. The biggest thing is, with our system, we’re keeping a lot of the things that we’ve built in place here the last year years, but we’ve also simplified things.”

For better or for worse, the Tigers will return seven starters from last year’s defense in 2012. Six of those starters return in the defensive back seven, leaving the defensive line as an area of concern heading into summer camp.

To hear Swinney tell it, however, there is no shortage of talent on his team at any position. While some experts may believe that the Tigers lack elite talent at certain defensive positions, Swinney says that lack of talent will not be an excuse if the defense fails to perform at a high level this fall.

“I don’t really have a concern from a talent standpoint. I think we’ve got good players; I really like the personnel on our team.”

Although Clemson’s head man does not believe that there is any shortage of talent or athleticism on his depth chart, he is slightly more concerned about the youth of some of his starters, and how well his inexperienced crop of players have progressed over the offseason.

“I think the storyline of this team is going to be the development and the emergence of our sophomores. We played a bunch of freshmen last year. If you look at our team, we have one senior defensive lineman, we have no juniors, and we have all sophomores and freshmen,” Swinney said. “There’s a bunch of sophomores that are going to have to start for us in the trenches. That, to me, is going to be the real storyline early on.”

As the Tigers prepare to battle with preseason favorite Florida State and the rest of the Atlantic Division for the right to play in Charlotte in December, the eyes of Tiger Nation will be zeroed in on Coach Venables and the defense.

Barring an unforeseen collapse, Clemson’s offense will light up the scoreboard this season.

If the defense can catch up to the production of its offensive counterparts, the Tigers very well be able to piece together a successful campaign in 2012.