Brent Venables on Ohio State; What Tigers Have Learned

Speaking to the media for the first time since Clemson's forgettable performance defensively against Ohio State, defensive coordinator Brent Venables was ready to get back to work after a poor showing in the Sugar Bowl.

Here is what he said about the game and how the Tigers have moved forward and are three days from their annual spring game:

"You don't play like we played and perform as we performed, and all of a sudden, you did a great job getting prepared or had this great game plan; we just didn't execute. The preparation, the game plan; just burn it all. And we did a poor job having our guys prepared on both lines of scrimmage. We got physically outworked. They got after us in every way, all three levels of our defense we were out physical, and I don't think we had the right mindset; I think that goes without saying.

"I think they established the run early and set up play-action passes. We let guys run by us in three deep and two deep, and we let guys run right through us. They didn't set the edge all day, got knocked off the ball; it was a bad night, coaching and playing, to say the least. So, we got a lot of work to do. I don't want to take anything away from the season we had; we had a great year and fought through a lot of adversity like many teams did in college football, the NFL, and all sports. We had some great moments during the year; going into the playoffs, coming out of the playoffs. Actually, if you look at the playoff teams. But if you look at us, compared to the other four playoff teams, I think out of those four playoff teams; we're number one in defense in 15 of 26 categories, whether that's total defense, pass defense, rush defense, sacks, tackles for loss, third-down defense all those, there's a lot that is positive.

"Certainly, we had an excellent year and a terrible ending, and a lot to learn from; it's a humbling experience. And a lot of self-evaluation and again where we got to get better. The most important thing that we do in the offseason and what we've tried to emphasize during spring ball is improving our physicality at all three levels. We had nine new starters this year; sometimes, young guys play a little bit more on their heels at times because they hadn't been there done that, so that's part of it that grows in that maturation."

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