Clemson's Defense Causes 'A lot' of Problems

ORLANDO, FL—If anyone is expecting the Clemson Tiger defense to take a step back after the departure of Brent Venables to become the head coach at Oklahoma, the Iowa State Cyclones, the Tigers opponent in the Cheez-It Bowl (Dec. 29, 5:45 pm) are not among that group.

In fact, when offensive coordinator Tom Manning looks at the Tiger defense he sees a lot of players who can cause a lot of problems.

"I think not only schematically do they have the ability to attack you in a variety of ways, and from the front end and the back end in terms of those things, but I think you pair that with a really good scheme, multiple schemes, paired with really good football players and really intelligent football players, which is a credit to their players and also a credit to their staff," Manning said. "Yes, they are very, very talented players, but you see those guys, they can handle a lot and they make very few mistakes. I think from our end there's a lot of challenges, and certainly they have played a very good defense for a long time there, and certainly that's what we would anticipate."

The biggest unknown for the Cyclones comes in the form of the person calling the defense for the Tigers. With Venables gone, the playcalling duties turn to Wes Goodwin—meaning the Cyclones have to be ready for some new "wrinkles".

"I'm sure they have had maybe some of their own wrinkles that they have wanted to put in and maybe there have been some things that schematically that they are going to change," Manning said. "But I think in a few weeks, I don't know if you can dramatically change everything from a wholesale standpoint. Certainly, there will be elements we think, but also we are not naïve enough to know that there's some new elements or wrinkles or things that maybe they have done in the past they would like to focus on a little bit more. That is certainly the challenge for us is that there are new coordinators that are certainly capable and have been around for a long time and have coached a lot of football. I think that is a challenge from our end. Trying to figure out what is going on in the football game I think will be something that we have to certainly pay attention to."

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