Clemson Tigers LB Says "Too Many Mistakes" Led to Georgia Tech Loss

In a season where the Clemson Tigers’ defense has allowed the team to remain in games, it wasn’t enough to get past Georgia Tech, who took down the Tigers on a game-winning field goal.

Linebacker Wade Woodaz knows the team has to be better, saying that Clemson’s weakness was that the team can’t make mistakes against a strong team like the Yellow Jackets.

“I just think we made too many mistakes all day,” Woodaz said after Saturday’s loss. “Give credit to them, they’re a great team [and Haynes King] is a dawg. We just made too many mistakes and couldn’t come up clutch in the end.”

Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King ended up with the ball in his hands for a majority of the team’s plays, especially in the second half. The Clemson defense gave up 314 yards from King in the loss, including 103 yards on the ground that extended drives throughout the contest.

Woodaz believes that the defense’s attention to detail was a factor in the team’s loss.

“I just think attention to detail,” the senior said. “I don't think it’s a lack of effort, lack of heart, anything like that. Again, what did we do wrong today? We were just making small mental mistakes, and they capitalized on that, so attention to detail.

I just think some missed fits, missed tackles, obviously, simple technique and eyes on the right things.”

The loss gives Clemson a losing record at 1-2 with the tough schedule to open the year. While the schedule opens up over the next stretch of games, which includes Syracuse, North Carolina and Boston College over the next three games.

Defensive coordinator Tom Allen has the defense attempting to flush this loss, with an opportunity to ger back into ACC play this weekend against the Orange.

““He just wanted to see our response,” Woodaz said. “We have to stay together as a team, stay together as a unit. That’s it.”

There’s no going back now for the Tigers, who would love to have these two losses back as the program believes that the team was “two or three plays away” from being undefeated. Woodaz knows that the team can’t do anything about the past, it’s about responding.

“We’ve got to respond,” the linebacker said. “We are what we put on the tape. We are a 1-2 football team, we have to learn from it. That’s all we can do.”

With a program that wins as much as Clemson does, a losing record tends to get the community fired up with what comes next. For Woodaz, it’s a part of being with the program.

“We don’t really let that stuff get into our heads,” he said. Obviously, it’s disappointing, but all we can do now is just control our response and move on.”

Clemson and Syracuse will kick off from Memorial Stadium at noon on Saturday.