Spring Notebook: Tigers Return After Scrimmage
The Clemson Tigers returned to the practice fields for the first time since Saturday's situational scrimmage. Here are some notes from the Tigers' post-practice media session.
Offensive Lineman Matt Bockhorst:
On Hunter Rayburn:
I think with Hunter. Throughout his time here we've always known he's had the physical ability is extremely gifted very athletic, he's able to carry weight very well which is something that I think might get overlooked sometimes. But for him. I think the more I've seen him turn is just from a physicality standpoint, really sticking his head in there and being able to move guys and not get knocked back.
And that goes for the run game and the past game, obviously people like to talk about physicality in the run game, but at center in the passing game, you're really setting the depth of the pocket. So the ability to sit down a bull rush especially when you have a head of nose and kind of allow that quarterback to have the space to follow through on his throws is important, so Hunter has done a great job is spraying and really taking that next step, and that's great because we need the guys to step up, especially at center with the departure of Cade. So it's been great to see him kind of come into that role and hopefully he'll continue to make those strides.
On being pissed off:
Obviously I think that's kind of a widely known sentiment that people have been somewhat critical of the offensive line play over the past season and as Walker mentioned I would say some of that is definitely warranted.
As I've had the chance to go look back at the film throughout the season. I think we started off well look at the first couple games, including the Miami game I think we did very well. Communication and things, and then throughout the season it just becomes very inconsistent. Obviously Notre Dame was a tale of two games.
We came out and played very well in the run game against Pittsburgh, and then maybe not so well against Ohio State and so it's definitely frustrating for me as an older guy. I put a lot of time and effort into this and it's something that matters to me, and I care about it, I take pride in it and, and I know that every day I'm working to make sure that I get better and correct the things that need to be corrected and also bring along the young guys, so that we do have the support maybe some more depth that we didn't have last year, but at the end of the day, it would be very easy for me to say well we didn't have the depth, or we didn't have a full offseason or I wasn't healthy and point the point to those reasons as to why we maybe didn't play as well as we should have today, that doesn't really matter what the reason is and what's a legitimate reason and what's not under the dais we didn't play as well as we were capable of playing as well as we're required to play. So, moving forward, we're really trying to instill a mindset that we need to get better, and the team's not gonna go as far as we're gonna take them. And obviously that was evident, this past season.
Linebacker Trenton Simpson:
On his role:
As of today in the spring just trying to make sure I get that Sam position all the way down and and now working on my Sam, Mike and Will and learning all three positions so I can be most as versatile as possible whenever I come out of Sam I can rotate...and just be able to play at a high level and that's what Coach V, he's trying to get me prepare for it to be ready for September 4 for all positions.
Biggest thing he learned:
You know, execute and play as hard as I can on every rep because you don't know, until last season. So you know, playing hard just getting a feel to get out the way was good for me so I learned a lot from last year.
Different intensity:
We're reminded constantly how our last outcome was and we won't forget about it. So every day we're starting off tougher, trying to set a mindset for the rest of the spring and all the way up until now to be ready to be more physically ready, you know, in the trenches from d-line, linebackers to the back seven just everywhere, everybody in it hit somebody strike and will be on their side of the line of scrimmage every play.
