Swinney Takes Up for Defense

Regardless of what the outside voices have to say about the Tiger defense and any questions they may have about their ability to hold up, one thing is certain—the Tigers are 5-0 and have not played their best football yet.

CLEMSON—Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has always been a coach that will take up for his player, his team and his program. 

But through the last four seasons there has been little that anyone could criticize his program for, and, therefore, little reason for Swinney to put on hiss cape as defender of the program. That was until Tuesday, when Swinney was asked about his defenses personnel and scheme and whether or not that was the cause of some of their issues this season.

"No. We're top 10 in the country in defense. We're giving up 12 points per game and our schedule has been stronger through five games this year versus last year when we were giving up 16 points a game early," Swinney said. "It's hard to score on us. I love our growth. After five games, holy cow, this was going to be a tough September. I thought there would be some adversity but I thought it would come against A&M or at Syracuse, but it happened at North Carolina. North Carolina has a pretty good first group on both sides. Get up there, you don't have your A-game and it gets rolling against you."

Swinney reiterated that, while his defense may be young and inexperienced on the defensive line—replacing all four starters from last year's team—he still likes the entire crew. But that sometimes failure is the best way for those youngsters to gain the experience that will pay dividends later in the season.

"I like our five defensive ends. They've had some success, some failure, there has been a lot of coaching," Swinney said. "We just need to apply the knowledge we have learned and not make some of the same mistakes. I'm very confident with our development. Tyler Davis has played just five games. Same thing with Nyles and his new role and Jordan and the sack he had up at North Carolina. I like what we've got going on at backer."

The biggest question mark for the defense through their first five games has been their tackling, or lack of tackling in critical situations. However, Swinney believes it is as much a credit to the offenses and running backs the Tigers have faced as it is a critic of his defense.

"We missed some tackles and didn't fit things up properly," Swinney said. "Charlotte was good. I told y'all going in that they could run the ball. It only takes a couple of big runs. We didn't fit up a power they ran on us for 31 yards. We missed two tackles on that last drive and it resulted in a long run. We gave up 4.1 and 3.9 the last two weeks. That's not our standard. We have to be disciplined, line up right, squeeze properly, just details. We've had some missed tackles. It's not like people are mashing us, but details are important. 

"Good backs have a way of finding those creases. We had different guys in there late against Charlotte, but our standard doesn't change. North Carolina popped a couple of big runs on us."

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Regardless of what the outside voices have to say about the Tiger defense and any questions they may have about their ability to hold up, one thing is certain—the Tigers are 5-0 and have not played their best football yet. 

Which is good thing for Swinney.

"They give up some plays but they're human. We've done a nice job there," Swinney said. "We have to get better, yes. If you're at your best right now, it's probably not going to end well. We're 5-0 and we're not close to playing our best football."

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