Venables: No Circling the Wagons From Us
CLEMSON— After a game like North Carolina—which the second-ranked Clemson Tigers won by one-point—many were asking what is wrong with the Tigers.
When asked if there was a meeting after the game by some of the veteran leaders of the Tiger team to 'circle the wagons' and to ensure that kind of game did not happen again, defensive coordinator Brent Venables took exception to anyone who thinks that there is cause for concern.
"After a game like North Carolina, I don't know. Again there was no circling the wagon from us," Venables said. "Again we could have been better in a lot of spots. But you know I think that's totally discrediting what North Carolina did. And again, I think that again, I'm proud of our guys. We had fun, we made plays, and we certainly made enough mistakes to lose a game.
"And I put them in a bad call in the third in short, so that's not their fault, that's my fault. But you can't steer in the back field and recovery guy, being the man, and expect him not to throw it to him either."
However much the outside world may question the Tigers and what is wrong with them, the Tigers responders the way that their coaching staff wanted. But just because Venables is not ready condemn his players play does not mean that he is satisfied with their performance.
"But our guys respond within the game. That's what you want to see. It's not what happens because things are going to happen," Venables said. "And so we didn't need anybody to have to say anything. They knew. We've got enough awareness. We don't have our head in the sands as coaches and certainly don't as players. It's a long season.
"We've got improvement to make. We said it going into the game and we'll say it after; the same thing. And you can't self-inflict, you know, in critical situations, you've got to be better. For example, our guys knew that we lost leverage. Didn't do a good job getting our hands up on the last drive of the game on some critical situations, you know. Stopped them on third down, didn't stop them on fourth down."
If the Tigers are going to continue get better this season, they must start by doing the little things better—which was their focus during the bye week.
"We've got to do better and get more precise with alignment; understanding the done distance. And an awareness of what the offense gives you in these situations," Venables said. "So we get off the field, there is no touchdown. There is no two-point conversion. We don't get to that. So that's really what the focus, we've been saying it to those guys about a year, there's a lot more good than there was bad. And there's certainly bad.
"But a lot of our guys responded within the game. Hated the last drive after we had really done a nice job of responding after the first quarter. We've got settled in and playing well in the second half and then we give up, you know, sixteen-play drive. so you gotta play the story within the story. It's not just 16 plays and they had their way. We had plenty of opportunities within the drive to get off the field and to help learn from that."
The challenge this week will be to contain a Florida State Seminole offense that has become resurgent in recent weeks. That resurgence is, in part, due to a change at quarterback.
After an injury sidelined starting quarterback James Blackman, the Seminoles turned to Wisconsin transfer Alex Hornibrook. Regardless of who the Tigers face Saturday, Venables is expecting the same hard-fought game.
"I see a lot more similarities than differences; to guys that understand the system, two guys that are playing well within the system," Venables said. "Both of them long and have good mobility. Pocket when they need to. Do a good job of managing the offense and the flow in precision. The both of them got big arms to top off the defense and both of them have enough savvy-ness that, you know, when things break down they can improvise and make plays, extend plays, and they have the ability and the instincts to keep their eyes down the field. And create a lot of big plays that way.
"So they both got great leadership and toughness. I've seen them both get stroked pretty good and then respond with no Blackman. He had a really nice year last year as a first year starter. So when the Hornibrook' a winner, you know what he's done at Wisconsin, he's used to winning, he's used to leading. So they've got a lot of the same characteristics and traits."
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