Young team means coaching with 'both hands on the wheel'

CLEMSON — For Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, the 2019 football season will be significantly different than 2018.

Not because of expectations, which are always high, or because of a lack of coaching continuity, as is the case with a number of schools. Instead, the reason for the 2019 season being a different challenge will be the youth of the Tigers.

"It's different just because if you look at our roster, we have 120 on the roster, and 80 of them are freshmen and sophomores, and then 40 of them are juniors and seniors," Swinney said. "So you have to train a little different in the summer because it's just a lot to teach. ... It's our job to meet them where they are. It's not their job to come to us. I mean we've got to meet them where they are in their developmental process as a person, as a player, strength conditioning or whatever it may be."

The Tigers youth is seen not only in the numbers of the team, but also in their signees. Clemson signed the highest number of recruits in Swinney's tenure for the 2019 class at 29 players.

Those factors mean that Swinney and the rest of the coaching staff will spend more time holding the wheel than they had to last season when the team was a senior-laden squad.

"So when you have a team like this, and it's got to be a little more coach-led in certain cases," Swinney said. "That team last year, I mean, I just kind of bumped them here and there to keep them on target. But it's great when you have unbelievable (leadership). Most seniors we've had, they were so committed — unbelievable leaders — and they had complete ownership of our program.

"And so as coaches, we've got to — they're still young. And so we have to keep our hand on the wheel a little bit and make sure that we kind of steer the course a little more with a young team."

The biggest issue or area of concern for the Tigers heading into the 2019 season is the defensive line, according to coaches.

The line was the anchor and the vocal and emotional leaders in 2018 with Clelin Ferrell, Christian Wilkins, Austin Bryant, Dexter Lawrence and Albert Huggins all holding places of seniority and commanding the respect of, not only their fellow defensive linemen, but the entire defense.

Even though those leaders are gone now, Swinney believes that some of his younger "hands on the wheel" players will rise up to the challenge before them.

"We've got a few of them but not as many," Swinney said. "That was just a very unique team. And not only was it unique in that aspect, but they love that part of where they were in their journey. I mean they loved it. They loved saying, 'Coach, I got this.'

"You know, sometimes they knew what was coming, and they would be like, 'Hey coach, we got it.' And then they'd go handle it, you know? And that's pretty cool. You know, when you've been around a group, and they are so bought in to what you do and believe in what you do, they want to enforce it. ... That's pretty cool."

"We don't have as much of that," he added. "But we've got some really, really strong committed program guys that I'm super proud of. You know, a guy like K'Von (Wallace), a guy like (James) Skalski, a guy like Noah (DeHond) and Denzel (Johnson) and A.J. (Terrell). A.J. is a great leader. We're just super excited. Tanner Muse.

"I mean these guys have done a phenomenal job of leading, and they're well-respected on both sides of the ball."

Add us as a preferred source on Google