Clemson’s offensive line coach, Thomas Austin, joked at one point this spring that his unit was getting a bit of a break now that the Tigers’ offense wasn’t seeing 47 different blitzes from the defense during practice.
Wesley Goodwin cracked a line in response.
“Just 46,” Clemson’s first-year defensive coordinator said with a smile.
Former Clemson linebacker Baylon Spector suggested things were even more intricate on that side of the ball under Brent Venables, who spent a decade as the Tigers’ defensive coordinator before taking his first head coaching job at Oklahoma in December.
“It feels like we had more,” said Spector, who spent five years in Venables’ system before exhausting his eligibility last fall. “If you put them all on a board, it would cover a good-sized wall.”
Point is, there was virtually no limit to the looks Venables could dial up against against opposing offenses. His defenses, consistently among the best in college football during the Tigers’ recent run of consecutive 10-win seasons, were famous for their complexities.
Now it’s Goodwin’s turn at the controls of a defense that ranked in the top 15 nationally a season ago in points and yards allowed as well as sacks and tackles for loss. Clemson has some key contributors back on that side of the ball, including its entire two-deep along the defensive line.
Goodwin, who spent the last four seasons as Venables’ top off-field assistant before being promoted, said the Tigers are largely sticking with the same concepts that were in place under Venables. But Goodwin vowed there will be some changeups under his direction.
“We’ve got some stuff BV doesn’t know about,” Goodwin said.
Like most coaches, Goodwin didn’t want to get into too many specifics publicly, but he does want to simplify some things. There are still no shortage of schematic concepts Goodwin is implementing this spring, but he said he wants to teach those in a way where his players are doing more reacting and less thinking.
“I’m a really structured thinker with my daily installs,” Goodwin said. “Our fundamentals match what we’re putting in that day. … We’ve got enough defense in. It’s not simplified schematically, per se. It’s just simplified from a teaching progression and making things easier to understand so guys can line up, play fast, get their eyes in the right spot, play physical with relentless effort, those sorts of things.”
Through nine practices, Goodwin said he has no complaints about the way his players have responded to and executed what he’s putting in place. More will be added with each practice, though perhaps not quite as much as what they were used to under their previous coordinator.
“Third-down wise, you can’t call 40 blitzes, so there’s no need to have 40 blitzes in the game plan or whatever,” Goodwin said. “I’m a real situationally thinking, structured mind. First and second down, this is what you need. Third down, this is what you need, Red zone, this is what you need. Two minute, this is what you need. And then week to week, you just build off your staples and whatnot.
“At the end of the day, I don’t feel like there’s a perfect call. I just want to see guys play fast, physical, violent, relentless and pursue the ball. They can cover up a multitude of bad calls. I can promise you that.”
But that doesn’t necessarily mean the plays Goodwin is dialing up will be less detailed than what his predecessor had in place.
“It’s going to be fun,” Goodwin said. “You won’t be disappointed, I promise. It may be even more exotic on third down, so we’ll see. We’ll show that in September.”
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