Clemson’s latest and lone loss of the season at Notre Dame has many wondering just what has transpired since the beginning of the season to now. With the Tigers coming into the season with one of the most highly touted defensive units in the country, Saturday’s performance came as a shock not just to outsiders, but also to linebacker Barrett Carter and his teammates, who chalk up the loss to a lack of discipline on their end.
“I think it was really more on us,” Carter said. “We’ve got to be more disciplined with our gaps. No one needs to be a superhero; I’m not talking about anyone in general, just do your job and the plays will make themselves. We’ve just got to be more disciplined as a defense, stay in our gaps and then we’ll stop them, and we weren’t doing that, so we just got to move on.”
Moving full steam ahead, Carter hopes to draw from the immense experience and knowledge that was set before him.
During his freshman campaign in 2021, the Peach State native had the opportunity to learn from some of Clemson’s best in guys like James Skalski and Baylon Spector, both of whom brought a level of precision to the game that Carter hopes to emulate both in the linebacker room and in the defensive backfield this season.
“Having them, they made things so much easier,” the sophomore said. “They were students of the game, so when I was coming in, they helped me a lot with that. I think we are just trying to sort of pick up where they left off, just being students of the game like that and kind of knowing what’s happening before it even happens.
“Of course, we’re still working every day to get better and strive to keep being students of the game, keep learning what offenses are gonna do so we kinda know what to expect, just like Skalski and Baylon would. They taught us a lot, so we’re just trying to learn from them and pick up where they left off, especially being students of the game like them.”
Despite the sting that comes with the loss, there is no time for Carter and the Tigers’ defense to lose faith. With three more matchups on deck at Memorial Stadium as well as an ACC Championship performance right around the corner, now’s the time to lock in and keep fighting for what the linebacker hopes is another College Football Playoff berth.
“Of course, and we’re never losing faith,” Carter said. “We know what our goals are as a team, so that’s always going to be the end goal. This loss that we just took, there’s no demoralization throughout the team. We’re still focused, we know what all we can accomplish, all of our goals are still on the table, and you never know what can happen throughout all of college football. We’re just going to go to work and whatever happens, happens, but we’re going to keep fighting as a team and just finish as strong as we can.”
