With every contributor on the two-deep back at the position from last season, Clemson expects to once again have one of the top defensive lines in college football this fall.
“I think we all know what we have up front,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said recently. “Those guys are as advertised.”
With that in mind, Swinney had a message for his defensive line coaches this spring: Get the younger linemen more significant reps. That’s meant less work for proven commodities like Myles Murphy, Xavier Thomas, K.J. Henry and Tyler Davis and more run with the first and second units for the likes of Kevin Swint, Greg Williams and Cade Denhoff on the edges and Payton Page and DeMonte Capehart on the interior.
“(Swinney) was like ‘Ski, I want you to dial back the snaps for the older guys and let’s get more reps (for the others),” defensive ends coach Lemanski Hall said. “I needed to see Greg. I needed to see Kevin because they didn’t play a lot last year. Not only that, but I needed to see (freshman defensive ends) Zaire (Patterson) and Cade. They were on the scout team last year. They didn’t get a lot of reps during the season, so I was able to see, from a development standpoint, where they are and where they needed to be.”
Swinney said the reps for those players as a whole have been “very productive” through the course of the spring, which will conclude for Clemson on Saturday with the annual Orange and White Game at Memorial Stadium. A handful of them have impressed more than others.
At end, Hall said Swint and Williams, a pair of rising juniors who’ve spent the last year and change getting used to their new position after making the switch from linebacker, have progressed to the point that they’re vying to become the fifth and sixth members of the rotation come the fall. Denhoff and Patterson were both four-star recruits in the Tigers’ 2021 signing class who redshirted last season.
Meanwhile, Page has earned rave reviews at tackle from both teammates and coaches. His position coach, Nick Eason, said the rising sophomore, who’s lost approximately 60 pounds after arriving on campus last year north of 350 pounds, was “right at the top” of the position group with his increased mobility and overall performance early in the spring.
“He has been great this spring,” first-year defensive coordinator Wesley Goodwin said of Page. “He has been really focused, and he has gotten better every day.”
With fellow tackles Bryan Bresee and Tre Williams out this spring recovering from injuries, rising junior Etinosa Reuben and Capehart, a third-year sophomore, have gotten more significant reps as well. A former top-50 recruit, Capehart missed most of last season with a knee injury. Swinney said Page and Capehart will continue to get plenty of reps during Saturday’s game.
Swinney said he’s been generally pleased with the way all of the linemen further down the depth chart have taken advantage of their increased workload this spring.
“We’ve got a lot of guys getting a ton of work that really, really need it,” Swinney said.
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