Clemson first-year defensive coordinator Wesley Goodwin sat down with the media Monday ahead of facing the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday in Death Valley.
The Miami offense and team have not had the season they were wanting, and losing their starting quarterback, Tyler Van Dyke, who went down with a shoulder injury on Oct. 22 against Duke, did not help.
However, the Hurricanes may have found a new spark in their offense to help finish the rest of the season and ultimately become bowl-eligible with just one more win. That spark being true freshman quarterback Jacurri Brown.
Brown, who got his first career start against Georgia Tech last week, completed 14 of 19 passes for 136 yards, which resulted in three touchdowns. Brown also made good use of his feet, rushing for 87 yards on 19 carries with his longest run being 24 yards.
Miami will have a lot of momentum heading into Death Valley coming off of a much-needed win a week ago. The Tigers’ defense has focused a lot in practice on how to contain Brown in both the air and on the ground.
“He is a tremendous athlete,” Goodwin said. “Huge challenge from a quarterback run-game standpoint and containing him in the pocket. Just have to continue to eliminate explosive plays both run and pass, and that’ll be the challenge this week.”
A big asset for the Tigers last week was defensive tackle Bryan Bresee. Goodwin and others believed that Bresee played his best game of the season last week against Louisville and hopes that will continue Saturday.
“I think he continues to put it together as well, and you saw it throughout the week of practice,” Goodwin said. “He had a really good week out here and was really confident, and getting the knee brace off helped as well with his confidence. Hopefully he can continue to string together good weeks as we continue to go.”