Sophomore linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. has established himself as a firm leader in Clemson’s defensive unit after his second consecutive game of leading the team in tackles.
Trotter, who has been playing the Mike position this season, has emphasized to the media that he is making a more conscious effort to be a vocal leader on the defense, which is something Clemson seemed to be missing in the loss to Notre Dame just a few weeks ago. The New Jersey native shared with the media after Saturday’s 40-10 win over Miami what shifted for the defense after the loss to the Irish.
“Definitely the mentality, the work ethic and overall our technique has become a lot better as far as everybody making sure they are doing their job,” he said.
The 6-foot, 230-pounder added that the defense is progressing on an upward trend in the right direction at the most critical point of the season.
“I feel like this defense has definitely taken a step forward in the right direction,” he said.
With a reinvigorated mindset and some cleanup on technique, the Clemson defense had one of the most dominant performances of the season in the win over Miami on Saturday. The efficiency of Clemson’s run defense was on full display, holding Miami to just 8 total yards of offense in the first half.
Trotter, who came up with nine total tackles, continually applied pressure to the Miami offense, not allowing them to garner any momentum for the majority of the game. Trotter indicated that Clemson had been preparing for the run game of Miami all week, and evidently that preparation yielded good results for the Tigers on the field.
“That was definitely an emphasis point of our game plan, just stopping that quarterback run,” he said. “We knew No. 11 (Jacurri Brown) liked to run the ball, they liked to run the ball with No. 11 a lot with those QB counters, those QB draws. All during the week, coach was emphasizing that we got to stop that and basically turn our attention to stop that run.”
The Clemson defense held Miami’s offense to the third fewest yards in the program’s history, and Trotter believes that’s a direct reflection of the physicality the defense brought to the game.
“I feel like that just shows the type of game the defense played,” he said. “Stopping them and being able to get negative yards and tackles for loss, just being dominant the entire game.”
This week, with Trenton Simpson back in the linebacker corps alongside Barrett Carter and Trotter after being sidelined with an injury last week, Trotter shared that it felt good to be back in their normal groove and see the defense collectively play with such dominance.
“It was great having Barrett (Carter) out there, having Trenton (Simpson) out there after his injury,” he said. “And you know he was making plays, balling out, Barrett was balling out. I just feel like altogether the defense collectively, we all played very well.”