Clemson graduates have dominated both at the college level and professional level on the defensive line.
Super Bowl LI has written its own headlines. Everyone is talking about the Patriots and their leaders Brady and Belichick built the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, erasing a 28-3 lead late in the third quarter, and how the Falcons will forever be associated with a choke job even Greg Norman would scoff at.
The attention is on Brady, and rightly so. You don’t pass 43-62 for 466 yards and 2 touchdowns, breaking multiple records in the process, while leading both a game tying drive and a game winning drive in overtime without due attention. B
rady’s second half and fourth quarter will be something football fans, coaches, and players will watch, study, and talk about for years to come. However, heavily ignored is the first half when the Falcons defense dominated the Patriot offense.
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Clemson graduate and former captain Grady Jarrett anchored the Falcons defense that pushed around the Patriot offensive line in the first half.
Little has been talked about this given the Falcons’ epic collapse in the second half, but Jarrett had the best defensive performance on the field and it wasn’t close.
Atlanta’s defensive line was impressive during the regular season and their playoff run, but Jarrett was not the point man during that time. It was his former teammate from Clemson, Vic Beasley.
Beasley had a monster season in 2016, finishing the regular season leading the NFL in sacks as a second year player. Beasley received a great deal of attention from the Patriots offensive line and offensive stat, being on the receiving end of multiple double teams throughout the Super Bowl because of his pass rushing ability.
This opened Jarrett up on the inside, where he was able to create major havoc and record a tying-record 3 sacks on Tom Brady during the Super Bowl. Jarrett joins the likes of Reggie White, Darnell Dockett for Arizona in 2009, and Kony Ealy last year for Carolina as a player that recorded 3 sacks in a Super Bowl.
Even more impressive is that he’s now one of only two players (his counterpart being Joey Porter of the 2004 Steelers) to sack Tom Brady three times in one game.
Jarrett had been frequently overlooked during his career, with players such as Beasley receiving more of the spotlight. Jarrett was a fifth round pick in 2015 following his senior year anchoring the #1 defense in college football the previous season.
Plenty of NFL draft pundits underestimated Jarrett and his ability, and he slowly worked his way up to being one of the Falcons’ best defensive players alongside his friend Beasley. The pair being only second year players bodes very well for the Falcons, and it appears the two are just getting started.
Departed D-Line coaches Dan Brooks and Marion Hobby can look on with pride and see their work pay off so well in just these two alone. Beasley is especially a unique case, as he entered Clemson’s campus as a running back before transitioning to defensive end. Earning All-American status as both a junior and a senior, Beasley became one of the best defensive players to ever play for Clemson.
Beasley notably scored a touchdown against Syracuse his senior year, and also recorded a strip-sack on South Carolina QB Dylan Thompson that changed the game and helped lead the Tigers to their first victory over the Gamecocks in 5 years. He was Clemson’s highest defensive pick in years when he was drafted by Atlanta in the first round, and has been a significant contributor to the Falcons defense since then.
As a rookie, he recorded a strip-sack on Carolina Panthers QB Cam Newton, the likes of which ended the Panthers’ chances at coming back to win over the Falcons, thus ending the Panthers’ hopes for an undefeated regular season.
Outside of the Falcons, Clemson’s other defensive line products have shined as well. Both hampered by injuries, highly touted picks Kevin Dodd and Shaq Lawson succeeded in the limited time they got on the field for their respective teams. Lawson sat out a great deal of his rookie season due to his need for shoulder surgery.
Clemson fans remember that his shoulder injury had hampered him for a lot of his senior season, notably in the College Football Playoff. Then-Bills Head Coach Rex Ryan drafted Lawson knowing he needed the surgery, but believed in Lawson anyway.
Lawson’s second game for the Bills saw him record his first NFL sack against Tom Brady no less. This was one of the few sacks the New England allowed during the regular season, and Lawson recorded it against one of the best offensive lines in the NFL.
Dodd saw similar success, where he recorded his first sack in his second game for the Tennessee Titans against the Detroit Lions. Clemson alumni Andre Branch has also seen great success on the defensive line, having recorded 5.5 sacks this past season for the Miami Dolphins.
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Looking forward, this trend appears that it will not stop anytime soon. While losing Hobby and Brooks to the NFL and retirement does hurt, the talent that Clemson has stockpiled in recruiting for the defensive line shows that they’ll continue to put talent into the NFL on a regular basis.
Clemson’s blue chip freshman Dexter Lawrence won the ACC Rookie of the Year on defense this past season, and Christian Wilkins has proven to be one of the most versatile defensive linemen in college football.
While he’s supposed to be a defensive tackle, he played most of 2016 at defensive end after Austin Bryant went down with an injury. He also famously caught a fake punt from Andy Teasdall in the 2015 Orange Bowl against Oklahoma, a play that shifted momentum for the rest of the game.
Freshman defensive end Clelin Ferrell also had an impressive 2016 season, having sacked Heisman Trophy-winning QB Lamar Jackson of Louisville twice during their clash on October 1 at Death Valley. His best play came in the College Football Playoff against Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. He posted four tackles and a sack against Buckeye QB J.T. Barrett.
He and the Clemson defense dominated Ohio State completely, holding them to less than 250 yards of total offense and only 88 yards rushing for a team that averaged over 200 yards a game previously. He won defensive MVP in the Fiesta Bowl and still has two more years of eligibility following 2016. Clemson also recruited very well on the DL this past recruiting class, and this makes for a bright future on the defensive line.
Clemson also will likely see graduate Carlos Watkins drafted this year as well. He was a major force for Clemson alongside Dexter Lawrence. Watkins recorded 30 solo tackles and 10.5 sacks as a redshirt senior in 2016, and is a favorite to be drafted early.
Fellow upperclassman Scott Pagano will likely fill Watkins’ spot going forward in 2017. While it is still early to tell, 2017 looks to be strong as ever on the defensive line with the returning talent anchoring the defense.
While absences like Watkins, linebacker Ben Boulware, cornerback Cordrea Tankersley, and safety Jadar Johnson will definitely be missed, if there’s one thing the Clemson faithful have learned the past few seasons its that DC Brent Venables can reload completely on defense year after year with major attrition to the NFL.
Clemson has now joined the likes of Alabama and Missouri with their NFL output reaching levels of consistency year after year. Safe to say after Super Bowl LI last Sunday, Clemson is D-Line U.