Clemson Football: James Skalski playing with a chip on his shoulder

Clemson football LB James Skalski is ready for the season to begin. He’s playing with a bit of a chip on his shoulder coming into the year.

James Skalski was made available to the media following Clemson football’s practice Tuesday afternoon and it’s clear that the redshirt junior linebacker has a chip on his shoulder.

Skalski was an intriguing interview to listen to and it’s becoming apparent that he’s going to be a leader on that the Tiger defense.

Though many aren’t familiar with James Skalski, it won’t take long for Clemson football fans to become acquainted with the talented linebacker. He described his play as a guy who loves physicality and said that the Tigers are going to be much better on defense than what the national media expects.

"“Skalski’s like a super-athletic Ben Boulware. No knock on Ben. Ben’s great. He had tremendous instincts, that’s why he played so great. But Skalski is super athletic, super fast. And he will hit you,” Clemson Safety Tanner Muse told The State. “Hopefully you’ll see a little bit of that this year. I hope he stays healthy. That’s the main thing for him this year. But outside of that he’s going to bring it every play. He’s someone to watch out for for sure.”"

That confidence and swagger is exactly what Clemson football needs out of the linebacker group.

Skalski was listed as the starter at WILL in the post-spring depth chart, but has been playing the MIKE position in fall camp. Chad Smith, who was listed at MIKE, has been practicing at WILL.

Moving Skalski over to MIKE is going to allow him to focus more on getting in the backfield and wreaking havoc on opposing offenses using his physical nature.

In many ways, he reminds me of Ben Boulware but with more athleticism. Boulware was a guy that was always around the ball and came up with a ton of big plays because of his continuous motor, football IQ and physicality.

Skalski is the same type of player, but a little more athletic. That could benefit the Tigers greatly in the passing game and allow them an extra option. Interestingly enough, he played a little bit of SAM linebacker in the National Championship game against Alabama.

That shows that this is a guy who can do a little bit of it all. He’s going to be an extremely important piece for the 2019 Clemson football defense and it won’t take Tiger fans long to recognize James Skalski as one of the top performers defensively.