Clemson football: What makes Brent Venables great

A new deal was announced with Clemson football defensive coordinator Brent Venables on Wednesday to make him the highest-paid assistant in all of College Football.

The Clemson board of trustees’ compensation committee approved a contract extension that will pay Venables $2.5 million per year through 2026. The pay raise is $100,000 extra per year and added another year to his contract.

Venables’ new contract includes bonuses for finishing in the top five in overall defense or making the CFB Playoff, according to reports from ESPN. 

What has made Brent Venables so great with Clemson football?

It’s easy for Clemson football fans to look back at the Ohio State game from a few months ago and grow a little sour on Venables.

We’ve heard time and time again since that game that “teams have finally figured out Venables” and the “days of Clemson’s dominant defense are over.”

Well, if that’s the case, it only took them nine years to figure it out.

In an age of College Football that has been dominated by offense, Brent Venables has helped the Clemson football program ascend to the top of the mountain with a dominant defense.

Has that unit failed at times? Sure. But, if you’re honest about it, you can count on your two hands the times over the last decade that Venables was outcoached. It’s happened, but it doesn’t happen often.

And do you know what has made him so great? When it did happen, he owned up to the problems, addressed them and came back better.

He’s versatile and constantly evolving. Venables isn’t that coach who is confined to running one scheme or system. He has had success with tradition 4-3 looks. He has had success with 3-4 and 3-3-5 schemes, as well. He has found ways to get his defense in position to make stops when the defensive line was the strength of the unit and he’s done the same when the secondary was the strength of the unit.

As he looks ahead to 2021 and is given this contract extension, it’s clear that Clemson has work to do schematically on the defensive side of the ball. Venables knows that better than anyone and you’ve got to believe that he’ll come out with different looks and a fresh coat this year following what we saw last year against the Buckeyes.

Say what you want to, but Clemson is a better program because of what Venables has done with the defense. In a world where the offense is given basically every single advantage in the book, he has still found a way to shut down the vast majority of opponents he faces and he does it better than anyone in the country- without question.