Clemson football: 3 biggest changes defense needs to make in 2021

Three biggest changes Clemson football needs to make on the defense in 2021

2. Attack with the pass-rush

One of the main reasons the Clemson defense struggled in 2020 was the lack of a pass-rush.

Going back and watching film, there were times where the Tigers– normally lined up in a 3-man front– sent a blitzer who came up just tenths of a second short of bringing down the quarterback. Instead, the opposing quarterback found a man in time or escaped up the middle of the pocket with no one home to stop him.

This year, though, the strength of the defense lies on the defensive line.

The Tigers have names like Myles Murphy, Bryan Bresee, Tyler Davis, Xavier Thomas, KJ Henry, Justin Foster and others returning.

In all honesty, this could end up proving to be the deepest defensive line that we’ve seen in Clemson football history, even deeper than the Power Rangers. Although, we’re not ready to make that proclamation yet.

For this defense to be successful, Venables has to dial up pressure and rely on that front-seven to get in the backfield and create negative plays. You can’t come up short on blitzes and leave your secondary exposed. It all starts with getting a push up-front and we think they’ll do that exceptionally well this season.