Clemson Football: Confident Goodwin Brings Fresh Ideas
Like every other Clemson football fan, I was distraught at the thought of Brent Venables leaving the program to take over the Oklahoma Sooners.
I’d seen too many last minute losses, too many soft defenses, to many vanilla schemes over the years.
Eventually, I grew to have supreme confidence in Venables, in a way Alabama fans must be about Nick Saban.
Sure, there’d be a loss here, a hiccup there. That’s the nature of college football these days.
That said, you always knew he was working, scheming, trying to find any edge that gave your team a better chance to win.
I knew little to nothing about Wes Goodwin and that’s still true today. I don’t mind saying it’s going to take me some time to become as confident in him as I was in Venables. In fact, that may never happen.
But Goodwin is confident and that’s a start.
Really liked the confidence from Clemson DC Wes Goodwin yesterday when speaking about putting his own twist on the defense
— Matt Connolly (@MattConnollyOn3) March 17, 2022
"We’ve got some stuff that BV don’t know about. ... We’ve been other places and we know ball as well."https://t.co/zUlqbxkBQm
Some will say, “What’s he done to have such confidence?” and to an extent I agree. On the other hand, it’s the chicken or the egg theory, right? What comes first, confidence or success? Success or confidence?
I found it interesting that Goodwin chose to verbalize his confidence, when Venables never would have. Venables would have found 6,487 reasons why things were a disaster, knowing full well his defense was as prepared as it could be.
Neither approach is necessarily right or wrong, just different.
Goodwin has a lot to live up to though. Venables has set a standard that is going to be difficult to equal or surpass.
Venables list of accomplishments at Clemson are legendary and the Tigers defense was frequently in the top 10 in total defense, his players won accolades and high NFL draft positions they could once only have dreamed of.
Goodwin will have an incredibly deep and talented defensive line in 2022, but will have to replace some key pieces in the back seven in James Skalski, Mario Goodrich and Andrew Booth, Jr.
I admit I’m intrigued to find out what Goodwin is all about in the coming season as the players seem to love his promotion.
TIme will tell if the confidence and support of his players translates to the field.