One of the storylines heading into Saturday's Clemson football game against Virginia Tech was the need for the Tigers to stop the run after being unable to do so against Louisville. Fortunately, in the 24-14 win, that's exactly what head coach Dabo Swinney's team did.
One key member of the defense who helped slow the Hokies was true freshman linebacker Sammy Brown. The former 5-star signee in the class of 2024 was tremendous in his first college start leading the team with eight tackles while coming up with a sack and two tackles for loss. It was by far his best performance as a collegiate to date and after the game, Swinney talked about why Brown was inserted into the starting lineup for this game.
"Just style of play was the main thing," Swinney said. "You know, they're like 114th in passing coming into the game so we knew, but they were like 20-something in running. So it was no big secret, they were going to try to come in and run the football.
"So we went with our 'big nickel' base personnel...So it was just the personnel, style of play and it gave us a good opportunity to do that."
To say that the move worked would be a bit of an understatement. After all, the Clemson defense held a dangerous Hokie ground attack to just 40 yards rushing for the game. What's more, all of the Virginia Tech yards on the ground came from the quarterback position.
Now, in fairness, the Hokies' top two rushing threats, running back Bhayshul Tuten and QB Kyron Drones were limited by ankle injuries. In fact, Tuten ended up with no yards on four carries while Drones managed just 13 yards on 11 carries.
Still, Brown should be commended for the way he played in his first start. He provided a spark to the defense in a hostile environment and spearheaded a dominant defensive performance. Swinney said that Brown has been improving and looks like he could be a great player down the road.
"It was good to see," he said. "Sammy's been getting better, and, better, and better and it was awesome to see him have that type of game. You know, he's just a confident young man, and, boy, he's got a bright future ahead of him. He's going to be a great one."
It will be interesting to see how Brown is deployed next week against Pitt. The Panthers are a more pass-heavy team than the Hokies as Pitt ranks No. 22 nationally in passing offense but only 73rd in rushing offense. Will Brown remain a key contributor against a team that plays a different style or will his role resemble what it has been for most of the year? After what he showed on Saturday, it seems like it would be tough to keep him off the field.